A 54-year-old woman from Beachwood, in Ocean County, New Jersey, has been charged by indictment with allegedly stealing more than $200,000 from a union local's pension and annuity funds by posing as her deceased mother, Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) announced on October 27, 2026.
Source: New Jersey Office of the Attorney General
The defendant is Kristen G. Arntz, 54, of Beachwood. Local reporting by Toms River News put the total allegedly collected at more than $217,000 in pension and annuity benefits to which, prosecutors say, she was not entitled after her mother died.
Source: Toms River News
The amounts, in full
As alleged in the indictment, from January 2021 to July 2025 Arntz collected $97,139 from the pension fund of Ironworkers Local 11 and $120,700 from the union's annuity fund following her mother's death. Yaani, the two amounts together come to $217,839 — more than two lakh dollars taken, prosecutors allege, from funds built for workers' retirement security.
How the alleged scheme worked
Prosecutors allege that Arntz failed to notify the union of her mother's death and took control of her mother's bank account, so that benefit payments to which she was not entitled kept arriving from the union. In other words, the fund is alleged to have kept paying a beneficiary who had died, because the death was never reported to it.
The indictment further alleges that Arntz forged several letters to the union in her mother's name, requesting advanced payments from the union's annuity fund. Those alleged letters are the basis for the forgery counts described below, according to the Attorney General's Office.
The charges she faces
Arntz is charged by indictment with two counts of second-degree theft by deception and three counts of third-degree forgery. Deputy Attorney General Lindsey Watson is handling the matter for the Fraud Unit, the Attorney General's Office said, and the release listed defence counsel as still to be determined.
Attorney General Davenport said: 'Private pension funds like the one victimized in this case exist to help provide some measure of financial security to the workers who paid into them, often over a lifetime. The charges in this indictment allege a scheme to steal a large amount of money to which the defendant was not entitled.' Martha Nye, Interim Director of the Division of Criminal Justice, said stealing more than $200,000 'by concealing a family member's death, as this defendant is alleged to have done, is a calculated betrayal of a fund that hardworking employees depend on, and it will not be tolerated.'
Background: why a local union fund matters
This case is not about a government pension. The money named in the indictment belonged to the pension fund and the annuity fund of Ironworkers Local 11 — private funds of the kind the Attorney General described as existing to provide financial security to workers who paid into them, often over a lifetime. That is why prosecutors framed the allegation as a theft from working people who depend on the fund, not only as a paperwork offence: every dollar allegedly taken was a dollar the fund no longer held for its own members and beneficiaries.
What happens next
Under New Jersey law as set out in the Attorney General's release, second-degree crimes carry a sentence of up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000, while third-degree crimes carry up to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $15,000. Those are the maximums if a defendant is convicted; no court date was given in either source for this case.
The charges and allegations in the indictment are merely accusations, and Arntz is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, the Attorney General's Office stressed. The investigation remains ongoing, and anyone with pertinent information is asked to contact the DCJ tip line at (800) 277-2427.