One of the🦂 five Long Island Rail Road workers charged in a conspiracy to defraud the MTA through an overtime scheme was sentenced to three month♐s in prison Tuesday.
At the Manhattan federal court sentencing, Joseph Balestra ♕apologized to his family and said he took full responsibility for his role in the scheme, in which he raked in m🅷ore than $5,000 in overtime pay.
Balestra will have to serve three years of supervised release, three months of which will be served ꦇunder home confi🅺nement as part of the sentence.
In 2018, Balestra earned $348,000 from the LIRR, including ✱$241,000 in OT after sub𓂃mitting nearly 3,000 overtime hours for the year.
Judge Paul Engelmayer said Balestra benefi𒊎ted from investigators narrowing their investigation to the year 2018 and limiting the number of fraudulent overtime hours to the times they were certa🍌in he was not on a work site or traveling to or from one.
“This was not a victimless crime,” Engelmaye💜r⛦ said at the sentencing.
“The money came 🎐from the hardworking taxpayers,” he🐭 added. “The taxpayers are indirectly the victims in this case.”
Balestra’s co-defendants including MTA “Overtime King” Thomas Caputo, John Nugent and Joseph Ruzzo have also pleaded guilty. A fifth defendant, Frank Pizz🌟onia, has filed papers indicating plans to p🌠lead guilty as well.
Additional reporting by David Meyer