Former Lengthy Island Rail Highway worker Thomas Caputo beforehand copped to 1 rely of conspiracy to commit federal program theft for the extra time scheme.
Victor Alcorn
Lengthy Island Rail Highway “Additional time King” Thomas Caputo was sentenced to eight months in jail Friday for his position in a time cheat conspiracy that netted him hundreds of dollars.
Caputo, a former LIRR observe inspector, had beforehand copped to 1 rely of conspiracy to commit federal program theft for the scheme.
In a sentencing memo, federal prosecutors mentioned Caputo, 57, conspired along with his 4 co-defendants to submit false time playing cards that included extra time hours for after they weren't on the job.
“Caputo and his coconspirators carried out this scheme by agreeing to ‘cowl’ for each other’s absences, taking turns being absent for all or a part of the shifts whereas different conspirators remained to make sure that the absences weren't observed, and submitting false time information claiming that they'd been current,” federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York wrote.
The scheme centered round two giant MTA work websites the place members of the crew labored, the Harold Interlocking in Queens and the West Aspect Yard challenge, the feds mentioned.
For a number of the hours he was on the clock, Caputo was truly competing in a bowling league, they added.
On the sentencing of one among Caputo’s co-defendants, Decide Paul Engelmayer known as the conspiracy “an orgy of extra time fraud that was carried out on an epic scale.”
In 2018, Caputo was the company’s highest-paid worker, raking in $344,000 simply in additional pay by clocking a seemingly inconceivable variety of hours that yr.
The feds used a conservative estimate after they charged Caputo and his fellow defendants and solely held Caputo chargeable for some $18,000 in fraudulent extra time wages, they wrote within the memo.
In all, Caputo and the 4 different defendants will likely be chargeable for paying again greater than $100,000 for the extra time wages they collected.
The feds investigated the extra time crime in partnership with the MTA’s Workplace of Inspector Normal, who praised the work in an announcement forward of Caputo’s sentencing.
“We deeply admire the continued efforts of our legislation enforcement companions on the U.S. Lawyer’s workplace,” mentioned Appearing MTA Inspector Normal Elizabeth Keating. “We plan to stay vigilant, and can proceed to pursue unscrupulous people who search to steal from the MTA and the folks of New York.”
Damien Williams, the US Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, additionally praised the sentencing in an announcement.
“The general public expects that public staff will present up and obtain trustworthy pay for an trustworthy day’s work, not line their pockets with double-time or time-and-a-half pay whereas out bowling,” he mentioned.
All of Caputo’s co-defendants, together with the son of murderous Gambino mobster Dominick “Skinny Dom” Pizzonia, have pleaded responsible within the case.
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