Cumberland County couple allegedly made up employees, payroll, and records to get state funding for a fake non-profit
Published: Jan. 22, 2026, 11:10 a.m.The couple meticulously prepared their application for a $1.2 million grant, laying out their organization’s transportation services for elderly, disabled, and low-income people.
But the documents Jael Watts and Luis Pino-Copete submitted to New York state transportation officials were fake, federal prosecutors say. “I will make up a report,” Watts texted her husband, according to court records. “There is no way for them to tell the difference.”They did. Each request for more documentation regarding their organization — Pearl Transit — was met with another set of fabricated records, including fake employee lists, payroll records, and insurance documents, according to the indictment. The phone numbers, addresses and social security information the couple provided either went nowhere or didn’t match the supposed employees, spurring officials to dig deeper.with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Watts also faces ten counts of wire fraud and a count of aggravated identity theft. The scheme began as early as March 2022, when Watts, 44, and Pino-Copete, 41, submitted grant applications to New York transportation state officials. They had 86 employees, racked up roughly $1.5 million in annual expenses, and operated in New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, Indiana and California, they said. The organization, established in New Jersey in 2005, doesn’t appear to have employed or transported anyone — at least not in New York, federal prosecutors allege. Its address lead to one of a “virtual office space,” which was just a professional mailing address without any actual staff or operations on site. While the couple reported payroll and other expenses, bank records revealed that very few payments appeared to be for a rideshare business. Instead, they spent nearly $2.6 million on personal purchases such as travel, clothing, and other non-business expenses. “Everybody wondered where she was getting all that money from,” said Claude Jay Jordan, a neighbor who said he didn’t know the couple well. Watts was arrested at her home last July and has remained in custody since. A judge denied her request for bail after phone recordings allegedly suggested she and Pino-Copete were plotting to hide assets and destroy evidence. “I just need you to lock down or erase the information from those phones,” Watts said. “I don’t want them looking through any information on the phone.”“There’s talk of essentially destroying evidence, there’s talk of taking assets and moving them out of the country,” Judge Daniel J. Stewart said during a hearing. “I can tell you in my ten years of doing this particular job I’ve never had what I believe to be this type of deception to the Court at all.”His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Watts is representing herself in court. Pino-Copete faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. Watts faces at least 2 years and up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. “Those funds were meant to help transport some of our most vulnerable — the elderly and disabled,” said U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone. “These charges show that these crimes will only transport you to prison, as Watts and Pino-Copete now face the prospect of many years in prison.” Jana Cholakovska is an investigative reporter at NJ Advance Media, where she covers white-collar crime. Before joining the newsroom, she wrote about the environment, public health, and labor as an independent...
Fraud Identity Theft Non-Profit Section:/Cumberland
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