Defendant MTA Overtime Cheat is collecting a huge pension that the Fed says he was boosted by a salary he didn’t actually earn – but that gravy train could soon be thrown upside down!
Thomas Capto, 56, of Holbrook, L.I., sued for ૧ 144,000 in pension benefits over the past year, after his arrest was revealed in court on Thursday.
The MTA said on Friday that if convicted, the authorities would withdraw the amount of his alleged scam and reduce his pension accordingly.
“We are looking at all available options to recover the stolen overtime and the resulting pension,” MTA spokesman Abby Collins said.
“This is a breach of public trust and we will take all necessary action to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse wherever it occurs.”
The former LIRR track inspector, Capto, took early retirement in March 2019 during his investigation into the early 461,646 dollars taken home last year in March 2019.
The amount of eye popping – which made him the highest paid employee of the agency – including 7,117,499 – a year’s salary and an impossible 8,864 of 4 344,147. There was an hour of overtime.
To really earn that much, the captain had to work more than 10 weeks on each calendar day in 2018, including weekends and holidays (although it wasn’t), but in addition to his regular, 40-hour work week, “court papers say. .
Instead, prosecutors said, Capto spent “frequently” at home or in other non-workplaces, including Patchiog, LI’s bowling alley.
According to court papers, on several occasions Caputo also “falsely claimed that he worked part-time without working,” and if that was not enough.
Because transportation workers’ pensions are based on the 10 highest paid years before they retire, the Fed said Capto’s alleged scandal has boosted its pension benefits.
The MTA will not say on Friday how much of the captain’s pension was the result of his claimed overtime.
Last year, the Post visited her home and discovered innovations that included a brick-and-stone driveway – but no sign of a broken-down Volkswagen winning that the Google Street View camera photographed in 2012.
Instead, it was replaced by a sleek black DQ5, as well as a BMW and Honda Accord nearby.
No one answered at the door of the house on Friday afternoon.
Capto is one of five current and former MTA activists accused of fraud in every federal program in the overtime payment scam from the MTA.
The charge carries a maximum jail term of 10 years.
Another defendant, Joseph Ruzo, 56, of Levittown, is also retired, but details of his pension have not been disclosed.
The other three, 50-year-old John Nugent of Rocky Point; Joseph Balestra, 51, of Blue Point; And Michael G. Nason, 42, of Manalapan, NJ, worked for MTA.
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