Queens man pleads guilty in LIRR overtime scam

A Queens man has pleaded guilty to a scheme by Long Island Rail Road workers to steal thousands of dollars in unearned overtime pay and cover up the crime, according to federal court records.

Frank Pizzonia of Howard Beach, who was 53 at the time of an indictment in February, pleaded guilty Thursday to a count of wire-fraud conspiracy stating that he and others conspired "to fraudulently claim pay for hours they did not actually work by among other things, repeatedly covering for one another's absences from work while nonetheless understanding that time sheets including the unworked hours would be submitted," according to an entry in court records marking the plea.

The plea, a change from not guilty, was entered before Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.

Pizzonia, who was suspended without pay by the railroad, also agreed to forfeit the proceeds of the crime, as well as related pension benefits.

He is to be sentenced May 4 at 10:30 a.m. Court records did not list the sentence.

At least three other defendants, Thomas Caputo, John Nugent and Joseph Balestra, have already pleaded guilty, according to court records.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office gave this example involving Pizzonia, who made $271,913 as a track worker in 2019: on Sept. 2, 2018, Pizzonia claimed to have worked a 13-hour overtime shift "when in fact he had not done so," Newsday reported.

In 2020, when initially announcing the case, the then-acting U.S. attorney, Audrey Strauss, said that participants in the scheme "allegedly made themselves some of the highest-paid employees at the entire MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] by claiming extraordinary, almost physically impossible, amounts of overtime."

She said: "those almost impossible claims were fueled by brazen, repeated fraud, including falsely claiming to be working overtime hours while the defendants were at their homes or, in some instances, bowling."

A message left Thursday night with Pizzonia’s defense attorney, Joseph R. Corozzo, was not immediately returned.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.