MTA: He stole disability cash

A former subway conductor was charged by Brooklyn prosecutors Wednesday with stealing $114,000 in workers’ compensation from the MTA through a years-long scam.

Giovanni Seminerio, 48, claimed to be injured at work on Dec. 8, 2015, the same day transit managers notified him that he would be fired for disciplinary reasons, the Brooklyn D.A.’s office said.

Siminerio was terminated — but his injury complaint allowed him to begin receiving workers’ compensation payments the following May.

By October 2016, the former conductor had left the city and taken a job as a corrections officer in Monroe County, Pa., the D.A. alleges.

He later moved to southwest Florida and held two law enforcement jobs in Lee and Glade counties, in the Fort Myers area — all while keeping his MTA disability pay, said prosecutors.

For nearly three years Seminerio filled out paperwork that falsely certified he did not pick up another job and remained unable to return to work, says the Brooklyn D.A.

NYC Transit auditors in August 2019 uncovered

Seminerio’s scheme and suspended his workers’ compensation payments. His case was referred to MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny.

NYC Transit, the MTA’s largest subsidiary, operates a workers’ compensation program separate from the state’s workers compensation insurance program because so many transit employees are hurt on the job. The money Seminerio is accused of pocketing came straight out of NYC Transit’s budget.

“This scam artist suddenly suffered a convenient ‘injury’ when faced with imminent termination as an MTA subway conductor, yet was fit enough to relocate to other states and hold a series of law enforcement jobs,” said Pokorny.

“All the while he was double-dipping — collecting a salary as a corrections officer and other positions of authority, while lining his pockets with disability payments funded by New York’s taxpayers.”

Seminerio faces 22 counts, including second-degree grand larceny, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and first-degree falsifying business records. If convicted, he could face more than 15 years in prison.

“We will now seek to bring him to justice and recover the funds that he fraudulently received,” said Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez.