NJ Funeral Director in Federal Prison for Fraudulent Disability
According to Jeff Goldman and Chris Sheldon of NJ.com, 57-year-old Steven D. Stankovits, a New Jersey Funeral Home Director, has been sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison for fraudulently collecting over $585,000 in disability benefits.
Here are the details of the case, according to NJ.com:
“Stankovits’ actions date to 2010, when he was found eligible for disability benefits and received retroactive payments dating to 2007, prosecutors said.”
“He told the Social Security Administration he was unable to work, could not comfortably sit for more than 15 minutes and could not bend down to put on his clothes. Stankovits also claimed he struggled to lift a carton of milk and had been forced to give up skiing, investigators said.”
“He continued to lie in statements and written submissions to the Social Security Administration over the next 10 years and was paid more than $585,000 in disability benefits, federal prosecutors said.”
“During that time, he worked as a licensed funeral director at two funeral homes — Spotswood Funeral Home in Spotswood and Whiteley Funeral Home in South Amboy — according to court documents. His duties included gardening, shoveling snow, carrying 160-pound caskets down a flight of stairs and climbing a ladder onto the roof to install a sign.”
“In addition, he took long flights to go skiing in Cortina, Italy, Lake Tahoe, and Park City, Utah, and purchased a skiing season pass in Killington, Vermont, authorities said.”
Stankovits, of Matawan, NJ, was convicted in March 2026 of four counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements to the Social Security Administration (SSA). Federal prison records indicate that Stankovits was sentenced in July 2026 and is serving his sentence at Fort Dix in New Jersey. In addition to his federal prison sentence, Stankovits was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, restitution of $585,629.80, and forfeit another $480,968 he illegally obtained.
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