Former New York City workers, including retired police officers and firefighters, are being investigated for faking health disabilities to collect federal disability benefits, according to law enforcement, the Associated Press reported.
Arrests for more than 100 former city workers began on Tuesday morning in a disabilities scam which began two decades ago and includes a variety of city workers, the AP reported.
According to officials, some of the ex-officer and workers were faking claims of mental health issues so serious they could no longer work, but "people who said they could barely leave their homes had robust lives out of their homes," the according to the AP.
Some of the workers were being trained by a others on how to fake their disabilities, the AP reported.
One of the officials dealing with the case said there were former city workers who were training others on how to pretend to suffer from mental health issues and successfully collect years of benefits, the AP reported.
Among the arrested was a former police officer who helped detectives in the Detectives' Endowment Association with claims at a Queens office, the AP reported. Union President Michael Palladino said he has been suspended without pay.
The arraignments for the arrested would take place on Tuesday as well as a news conference to discuss the details of the case was scheduled to take place at the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the AP reported.
Similar cases with city workers faking injury to claim disability benefits have been presented before with 32 people being arrested in the last two years due to an investigation into the Long Island Railroad whose employees were collecting disability on false claims, the AP reported.
The workers had been filing for benefits claiming they had been injured while on the job, but investigators found they were actually out playing golf and tennis, and even participating in a 400-mile bike race, the AP reported. In the Long Island Railroad case alone, at least two dozen of the workers pleaded guilty.
