LI Man Gets 8 Months In 'Egregious' MTA Overtime Scheme: Feds

NEW YORK, NY — A Long Island man — once deemed the highest-paid employee of the entire Metropolitan Transportation Authority with over $200, 000 in overtime pay — was sentenced to eight months in prison on Friday for submitting fraudulent overtime slips, including for times when he was taking part in a bowling league, federal prosectors say.

Thomas Caputo, 56, of Holbrook, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit federal program fraud by submitting time reports falsely claiming to have worked hundreds of hours of overtime that he did not work back in August.

Two of Caputo's coconspirators, including John Nugent, 50, of Rocky Point, were previously sentenced, with Nugent receiving a five-month prison term in November, and Joseph Balestra, 51, of Blue Point, a three-month term of imprisonment in January, prosecutors said.

In addition to the prison sentences, Caputo was sentenced to three years of supervised release with six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service, and Nugent three years of supervised release with five months of home confinement, as well as 200 hours of community service, prosecutors said.

Balestra was sentenced to three years of supervised release with three months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service, and all three were ordered to pay about $109,000 in restitution, according to prosecutors.

Southern District U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the sentences the court imposed on "the participants in this egregious overtime fraud scheme send a clear message: If you commit overtime fraud, you will go to prison."

"The public expects that public employees will show up and receive honest pay for an honest day’s work, not line their pockets with double-time or time-and-a-half pay while out bowling,” he added.

Caputo's attorney, James Kousouros, called the scheme "brazen" and "unnecessary" in an interview with Newsday. He went on to tell the outlet that his client is a "good and productive man" who had fallen victim to greed and that the LIRR was also culpable.

"The LIRR created this culture and put the template out there. And Thomas is going to prison because he took the bait," he said.

In a complaint and indictment filed in federal court, as well as statements made in connection with the sentencings of Caputo, Nugent, and Balestra and the prosecution of coconspirators Joseph Ruzzo and Frank Pizzonia, the five "schemed to fraudulently receive thousands of dollars in compensation from the MTA by falsely claiming to have worked hundreds of voluntary overtime hours that in fact, they did not work," according to prosecutors.

The overtime pay they claimed led to "significant increases" in their salaries and led them to be among the highest-paid MTA employees, with Caputo being the highest-paid MTA employee in 2018, prosecutors said.

Each of them was paid over $200,000 in overtime, according to prosecutors.

The five frequently volunteered for overtime and then claimed to have been working lucrative overtime shifts at times when they were at home or at other non-work locations, such as, in the case of Caputo, a bowling alley, according to prosecutors.

In 2018, Caputo claimed to have worked about 3,864 overtime hours, on top of 1,682 regular hours, prosecutors, adding, that if he had worked every single calendar day in 2018, including weekends and holidays, in which he did not, "that would average out to about 10 hours of overtime every day for an entire year in addition to his regular 40-hour workweek."

Caputo, an Long Island Rail Road employee responsible for track inspection, while Ruzzo, Nugent, and Balestra were all LIRR foremen, and Pizzonia an LIRR track worker, said prosecutors, also noting the five are no longer employed by the LIRR.

Staffers from the Office of the MTA Inspector General worked with criminal investigators to compare the five's timesheets along with various records establishing their true whereabouts, such as location information from their cell phones, bank records, MTA building access card data, work, and personal emails and social media records, as well as records from third parties such as the bowling alley where Caputo went.