687 Hours in Fake Overtime for Edison Amtrak Employee, Feds Say

Edison, NJ - An Amtrak supervisor who lives in Edison was arrested Tuesday morning, along with another employee, and charged with overbilling Amtrak a combined total of more than 800 overtime hours and more than 60 regular hours.

The two men claimed to be working when in reality they were not on the job, and were not near any Amtrak sites, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. The total overbilling caused $92,000 in losses to Amtrak.

Richard Vogel, 63, of Edison, and Donald Harper, Sr., 46, of Somerset, were arrested Tuesday morning by federal agents. Both men work in the Communications and Signals Department at Amtrak.

Vogel, who has been on the job with Amtrak since 1977, currently supervises approximately 35 employees in that division. Between November 2015 and June 2016, he fraudulently billed Amtrak for 41 regular hours and a whopping 687 overtime hours, the U.S. Attorney said. Amtrak paid him $71,000 for those hours.

Harper is accused of overbilling Amtrak by 27 hours in regular pay, and 192 hours in overtime.

Both men are facing 10 years in prison, in addition to fines of up to $250,000.

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

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