Medford Man Pleads Guilty To Selling Thousands of Fake Monthly Passes

A Medford man pleaded guilty to manufacturing and distributing more than 3,000 bogus MBTA passes, and was consequently sentenced to three years in state prison on Tuesday.

Casey Kolenda, 28, also got tagged with three years probation following his sentence, for allegedly making more than $60,000 off fake passes, and thereby depriving the MBTA of more than $225,000 in revenue.

“This scheme resulted in significant revenue loss for the MBTA and was patently unfair to riders who paid the full cost of their transit passes,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement.

“Schemes such as this one, in which an individual commits crimes for personal gain at the expense of the public, will not be tolerated.”

A device called a “skimmer,” was used to copy the data on the magnetic strip of a legitimate $70 monthly LinkPass, then downloaded into stored-value MBTA cards, generally available for free, at MBTA kiosks.

Authorities say Kolenda proceeded to disguise the bogus passes with contact paper bearing the MBTA’s famous “T” logo.

At the time of his capture in March of 2014, the MBTA Police says Kolenda was walking around with more than 60 fake monthly passes and $7,000 in cash on his person.

More information available at the MBTA Police’s official statement here.

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