Twelve more Lakewood residents were charged Thursday with welfare-related fraud, including the brother of a rabbi arrested last week, bringing to 26 the total number of people ensnared in the ongoing probe into ill-gotten benefits.

The newly accused were six married couples, each facing charges of third-degree theft by deception. They are accused of collectively defrauding the government of nearly $400,000, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Thursday's charges follow 14 arrests last week in what investigators said was around $2 million in welfare fraud. Four people face federal charges and the other 10 are facing state charges.

The prosecutor's office served warrants Thursday on the following:

Eliezer Sorotzkin, 33, and Elkie Sorotzkin, 31, of West Spruce Street, are facing charges that they illegally collected $74,960 in Medicaid benefits between January 2011 and December 2013.

Samuel Serhofer, 45, and Esther Serhofer, 44, of Whispering Pines Lane, are facing charges that they illegally collected $72,685 in Medicaid benefits between January 2009 and December 2013.

Yisroel Merkin, 37, and Rachel Merkin, 34, of Hermosa Drive, are facing charges that they illegally collected $70,557.51 in Medicaid, SNAP, and HEAP benefits between January 2011 and December 2014.

Jerome Menchel, 33, and Mottel Friedman, 30, of Pressburg Lane, are facing charges that they illegally collected $63,839 in Medicaid and SNAP benefits between January 2011 and July 2014.

Tzvi Braun, 35, and Estee Braun, 34, of Ridge Avenue, are facing charges that they illegally collected $62,746.74 in Medicaid, HEAP, and CICRF benefits between January 2009 and December 2013. check

Moshe Hirschmann, 30, and Nechama Hirschmann, 27, of Emmanuel Drive, are facing charges that they illegally collected $53,418.39 in Medicaid and SNAP benefits between January 2011 and December 2015.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, said the "investigation continues" but declined to comment on specific plans for more arrests or charges.

Unlike the accused in the FBI raids carried out last week in Lakewood — where seven couples were arrested at their homes and carted off to jail — Thursday's defendants were served summonses and told to turn themselves in.

Because the charges are third-degree offenses, the defendants were not arrested and did not face a judge Thursday, Della Fave said. Those charged were instructed when next to appear in court, he said.

The arrests are part of a crackdown on public assistance fraud within the township that exceeds $2 million in proceeds. Authorities have said the suspects are accused of taking part in sophisticated schemes that make the fraud one of the largest investigations in recent New Jersey history.

Raids and arrests last week sent a panic through Lakewood, town leaders said. Rabbi Moshe Weisberg, a member of Lakewood's Vaad, or Jewish council, said the organization would hold seminars later this year to help educate the community about the rules for full financial disclosure when it comes to applying for and collecting public assistance.

Last week's arrests also sparked a wave of anti-Semitic sentiment, with people writing hateful messages and comments on social media. Last weekend, the hate speech moved off the Internet and into the streets. Hate fliers spread around the township and a white sheet with an anti-Semitic slur hung over a Holocaust memorial at a Lakewood synagogue.

Law enforcement officials had said after the arrests more charges were coming. On Thursday they did.

Eliezer Sorotzkin is the brother of Zalmen Sorotzkin, a rabbi who was arrested last week on allegations of more than $300,000 in welfare fraud. Eliezer Sorotzkin is also a business partner of Mordechai Breskin, who was arrested last week, according to a source close to the investigation.

Public records show that Eliezer Sorotzkin listed a business address the same as Breskin's residence, on Blue Jay Way.

Public records show Eliezer and Elkie Sorotzkin's residence on West Spruce Street, which is a newly built multifamily building. A reporter visited the house Thursday and saw no furniture inside.

Also charged was Yisroel Merkin, a novelist who has written about fictional crime in Lakewood, according to law enforcement sources and book descriptions from Amazon. Merkin has two books for sale on the site.

Merkin and his wife, Rachel, live on Hermosa Drive. Records show the house is owned by Yisroel and Slava Merkin and is valued at $383,800.

State business records show that Samuel Serhofer is listed as the primary contact for two companies registered in New Jersey: Plastics Galore and Cases for Less. Serhofer owns property on Whispering Pines Lane, valued at $471,600, according to property records.

The Brauns own two homes in Lakewood, records show. Their house on Ridge Avenue is valued at $611,200 and the property on Birch Street is worth $421,100.

The Hirschmanns live on Emmanuel Drive, but don't own the property, according to property records.​ Menchel and Friedman live on Pressburg Lane, a large multifamily building, which they don't own, records show.

On June 26, four couples were arrested in federal and state raids and three more couples were arrested during raids the following night. Watch the videos at the top of this story for more on the arrests last week and specifics on Thursday's charges.

Zalmen Sorotzkin, who runs the synagogue Congregation Lutzk and several businesses linked to the synagogue, and his wife both face charges for allegedly collecting $338,642 in Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8 housing subsidies and Supplemental Security Income, according to the prosecutor's office.

RELATED: How did the alleged welfare fraud scheme work?

RELATED: What we know so far about the Lakewood fraud allegations

The four couples are accused of taking advantage of multiple public assistance programs to defraud the government of around $1.3 million over the past few years, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said.

A law enforcement source said they allegedly made ten of thousands of dollars more per year than they reported to the public assistance programs for which they applied.

Three more couples were arrested the night of June 27 and charged with second-degree theft by deception, a state crime, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. They are accused of defrauding the government of more than $670,000.

RELATED: Half of Lakewood's kids are on public assistance

Authorities allege that the accused misrepresented their incomes, which law enforcement officials spotted in part by tracking illegal money transfers made at the Beepers Plus store on Clifton Avenue. The owner pleaded guilty on Feb. 23 to transmitting millions of dollars without a license.

The public assistance investigation started three years ago and involves the FBI, the Social Security Administration, the New Jersey Treasury Department, the state comptroller's Medicaid Fraud Division and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Mike Davis contributed reporting on this story.

Steph Solis: 732-403-0074; ssolis@gannett.com

Payton Guion: 732-643-4245; pguion@app.com