Feds arrest 11 people connected to multimillion dollar LIRR pension scam - New York Daily News
A $ 1 billion disability scam pioneered by a one-time MTA board member helped hundreds of retired LIRR workers enjoy their golden years with an illegal gold mine.
The massive ripoff steered more than 1,000 Long Island Rail Road workers to corrupt doctors who created bogus medical histories, letting the railroad robbers double-dip on their pensions, a federal complaint charged.
Orthopedists Peter Ajemian and Peter Lesniewski were arrested Thursday for running "disability mills" that provided a monthly payoff to the healthy - and greedy - workers. The feds also busted Ajemian's office manager, Maria Rusin, who collapsed in Manhattan Federal Court at her bail hearing. In all 11 were charged.
Their co-defendants, all arrested Thursday, include a former MTA board member/union president, a one-time official with the Railroad Retirement Board and a half-dozen ex-LIRR employees.
"This was a game where every retiree was a winner," said Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI's New York office, after the arrests capped a three-year probe.
The first retiree through Ajemian's door was Joseph Rutigliano, 64, who served as a nonvoting member of the MTA board from 1995 to 2003, the feds charged.
Rutigliano, a former LIRR conductor, was accused of receiving a bogus disability pension after his 1999 retirement by citing an 11-year-old spinal injury.
Ajemian, in a secretly-taped conversation, said Rutigliano was the first LIRR worker to join the scam.
"Joe Rutigliano ...is a patient of mine," the doctor said. "And he was probably the first one."
The massive ripoff steered more than 1,000 Long Island Rail Road workers to corrupt doctors who created bogus medical histories, letting the railroad robbers double-dip on their pensions, a federal complaint charged.
Orthopedists Peter Ajemian and Peter Lesniewski were arrested Thursday for running "disability mills" that provided a monthly payoff to the healthy - and greedy - workers. The feds also busted Ajemian's office manager, Maria Rusin, who collapsed in Manhattan Federal Court at her bail hearing. In all 11 were charged.
Their co-defendants, all arrested Thursday, include a former MTA board member/union president, a one-time official with the Railroad Retirement Board and a half-dozen ex-LIRR employees.
"This was a game where every retiree was a winner," said Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI's New York office, after the arrests capped a three-year probe.
The first retiree through Ajemian's door was Joseph Rutigliano, 64, who served as a nonvoting member of the MTA board from 1995 to 2003, the feds charged.
Rutigliano, a former LIRR conductor, was accused of receiving a bogus disability pension after his 1999 retirement by citing an 11-year-old spinal injury.
Ajemian, in a secretly-taped conversation, said Rutigliano was the first LIRR worker to join the scam.
"Joe Rutigliano ...is a patient of mine," the doctor said. "And he was probably the first one."
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