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Five Senior MTA Workers Charged With "Brazen, Repeated" Overtime Fraud
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Dec 3, 2020
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By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Dec 3, 2020
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A high-ranking Long Island Rail Road employee claimed overtime shifts while bowling, repeatedly, on Long Island. Another MTA worker collected thousands of dollars in overtime while enjoying concerts in Atlantic City and a resort vacation in Virginia.
Those are among the allegations in a new batch of federal indictments against five current and former senior MTA employees. Four LIRR workers and one NYC Transit supervisor were arrested on Thursday for "brazen, repeated fraud" that allowed them to rack up an "extraordinary, almost physically impossible, amounts of overtime," according to Acting US Attorney Audrey Strauss.
The defendants include Thomas Caputo, the since-retired "MTA overtime king," whose $461,000 compensation in 2018 made him the transit agency's top earner. As Chief Measurement Officer, Caputo claimed 3,864 overtime hours in 2018 — the equivalent of working 10 hours of overtime every single day for an entire year, on top of his regular schedule, the complaint states.
On at least two occasions, Caputo, 56, was rolling with his bowling league in Suffolk County while supposedly on the clock, according to cell phone data and records maintained by the bowling alley, prosecutors said.
On March 7th of last year, the complaint states, "the records reflect that Caputo bowled 3 games, averaging a score of 205." He later submitted for overtime, claiming to have worked an overnight shift at a Queens interlocking rail junction in Queens.
Using phone records and metadata from photographs, prosecutors also caught Michael Gundersen, a subway maintenance supervisor, taking trips out of state, attending concerts in Atlantic City, and running in a charity 5K while collecting overtime.
Three other LIRR employees — John Nugent, Joseph Balestra, and Joseph Ruzzo — were also indicted. Each defendant was charged with one count of federal program fraud, which carries a max sentence of 10 years in prison.
“These employees allegedly worked very hard – to steal MTA time and money, ignoring their duty to keep the tracks and rails safe for their fellow workers and riders," said MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny, who helped facilitate the investigation.
She blamed the widespread fraud on the MTA's lack of management systems, which "creates an environment where fraud could easily occur undetected."
"I think there are bad apples in every line of work. You have a multiple-thousand workforce, you're gonna have people who take advantage of the system," Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters, when asked about the charges during a Thursday press briefing.
Tim Minton, an MTA spokesperson, said the agency has implemented several aggressive controls that increase overtime accountability — leading to a $105 million overtime reduction last year.
"We will continue to root out waste, fraud and abuse wherever it occurs and will continue cooperating fully with this critically important investigation," Minton added.
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Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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