A former Atlantic City Board of Education member misrepresented his family income to get free lunches for his children and likely wasn’t even living in the city, a judge found last week.
Farook Hossain and his wife owe the district nearly $70,000 for tuition and meals, the judge found. He will decide in February how much Hossain and Mossamat Rumana Akther will pay in punitive damages.
The Board of Education sued the couple in March, claiming they no longer lived in the district and had lied to get free meals.
Hossain resigned from the school board Oct. 14, a day after he was deposed in the case.
During questioning Oct. 13, Hossain pleaded the Fifth when asked about his current residency.
When asked if he and his wife has been living at a home in Egg Harbor Township with their two minor children, Hossain replied: “Plead the Fifth,” invoking the amendment against self-incrimination.
He answered the same to two follow-up questions, including “In fact, when you were sworn into office as an Atlantic City school board member, you were not a resident of Atlantic City, were you?”
Hossain first came under fire publicly in January, when board solicitor Tracy Riley said an investigation by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office found that Hossain likely was no longer living in the district.
Rather than advise the board on how to legally remove Hossain, Riley barred his vote from being counted. A judge overturned that decision, finding that as long as Hossain was a sitting board member, he had the right to vote.
BreakingAC later learned that it was outgoing Superintendent Barry Caldwell who sparked the Prosecutor’s Office investigation in August 2020. At that time, he had Riley alert the prosecutor about discrepancies in Hossain’s income reporting on the application to receive free lunch for his children.
During the deposition this past October, Hossain refused to answer when asked if he knew his wife had $52,000 in her bank account when he applied for the free meals.
He also indicated he did not know he needed to be truthful on those applications.
“But would you agree with me, it’s important, to be honest on these forms, right?” Hossain was asked.
“Right now, I understand about the form,” he replied. “Not before.”
“Right now, as you sit here today in your deposition, you understand it’s important, to be honest on these forms, but before today you didn’t know that?” he was then asked.
“I didn’t know that actually,” he replied.
When pressed about the issue, Hossain then replied: “I’m not a lawyer. I’m helping for the people, like workers’ rights. Everything you know, I don’t know everything. This is the law. And I don’t have to read this one and everything. I explain, our religious base, the halal food, the school district is not provide. I have been fighting last three years when I have been approved.”
The suit claimed two counts of fraud-deceit and one count of unjust enrichment.
The judge rendered his decision without a trial, and without opposition from Farook’s camp.
A hearing set for Feb. 11 will decision punitive damages.
The judge also dismissed Hossain’s countersuit claiming defamation.
Hossain said he had no comment.
FULL DECISION IN FAROOK HOSSAIN CASE
