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Long Island Rail Road “Overtime King” Thomas Caputo was sentenced to eight months in prison Friday for his role in a time cheat conspiracy that netted him thousands of dollars.
Caputo, a former LIRR track inspector, had previously copped to one count of conspiracy to commit federal program theft for the scheme.
In a sentencing memo, federal prosecutors said Caputo, 57, conspired with his four co-defendants to submit false time cards that included overtime hours for when they were not on the job.
“Caputo and his coconspirators carried out this scheme by agreeing to ‘cover’ for one another’s absences, taking turns being absent for all or part of the shifts while other conspirators remained to ensure that the absences were not noticed, and submitting false time records claiming that they had been present,” federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York wrote.
The scheme centered around two large MTA work sites where members of the crew worked, the Harold Interlocking in Queens and the West Side Yard project, the feds said.
For some of the hours he was on the clock, Caputo was actually competing in a bowling league, they added.
At the sentencing of one of Caputo’s co-defendants, Judge Paul Engelmayer called the conspiracy “an orgy of overtime fraud that was carried out on an epic scale.”
In 2018, Caputo was the agency’s highest-paid employee, raking in $344,000 just in extra pay by clocking a seemingly impossible number of hours that year.
The feds used a conservative estimate when they charged Caputo and his fellow defendants and only held Caputo liable for some $18,000 in fraudulent overtime wages, they wrote in the memo.
In all, Caputo and the four other defendants will be responsible for paying back more than $100,000 for the overtime wages they collected.
The feds investigated the overtime crime in partnership with the MTA’s Office of Inspector General, who praised the work in a statement ahead of Caputo’s sentencing.
“We deeply appreciate the ongoing efforts of our law enforcement partners at the U.S. Attorney’s office,” said Acting MTA Inspector General Elizabeth Keating. “We plan to remain vigilant, and will continue to pursue unscrupulous individuals who seek to steal from the MTA and the people of New York.”
Damien Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, also praised the sentencing in a statement.
“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 said.
All of Caputo’s co-defendants, including the son of murderous Gambino mobster Dominick “Skinny Dom” Pizzonia, have pleaded guilty in the case.
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