Amtrak Employee From Somerset Arrested For Overbilling Hundreds Of Unworked Hours: US Attorney

SOMERSET, NJ — Two supervisors, including one from Somerset, were charged after they cost Amtrack $92,000 for claiming hundreds of overtime and regular hours when they actually weren't working, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Tuesday.

Richard Vogel, 63, of Edison and Donald Harper, Sr., 46, of Somerset were arrested Tuesday. July 19 morning by federal agents and charged in separate criminal complaints with defrauding Amtrak as a result of their fraudulent overbilling of work hours.

The pair overbilled Amtrak a combined total of more than 800 overtime hours and more than 60 regular hours they claimed to be working when they were actually not present at Amtrak work sites, according to the release.

Both are scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court.

According to the criminal complaints:

Vogel, who has been employed by Amtrak since January 1977, currently supervises approximately 35 employees in work gangs on the Construction Signals side of the Communications and Signals Department of Amtrak’s New York Division.

Between November 2015 and June 2016, Vogel fraudulently billed Amtrak for 41 regular hours and 687.75 overtime hours when he was not actually present at Amtrak work sites, resulting in losses to Amtrak of more than $71,000.

Harper, who has been employed by Amtrak since February 1990, currently supervises approximately 19 employees in a work gang on the Signals side of the Communications and Signals Department of Amtrak’s New York Division. Harper fraudulently billed Amtrak for 27.75 regular hours and 192.25 overtime hours when he was not actually present at Amtrak work sites, between October 2014 and October 2015, resulting in losses to Amtrak of more than $20,000.

Both are facing maximum potential penalties of 10 years in prison each on the fraud offense and theft of funds offense, in addition to fines equal to the greatest of $250,000 per count or twice the gain or loss resulting from the offenses.

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