LIRR Workers Indicted In Connection To Overtime Scam: Feds

BLUE POINT, NY — The indictment was unsealed at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for a Blue Point man and four other LIRR workers who face charges involving an overtime scam, according to court documents.

Joseph Balestra, 51, was named in the federal complaints along with fellow LIRR employees Thomas Caputo, 56, of Holbrook; Joseph Ruzzo, 56, of Levittown; John Nugent, 50, of Rocky Point; and NYC Transit worker Michael Gunderson, 42, of Manalapan, New Jersey.

The group is accused of claiming to work overtime hours in 2018 when they were actually not working but rather they were bowling, on vacation, or attending concerts, according to the complaint.

According to the indictment, the group repeatedly covered for one another when they were absent from work and as a result, received over $5,000 in payments for hours that they did not in fact work.

The five face felony charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

In 2019 Balestra made $348,522 as a foreman and Nugent made $350,056, also as a foreman. Both were among the highest-paid MTA employees. The two, along with Pizzonia, have been suspended without pay, Newsday reports. Caputo, who was the highest-paid MTA worker as a chief measurement operator in 2019 making $461,646 and Ruzzo, who made $380,407 in 2019, both retired that year.

The group will be arraigned on Feb. 10 and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.