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106 Former NYC Workers Arrested in Fraud Sweep

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Disability claimants were busted after posting social media photos like this one, which illustrates that they are clearly not as incapacitated as their applications for assistance implied.
Disability claimants were busted after posting social media photos like this one, which illustrates that they are clearly not as incapacitated as their applications for assistance implied.
In yet another incident of government corruption, more than 100 former New York City workers, including numerous retired police officers, firefighters and prison guards, have been charged with faking psychiatric problems in order to get federal Social Security disability benefits, prosecutors said on Tuesday, January 7, 2014.

The arrests began early on Tuesday as the culmination of a two-year investigation, according to the New York Times. Arraignments came late the same morning. Many of the defendants pleaded not guilty to grand larceny charges and were being released without bail.

According to the Times, at least 72 retired city cops and eight retired firefighters were among the 106 defendants charged with scamming Social Security Disability Insurance by falsely claiming they were homebound due to psychiatric impairment.

District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance said four ringleaders “coached the officers on how to falsely describe symptoms of depression and other mental health problems that would make them eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits, which requires a complete inability to work,” according to CBS 2 News.

“For years, federal taxpayers have unwittingly financed the lifestyles of the defendants charged today,” Vance said to CBS. “The Social Security Disability safety net exists to help those who are unable to help themselves. Many participants cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of Sept. 11, dishonoring the first responders who did serve their City at the expense of their own health and safety.”

The improper payments totaled $400 million, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors said many of the defendants “lived lifestyles that starkly contradicted the representations made on their applications.”

Undercover investigators checked social media posts and financial records to expose the alleged fraud, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported. The social media carelessness is what helped bring about the conclusion of the investigation and led to the arrests, CBS added.

One of the defendants who said he couldn’t work taught martial arts; another piloted a helicopter; another former police officer who claimed he couldn’t leave the house worked at a cannoli stand at the San Gennaro Festival, prosecutors said.

The defendants received payouts as high as $500,000 from claims they made and Vance said the ringleaders made tens of thousands in secret kickbacks.

Former Nassau County prosecutor Ray Lavallee is charged with being one of the ringleaders, Vance told reporters on Tuesday.

“In Nassau County, Mr. Lavallee is revered as one of the finest gentlemen that walks, and that’s what I believe in my heart,” the suspect’s friend Michelle Esquenazi told Aiello.

“The retired members of the NYPD indicted in this case have disgraced all first responders who perished during the search and rescue efforts on Sept. 11, 2001, and those who subsequently died from 9/11 related illness, by exploiting their involvements that tragic day for personal gain,” second-time New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said in a statement on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said they’re going to go after every penny the defendants collected. Hundreds of additional arrests are possible, said Vance.

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