Prosecutors said last week that there is still time for people who have taken part in defrauding the Long Island Railroad pension system to turn themselves in but the clock is ticking and time is running out. There will be no more extensions, said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Bharara added, “Make no mistake – there is no deadline for concluding our investigation. We are both relentless and patient and will continue to aggressively investigate this.”
“If you are an L.I.R.R. retiree who lied to get disability benefits,” said Bharara, “the deadline for participation in the early version of the voluntary disclosure program is upon you,”
Last week 10 more LIRR workers were charged with falsely claiming to be disabled so they could receive federal disability pensions on top of their railroad pensions. The prosecutors said this was part of a huge fraud scheme, hinting that more arrests will follow.
So far 32 people have been charged in the scam that could have cost the LIRR a billion dollars if the cheaters hadn’t been caught. The investigators reportedly believe that hundreds of retirees were part of the multiyear, systemic fraud to get Railroad Retirement Board disability benefits. Their crime was made possible by “facilitators” such as doctors and insiders who falsely declared that the workers were occupationally disabled.
We applaud the diligence of the FBI, the U.S. Attorney, the inspector general of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other investigators who spent months uncovering this scam.
It has been made painfully clear in recent weeks that the LIRR is facing a budget crisis and may soon have to lay off workers, raise fares and cut back on service.
The theft of a billion dollars or more would have hurt every rider.
We will watch closely to see how far this investigation goes.
