Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (“MTA”) Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny have announced the guilty plea of a former Long Island Railroad (“LIRR”) conductor for allegedly engaging in a scheme to defraud the MTA out of ticket revenue.
Robert Anderson, 61, of West Islip, pleaded guilty today to Official Misconduct, a class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced by Acting Suffolk County Court Judge Richard Dunne to a $1,000 fine. Anderson was employed by the LIRR from 2014 until shortly after his arrest in April 2021.
“We hold government employees to a high standard, and when they abuse their positions as custodians of public funds, they need to be held accountable,” District Attorney Sini said. “We will continue to do just that in collaboration with agencies like the MTA Inspector General’s Office to ensure residents’ hard-earned money is not being mishandled. I thank Inspector General Pokorny and the investigators and prosecutors who handled this case for their work in uncovering this scheme.”
“Justice is on time and on track -- riders and taxpayers expect that when they pay a train fare it is going to support the railroad, not into an LIRR conductor’s pockets,” said MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny. “Once again, I am grateful to staff at the Long Island Railroad for bringing this matter to our attention and to our law enforcement partners at the Suffolk County District Attorney for working with my office to stop this unacceptable, criminal behavior.”
Between April 2019 and September 2020, Anderson engaged in a scheme in which he would collect train tickets but not punch them as required by his official duties. He would then provide the un-punched tickets to his acquaintances to either use or submit for refunds.
In furtherance of the scheme, Anderson would submit collection revenue reports falsely claiming that he had remitted all of the tickets that he collected during his shift. All LIRR conductors are required to submit revenue reports for each shift, which include all tickets and revenue collected.
Further investigation by the MTA OIG and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office revealed evidence that Anderson failed to include train tickets submitted by investigators in his signed revenue reports on eight separate occasions in 2019 and 2020.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Carey Ng, of the Public Integrity Bureau.