NYPD-FDNY pension rip-off: Round Two
Another 28 NYPD and FDNY pension cheaters — including two sons of the alleged ringleaders of the massive Social Security disability scheme — will be swept up Tuesday in the ongoing probe, sources told The Post.
The scammers, many of whom pretended to have suffered emotional trauma from 9/11, will be rounded up in the morning by investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
They will be arraigned in the afternoon before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Fitzgerald, according to the sources.
The new roundup follows the January arrest of 106 people in the $400 million taxpayer fraud — including birdflipping, jetskiing poster boy Greg Lieberman, 48.
Lieberman, a former Brooklyn antigang cop, allegedly scored nearly $176,000 in bogus disability and claimed to suffer from debilitating depression and panic attacks. He then brazenly posted online photos of himself zipping around on a jetski — while giving two middle fingers.
Among those expected to be nabbed in Tuesday’s pickup is retired cop Sam Esposito, the son of former cop Joseph Esposito, 70, an alleged kingpin of the disability plot who recruited and coached retirees.
Sam Esposito is expected to be charged with fraudulently obtaining disability payments, the sources said.
Another scion of the alleged scam, Douglas Hale, also is expected to be charged, according to the sources. Hale’s 89yearold father, Thomas, headed a company that allegedly helped prepare bogus Social Security applications.
The new group to be rounded up includes 16 retired NYPD cops and four retired FDNY members, a source close to the investi gation said. Of that batch, one lives in Wisconsin, another in South Carolina and two in Florida.
Like the previously busted cops and firefighters, many in the latest group allegedly claimed falsely that they worked at Ground Zero or lost loved ones on 9/11 in a bid to score fat disability payments.
In addition to the elder Esposito and Hale, prosecutors say ringleaders included policeunion employee John Minerva, who allegedly helped gather applicants, and former FBI agent and exNassau County prosecutor Raymond Lavallee, who allegedly reviewed the f inal paperwork.
The four men, prosecutors said, coached greedy NYPD and FDNY members on how to fake mental illness, and helped them prepare their bogus claims.
Many of the alleged fraudsters claimed they couldn’t sleep, do simple arithmetic or even leave their own homes — but investigators found that they’d been piloting helicopters, teaching karate, deepsea fishing and even running halfmarathons.
Prosecutors say one of the worst offenders was excop Louis Hurtado, who took in $470,000 in the alleged scheme and was caught teaching karate.
Hurtado had been conning the system the longest, since 1989, authorities said.
Officials believe that as many as 1,000 people might be involved in the colossal swindle.