Hundreds of Long Island Rail Road employees have found a way to be a part of the $1 billion fraud. They have cheated there way to making money and not going to work. These employees were paying off their doctors to say that they were unable to work due to disabilities. However, these disable retirees were said to be seen playing tennis, shoveling snow, and working out in the gym for several hours.
Eleven of the doctors, including an orthopedist and a former union official were charged with "conspiracy in a decade long fraud" that had corrupted the pension system used by the employees. Hundreds of retired rail road workers declared themselves disabled to collect more money between the ages of 50 to 65.
One worker who complained of having severe hand, knee, shoulder, and back pain. While complaining of having this severe pain he was reportedly playing tennis and golf often. This individual was collecting $105,000 yearly, between his pension and disability payments. Another employee who reported similarly the same symptoms was seen shoveling snow for several hours and was collecting $108,000 in both pension and disability payments.
The complaint said that many workers who retired with disability payments worked an extremely high amount of overtime within 5 years before retiring. That is because this is when pension funds begin being calculated. The complaint also said that employees lied about their physical condition so that they can retire at an earlier age and receive the same salary as when they are working.
Prior to 2008, three doctors were responsible for 86% of the disability applicants. These doctors received between $800 and $1200 from each patient as they built up these cases by prescribing unnecessary therapies. This showed that these employees were unable to work and allowed them to collect disability payments.
This complaint was written by a special agent from the Office of the Inspector General for the federal Rail Road Retirement board. He estimated that "the fraudulent scheme could cause the RRB to pay unwarranted occupational disability benefits exceeding $1 billion if disbursed in full."
The complaint stated that 61% of these employees were between the ages of 50 to 55 during the years 2004 and 2008. This was a criminal investigation prompted by a 2008 New York Times investigation. During this investigation, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that "These arrests continue to show that we have zero tolerance for waste and fraud when it comes to pension systems."
These employees were cheating the system for several years and it is about time they were caught.
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