FBI: Hundreds of NY rail workers part of $1B fraud

[PoliticAverse]

Source: Associated Press

Hundreds of Long Island Rail Road employees may have cheated their way to big pensions through a $1 billion fraud by paying off doctors to say they were unable to work, authorities said Thursday as they revealed that some supposedly disabled retirees were spotted regularly playing tennis and golf, shoveling heavy snow and working out for hours at a gym.

Eleven people, including two orthopedists and a former union official, were charged with conspiracy in a decadelong fraud that authorities said poisoned the pension system used by employees of the nation's largest commuter railroad.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/1...

[Ian David]

1. Well, there's your lead story on Drudge tomorrow. n/t

[Doremus]

2. There's the lead story for every state trying to bust public unions.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. This certainly doesn't help matters.

The media and the anti-union crowd will have a field day with this.

[valerief]

4. Uh, doesn't this shit happen EVERY DAY? And it will continue to happen. Report friggin' NEWS, AP.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Case is thin. The "payments" to docs was their medical fees. Folks can be disabled and

still be able to exercise or do other work.

The FBI leak to the public seems to be strategically timed to help the right wing case against the working class.

[HereSince1628]

6. Disabilities certainly do not have to be physical.

And if the payment to the Docs who testified was simply medical fees I think you're right. Thin, very thin.

[former9thward]

7. If you read the article the case is thick, very thick.

Employees who claimed they could no longer stand for 5 minutes without severe pain yet outside of work were seen shoveling snow for an hour and a half. Employees who said they could not move because of the pain but after hours played golf and other athletic events. Employees who volunteered to work heavy overtime hours to build up their pension at the very time their doctors said they were incapable of working at the railroad. Disappointing to see posters making excuses for the looting and stealing from a pension program.

[usrname]

8. Agreed

Wrong is wrong. Theft is theft, regardless of who is doing it. I do wish, however, that when the theft is in the multi-billions as in Wall Street, that attention and priority should take precedence than for the piddling sum of this little shenanigans.

Nonetheless, all such fraud should be capped immediately, as it does no one any good. And those within the union heirarchy who might know about this and didn't do anything to stop it should be called as complicit to the crimes. Really, if the unions want to show why they're better, they, well, have to show why they're better.

[BadtotheboneBob]

12. Well said...

... and I will add that as a former UAW member I can attest that from incidents I've seen, just because someone belongs to a Union doesn't mean that person can't be a scoundrel scamming the system dishonestly. Possessing a 'Union Card' doesn't mean you are beyond reproach.

[PATRICK]

14. And they don't stick around

This particular minority usually has real ills and hurts everyone else suffers through. I imagine(I can't prove anything)
that to some doctors this is ample excuse, even without lying, of supporting workers retiring early on disability. You have no future on disability and getting caught after your body recuperates is always possible. As to money and outright fakery the result is the same. The employee is soon gone from union and employment rolls. Though defended by the unions regarding basic rights and REAL ailment issues, usually the company has ample time to screen the new hires for potential integrity failures, goldbricking and dishonesty. Sometimes the lazy choose the shining path to management to supervise others doing the physical labor and subconsciously give slackers the pass until the fateful disability that makes management look bad on the books.

Nice that the FBI does this in their spare time. Plenty of policing organs available to catch individuals and doctors in scams. I take it this case is in fact about organized crime not just individual violations. I remember years ago before better wages it used to be a topic of discussion among a very few wistful slackers. They are now gone and so is the problem. Overwork is killing nearly as many as it is disabling people it seems. Most people come back to work too early. Many more could get support from their doctors to TRY to get relief at work. Yet management will not provide that relief and "retire already" is the answer to everything.

Generalizing this to all unions and workers is false. The few are fast gone, so hardly dedicated union people but excellent users. Some in this class shift upwards to management. Most cases are legitimate hurts and the line between "milking" and bilking is not clear, and doctors side with the health of the patient. If anything, disability is underplayed by all parties(except doctors) unless you are a triple amputee or something.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Good grief, this looks like it's on the wholesale level.

This is ugly - very ugly.

[krispos42]

10. So when do they get a giant government bailout and a $5 settlement?

Oh, wait, it's not a BANK!




Silly me!



They're going to hang like Bernie Madoff should have.

[madrchsod]

11. i worked at a steel mill where the owner had a guy...

go to the person`s house to see if the man was actually sick.

he also employed spies to see if anyone who was on workman`s comp was faking the injury.

everyone involved in this billion dollar fraud should be charged.

[PoliticAverse]

13. New York Times coverage of the story...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/nyregion/10-arrested-...