5 MTA Employees Collected Over $1 Million in Fraudulent Overtime Pay
Five New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) employees have been charged with extensive overtime fraud for filling out timesheets, stating they worked longer hours than they actually did.
The four employees who worked for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) included Thomas Caputo, 56, Joseph Ruzzo, 56, John Nugent, 50, and Joseph Balestra, 51. The fifth long-time employee charged was Michael Gundersen, 42. Gunderson worked for the New York Transit Authority (NYC Transit).
Their fraudulent collection of overtime pay eventually led the men to be some of the highest-paid MTA employees in 2018. Official documents state that the men would often volunteer for overtime work, but they would never actually work the shift. Instead, they would be at home or other unrelated work locations. Caputo allegedly spent the time he was being paid for overtime work at bowling alleys while Gunderson spent the time he was supposed to be working on family vacations.
Caputo, who was an LIRR employee that inspected the train tracks, retired in April 2019. In 2018, Caputo was paid out approximately $461,000 by the MTA. His base salary was $117,000, and an additional $344,000 was paid out for overtime hours that were never worked. His combined salary with the fraudulent overtime pay included made Caputo the highest-paid MTA employee in 2018, even higher than that of the chairman of the MTA.
Ruzzo, Balestra, Gundersen, and Nugent also claimed excessive amounts of overtime. Each of them received well over $240,000 in overtime pay on top of their base salary. This put them on the list of the top 12 highest-paid employees at the MTA in 2018. The hours these men claimed to have worked are staggering, with reports showing the men claimed to have worked between 2,918 and 3,914 overtime hours. The overtime hours have a significant pay difference than regular hours in that overtime hours are compensated at time and a half (equivalent to pay for a full hour’s work with an additional half hour’s work).
Detailed Review Shows Brazen Fraud
During the investigation, staffers from the office of the MTA Inspector General's office worked closely with authorities to review the fraudulent overtime claims. Together, investigators used emails (both personal and work accounts), cell phone records, bank records, access cards used in and out of MTA buildings, and social media records to verify that the men were elsewhere when they were supposed to be at work during their overtime shifts. In some instances, the men would make phone calls from their residences when they were supposed to be at work. In Caputo's case, there were different forms of paper trails, including social media trails that showed Caputo at bowling alleys and bowling league games when he was supposed to be working the overtime hours.
In a statement from the indictment, acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said, “These defendants, senior LIRR and New York City Transit employees, allegedly made themselves some of the highest-paid employees at the entire MTA by claiming extraordinary, almost physically impossible, amounts of overtime. As alleged, those almost impossible claims were fueled by brazen, repeated fraud, including falsely claiming to be working overtime hours while the defendants were at their homes or, in some instances, bowling. All New Yorkers ultimately bear the burden of fraud targeting our mass transit systems, and we will continue to work tirelessly to expose and prosecute those who engage in it. Our investigation remains ongoing.”
In the indictment, the FBI assistant director, William Sweeney Jr. explained how the transit employees would document on their timesheets that they worked on average ten additional hours every day. This went on for 365 days. In total, the five men “earned” over $1,000,000 in overtime pay. A direct result of these falsified time sheets led to MTA fares being raised on commuters, ultimately making them pay for the fraudulent payouts.
Each of the men is charged with one count of federal program fraud. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
