LIRR workers accused of 'rampant time abuse' in fake ID scheme

Three dozen Long Island Rail Road workers involved in a "rampant time abuse" scheme used counterfeit employee identification cards to fraudulently collect wages for hours they never worked, according to the findings of a nearly three-year investigation by the MTA watchdog.

The probe by the office of Metropolitan Transportation Authority inspector general Daniel Cort has already led to multiple suspensions, resignations and other pending disciplinary sanctions against the 36 LIRR workers, seven of whom were supervisors, investigators said.

Although the names of the implicated employees were redacted in the report, Newsday obtained a list of their identities through an open records request and found it to include several of the LIRR’s highest overtime earners in recent years, including 2023's top earner, who got paid $240,000 in OT that year.

In a statement, LIRR president Robert Free said the actions of the employees, including supervisors "responsible for making sure all employees play by the rules," were "nothing short of corrupt" and warranted "severe punishment."

"I will not allow a few unscrupulous employees to damage the reputation of thousands of hard-working LIRR colleagues," Free said.

The scheme points to a "culture of fraud and time abuse" at three railroad employee facilities, where workers made and bought "cloned" ID badges for as little as $5, and then routinely skipped out of work early or arrived late, counting on co-workers using the bogus cards to punch them in and out, according to the report.

It's the latest of several wage theft plots uncovered in recent years involving LIRR employees getting paid for hours they never worked, and it also comes as the railroad looks to raise fares in January to help cover labor costs, which account for nearly 60% of its $2.67 billion annual operating budget. Those costs could grow higher if five LIRR unions threatening to go on strike are successful in convincing the MTA to pay them their requested 16% in raises over four years.

The latest investigation uncovered a "widespread lack of ethics and contempt for the timekeeping regulations" at three LIRR employee facilities, in Ronkonkoma, Richmond Hill in Queens and the West Side Yard in Manhattan, Cort said in a statement.

"These employees, including supervisors who should have been enforcing the rules, stole countless hours of paid time," Cort said. "I hope that our investigation and the serious punishments handed down by LIRR management will help combat the culture of corruption that has festered for too long at these facilities."

Investigators said they couldn't calculate the amount of wages the 36 employees received for time they didn't work. The MTA’s timekeeping system "could not distinguish an authentic LIRR card from a cloned LIRR card," and the scheme had already been in place for months before it was uncovered, according to the report.

Investigators began looking into the allegations of counterfeit ID cards in 2022, but believe the scheme began in 2021 and lasted through August of last year — shortly before the MTA reinstated a requirement for all employees to scan their fingers at biometric timeclocks to record when they start and end a shift. That requirement was suspended in 2020 because of sanitary concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cards stored in lockers, refrigerators

Despite warnings the system was ripe for abuse, from 2020 until August 2024, LIRR employees instead used a company-issued ID badge to swipe in and out of work. This gave way to some workers copying the badges "using card-reader machines and blank swipe cards, some of which were purchased on Amazon," according to investigators. Six employees, including a gang foreman, are accused of creating or distributing the counterfeit IDs. The cards were sold for $5 to $40, although one employee "performed work on another’s vehicle in exchange for a card," according to the report.

"The cards were then distributed and used by employees who swiped each other in and out at time clocks at the start and/or end of their shifts to make it appear as though they had worked a complete tour," investigators said in the report.

Relying on the cloned ID cards, some of which were stashed in unlocked lockers and a refrigerator, workers "regularly left their worksites for extended periods of time in the middle of their shifts" — sometimes to go the gym — or arrived late for work, knowing their co-workers could punch them in or out, the report said.

The accused employees all worked in the LIRR’s Maintenance of Equipment Department, and included train car inspectors, car cleaners, car repairmen, welders, machinists and oilers.

The LIRR cooperated with the investigators, and, upon receiving their final report in June, "immediately" served all 28 active employees accused in the scheme with notice of disciplinary charges, and suspended 27 of them without pay, according to the report. One had already been on paid leave at the time. Six other implicated employees retired during the investigation and two resigned.

A dozen employees were "made to forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars," while others were suspended up to nine months without pay, Free said.

Anthony Simon, who heads the LIRR’s largest union, said his members "like anyone else ... are human and can make mistakes," and the railroad has a "clear and fair disciplinary process" to address them.

"The individuals involved have accepted responsibility for their actions and have faced the appropriate disciplinary measures," said Simon, general chairman of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. "We believe that when someone acknowledges their mistake, learns from it, and takes the steps to make things right, they deserve the opportunity to move forward."

Although "none of the implicated employees fully cooperated" with investigators, most eventually admitted possessing and using the cloned cards, investigators said. One worker accused of helping create and distribute the counterfeit cards "tried to place blame" on a since-deceased co-worker, "claiming that he was the one who provided the cloned cards to employees in Ronkonkoma," the report said.

Suffolk DA: No criminal charges

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Wednesday that his office conducted a 16-month investigation into the charges, following a referral from Cort's office in May 2023, but ultimately found the evidence "was insufficient to bring prosecutions due to the lack of controls at the MTA facility," including, "no cameras on the employee entrance-exit, no biometric checks, and inadequate records."

Free said the railroad has since implemented "enhanced technology and aggressive oversight" to ensure "that everyone is fully accountable for reporting only time actually worked."

The Office of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz "cannot confirm or deny the existence of any investigation" into allegations of time fraud at the LIRR’s Richmond Hill facility, a spokesperson said. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the workers implicated in the scheme, according to documents obtained by Newsday, were car repair workers Martina Eugene and Junior Lambert — the railroad’s highest, and second-highest overtime earners in 2023. Each made more than $230,000 just in overtime that year. Interviewed by Newsday last month, Eugene and Lambert both said their earnings were legitimate and the product of hard work and long hours.

Eugene did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Reached by phone, Lambert denied involvement in the scheme.

"They make a mistake there ... I never had one of those cards," Lambert said. 

The adoption of biometric timeclocks at MTA employee facilities in 2019 followed the revelation of alarmingly high overtime earnings among some workers in 2018 and several law enforcement investigations. Four LIRR workers were ultimately convicted on fraud charges.