Rampant abuse may soon require another taxpayer bailout.
New York tabloids are having a field day with the news that dozens of ex-cops have been charged with scamming as much as $400 million in Social Security disability benefits. The bigger outrage is that this grand taxpayer theft went undetected for two decades and is merely part of the national scandal that the disability program has become.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. this week charged 102 retirees, including 80 former New York police officers and firefighters, with making phony disability claims since as far back as 1988 to obtain Social Security benefits and tax-free pensions equalling up to 75% of their pay. About half of the cheats attributed their “disabilities” to 9/11, even if they never even worked at Ground Zero.
Heading the alleged racket were 64-year-old retired cop Joseph Esposito and 61-year-old detectives’ union consultant John Minerva. They recruited and then directed disability applicants to Raymond Lavallee, an 83-year-old former Nassau County prosecutor, and 89-year-old Thomas Hale who assists disability applicants. They are alleged to have acted much like college counselors, except their jobs were to make their clients look inept.
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