NEW YORK – Top traffic investigators say a supervisor working for the MTA evaded paying tolls over a ten-year period that culminated in fees and fines of more than $ 101,000.
The MTA’s Office of the Inspector General released a 20-page report on Monday detailing a full investigation following an anonymous notice filed last year that an assistant general superintendent had bragged to colleagues about circumventing tolls.
An investigation that spanned the end of 2020 and the first months of 2021 corroborated the data and determined that the employee lied to officials in interviews and email correspondence during the official investigation.
The five-year MTA veteran used a cloudy plastic covering over the rear license plate of his personal vehicle to avoid paying tolls for bridges and tunnels in and out of town, the inspector general’s report found. The car also had no front license plate; both are violations of state laws.
Supporting evidence included in the OIG report shows the employee’s personal vehicle with an opaque plastic cover over the rear license plate. (Photo: MTA OIG)
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In reviewing records between February 2011 and September 2020, investigators determined that the Assistant General Superintendent owed $ 9,000 in tolls and $ 92,000 in fines to three separate toll agencies.
“MTA management is supposed to model ethical behavior, not violate it,” MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said in a news release. “For an unscrupulous supervisor to steal toll dollars from New Yorkers, and have the gall to brag about it at work, is a slap in the face to the rest of the dedicated, hardworking MTA employees who keep New York moving.”
The report also went into great detail about the employee’s lies in an attempt to cover up or avoid possible repercussions. Investigators said the man claimed he was unable to open an EZPass account in 2018 due to an account suspension; there was no such suspension, the report said. He also claimed to be unaware of the lengthy fines owed to toll agencies, an impossibility due to the extensive notices sent by mail notifying him of such charges and fines, according to the report. And investigators caught him in a third lie about why his faceplate was missing by corroborating reports with the man’s repair shop.
Investigators released their findings and recommended that the employee face disciplinary action up to and including termination, as well as full recovery of fines owed.
The press release distributed Monday indicates that the employee received a demotion to his previous superintendent title, a 12-week suspension without pay between May and August and a resolution order to pay $ 10,000 in restitution.
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