Former New York police officers and firefighters were among 106 people indicted on Tuesday over a “massive” benefits fraud worth hundreds of millions of US dollars, with some using the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US to fraudulently claim aid.
The accused allegedly collected tens of thousands of dollars a year in US Social Security disability benefits by claiming they were incapacitated by serious psychiatric disorders and other ailments.
However, court documents say that they were living normal lives, with one of the accused flying a helicopter, while another played blackjack in Las Vegas.
Still another person among those indicted taught and performed mixed martial arts, while claiming benefits of between US$30,000 and US$50,000 a year.
In some instances, the amount of fraudulently obtained benefits was nearly US$500,000.
Of those indicted in the decades-long scam, 80 were retired New York police officers or firefighters.
“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,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement.
As far back as 1988, the four main defendants — Raymond Lavallee, 83, Thomas Hale, 89, Joseph Esposito, 64, and John Minerva, 61 — conspired to help or make hundreds of applicants falsely claim disabilities to collect benefit payments, the indictment and court documents showed.
Prosecutors said the applicants claimed that they suffered from psychiatric conditions that prevented them from working, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression.
“The retired members of the NYPD [New York City Police Department] indicted in this case have disgraced all first responders who perished during the search rescue efforts on Sept. 11, 2001...” NYPD Commissioner William Bratton said.
Hale and Esposito allegedly coached applicants on how to describe symptoms of depression and anxiety, and fail memory tests with plausibility, among other things.
“The crimes alleged in this indictment outline a highly organized, far-reaching criminal enterprise that targeted the Social Security Disability Insurance program,” US Social Security Administration special agent Edward Ryan said.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
RSS