What to Know
- An ex-New York City Transit subway conductor was arraigned on charges of grand larceny and other crimes for allegedly stealing about $114,000 in Workers’ Compensation payments from NYC Transit, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
- Giovanni Seminerio, 48, of Alva, Florida, was arraigned Wednesday on a 22-count indictment in which he is charged with second-degree grand larceny, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records and related charges, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
- Seminerio certified he was unemployed to collect Workers’ Compensation payments while holding law enforcement positions in other states
An ex-New York City Transit subway conductor was arraigned on charges of grand larceny and other crimes for allegedly stealing about $114,000 in Workers’ Compensation payments from NYC Transit, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
Giovanni Seminerio, 48, of Alva, Florida, was arraigned Wednesday on a 22-count indictment in which he is charged with second-degree grand larceny, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records and related charges, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Seminerio was released and ordered to return to court on Nov. 17. Attorney information was not immediately available.
Gonzalez said that, according to the investigation, Seminerio, who at the time was a subway conductor for NYC Transit, received notification that he would be terminated on Dec. 8, 2015 for disciplinary charges related to his operation of the trains. That same day, he claimed he had been injured during his shift the day before and sought Workers’ Compensation benefits.
According to the district attorney's office, Seminerio began receiving Workers’ Compensation payments on May 18, 2016. Allegedly, between October 2016 and August 2019 he signed documents, as required by NYC Transit, falsely certifying that he was not employed, including a Daily Activity Questionnaire submitted with his medical exams, and an endorsement on the Workers’ Compensation checks he received.
Additionally, according to prosecutors, from October 2016 to January 2020, the defendant allegedly held a number of salaried law enforcement positions, including as a corrections officer for Monroe County, Pennsylvania, the Florida Department of Corrections and the Glades County, Florida Sheriff’s Office and as an Enforcement Specialist for the Lee County, Florida Board of County Commissioners.
"This defendant allegedly stole more than $100,000 in taxpayer money by claiming he was disabled while simultaneously – and outrageously – holding down a series of law enforcement jobs in other states. We will now seek to bring him to justice and recover the funds that he fraudulently received," Gonzalez said in a statement.
News
Overall, Seminerio allegedly stole about $114,000 as a result of his fraud. NYC Transit’s Special Investigation Unit alerted the MTA Inspector General to the alleged fraud during an internal review of Workers’ Compensation cases and subsequently suspended his payments in August 2019.
“This scam artist suddenly suffered a convenient ‘injury,’ when faced with imminent termination as an MTA subway conductor yet was fit enough to relocate to other states and hold a series of law enforcement jobs. All the while he was double-dipping — collecting a salary as a corrections officer and other positions of authority, while lining his pockets with disability payments funded by New York’s taxpayers, as alleged in the indictment," MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said in a statement.
Meanwhile, NYCT Interim President Sarah Feinberg said that “NYC Transit has zero tolerance for fraud and will seek full restitution in this and any case where it is perpetrated.”
