East Windsor Resident Ordered to Pay Back More Than $3 Million to 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

An East Windsor man who pleaded guilty in 2008 to defrauding the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund has been ordered to pay back more than $3 million, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Wednesday.

"Mario Mastellone used the tragedy of September 11th for his own personal gain. He will now pay for his crime with a multimillion-dollar fine in addition to the prison time he served. Coming just days after the 10th anniversary of that unspeakable horror makes this result particularly gratifying," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a news release. 

Mastellone said he injured his back on 9/11 and was disabled from the attacks, but authorities later found a video of him doing the limbo at a wedding in 2002.

His attorney for the civil suit, Pamela Roth, said the ruling was “excessive, extreme and unfair” and plans to appeal.

“The government knows full well that my client doesn’t have the money,” Roth said.

Roth said she wants a judge to hear her client’s version of the case, and if he has to pay money back, it should be based on his financial situation.

“Even if I was working, $3.5 million in a lifetime, unless I was a movie star, I wouldn’t have that kind of money,” Mastellone said.

Employed as a painter at the World Trade Center since 1999, Mastellone said he was eating breakfast in the building when the planes hit.

“Bottom line is I was a victim of 9/11 in the worst tragedy in the United States history and the government is destroying my life for something they are trying to justify,” Mastellone said.