NYPD, NYFD Disability Scam, Cost Taxpayers Millions

[From article]
Nearly 100 suspects – many of them city cops and firefighters falsely claiming they were traumatized on 9/11 - were busted Tuesday in a huge mental disability pension fraud scam that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, sources told The Post.
[. . .]
A 200-page indictment said the greedy scammers collected between $30,000 and $50,000 a year based on bogus claims that they were totally incapacitated by serious psychiatric and mental health problems, including depression, acute anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
[. . .]
The scammers allegedly worked with doctors and lawyers who coached them to act like mental patients when they were being examined and interviewed about their Social Security claims.
Four of those indicted were accused of being ringleaders who would help the cops and firefighters get the bogus pensions and then be repaid with kickbacks, sources said.
The head scammers include Raymond Lavallee, 83, a Nassau County lawyer and former FBI agent and prosecutor, and retired cop John Minerva, 61, who worked on pension requests for an NYPD union.

One of these officers was Chief of the Department who retired in 2013.

http://nypost.com/2014/01/07/massive-social-security-fraud-probe-snares-scores-of-fdny-nypd-retirees/

FDNY, NYPD retirees ‘faked 9/11 illnesses’ as part of Social Security disability scam
By Jamie Schram, Rebecca Rosenberg and Bob Fredericks
New York Post
January 7, 2014 | 10:32am

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[FROM ARTICLE]
In exchange, “You got to give them 14 payments of what you get’’ from Social Security, Esposito was overheard telling defendant James Matamoros in May. “Let’s say you get $2,000 [a month]. You have to give them $28,000.’’

http://nypost.com/2014/01/07/how-the-massive-nypd-fdny-pension-scam-worked/

How the massive NY pension scam worked
By Bob Fredericks and Philip Messing
January 7, 2014 | 6:58pm
New York Post