A New Hyde Park woman is one of two former Long Island Rail Road employees who pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of conspiring to falsify disability claims as participants of a wide-ranging scam that could have cost the MTA $1 billion, according to a spokesperson for the Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.
Former LIRR benefits manager Regina Walsh, 65, of New Hyde Park, and retired LIRR Conductor James Maher, 60, of Florida, both testified as witnesses for the prosecution, according to Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Maher and Walsh, who admitted that they exaggerated their disabilities, named identified two defendants on trial as key figures in the fraud case in testimony to the court.
Walsh, who retired in 2006 after working for the LIRR for 30 years, faces a maximum of five years in prison, a federal court source said.
Maher, who retired in 2003 at age 50, could receive up to 55 years in prison for his involvement in the scheme.
If the fraudulent claims made by employees in the scam had been paid in full, the total payments would have exceeded $1 billion, according to the indictment.
Walsh said she was aided in the scam by Dr. Peter Ajemian, a Rockville Centre orthopedist who pleaded guilty earlier this year. She said she was also aided by Marie Baran, who formerly worked in the railroad board’s office in Westbury until her retirement in 2006.
After retiring she began providing railroad workers advice on filing for disability.
Baran is on trial with Dr. Peter Lesniewski, an orthopedist, and Joseph Rutigliano of Holtsville.
Rutigliano is a former LIRR conductor and union president who successfully applied for disability benefits after his retirement and subsequently became a “facilitator” in the complex fraud scheme, according to the grand jury charges in the case.
Walsh and five other employees named in the original indictment, all applied for and received Railroad Retirement Board disability benefits. They and their co-conspirators committed a fraud in which the LIRR workers falsely claimed to be disabled in order to collect the disability payments, the indictment said.
Ajemian and Lesniewski are alleged to have falsely declared the workers to be disabled when they were not. Typically, the claims cited different musculoskeletal problems, which the indictment said can involve soft tissue injuries that are more difficult to assess by objective criteria than other physical ailments.
Prosecutors said the LIRR workers paid the doctors between $800 and $1,200 to produce a medical assessment and illness narrative for submission to the Railroad Retirement Board.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
