N.Y. fraud case hits home
A Mooresville man is among 11 people charged in a massive fraud scheme in which, according to The New York Times, hundreds of Long Island (N.Y.) Rail Road workers falsely claimed to have disabling injuries.
Gary Satin, 62, appeared in U.S. District Court in Charlotte Thursday and is free on a $ 25,000 unsecured bond, pending an upcoming federal court appearance in New York.
Satin is charged with attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan. Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, The Times reported.
Satin declined to comment when an Observer reporter went to his home Friday in the Cherry Grove subdivision off N.C. 150 East.
Satin is a retired Long Island Rail Road electrician who annually receives at least $ 69,500 in combined pension and disability payments - "based on a disability he planned at least one year before its claimed onset," the complaint says.
In his disability application, Satin claimed that his condition rendered indoor and outdoor chores "difficult," and his disability doctor claimed Satin "cannot continue working," according to the complaint.
"Nevertheless, Satin admitted to law enforcement agents that he was still capable of performing railroad work," the complaint says. "In addition, Satin has performed landscaping, contracting and electrical work for pay since retiring from the LIRR due to a purported disability."
The complaint says investigators have video surveillance evidence and witness statements in Satin's case.
The complaint says each worker charged in the case retired on Long Island Rail Road pensions and then applied for and received occupational disability benefits with assistance from three N.Y. doctors.
Satin's disability doctor, orthopedist Peter Ajemian, 62, of Syosset, N.Y., was one of two doctors also charged Thursday. A third doctor was investigated but later died, the complaint says.
Satin began seeing Ajemian in 2005 for purported back trouble and herniated discs, the complaint says, and Ajemian wrote in a 2005 medical assessment that Satin should never bend, stoop or climb, lift more than 50 pounds or operate machinery. The doctors ordered X-rays and other "unnecessary" medical tests "in order to pad the patients' medical files," the complaint says.
Workers paid the doctors $ 800 to $ 1,200, often in cash, to prepare a medical assessment or "illness narrative," the complaint says.
The Times reported Friday that fraudulent payouts in the scheme could cost a federal pension agency more than $ 1 billion if fully disbursed. The Times quoted investigators as saying they brought charges only in cases with the strongest proof and most egregious instances of fraud.
The federal investigation followed reporting by The Times for a series of articles in 2008 that revealed what the paper called systematic abuses of federal Railroad Retirement Board pensions by Long Island Rail Road workers. The Times articles reported that nearly every career employee of the railroad was applying for and receiving disability payments, giving the railroad a disability rate three to four times that of the average railroad.
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