A $1 billion disability scam for retiring Long Island Rail Road workers was exposed Thursday with the arrest of 11 people - including a pair of crooked doctors, authorities said.
Orthopedists Peter Ajemian and Peter Lesniewski recommended nearly 1,000 LIRR employees for illegal benefits between 1998-2009, turning their offices into "disability mills," according to a criminal complaint.
Arrested along with the two physicians were Ajemian's office manager, a former LIRR union president, a one-time official with the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and a half-dozen ex-LIRR employees.
"The defendants and their co-conspirators participated in a massive fraud scheme in which LIRR workers who were ready to retire falsely claimed to be disabled," federal authorities charged in a 74-page criminal complaint.
The arrests capped a three-year probe into the stunningly high approval rate of disability pensions for retiring LIRR employees.
The complaint charged that Ajemian recommended at least 734 LIRR workers for disability over the 11-year stretch, while Lesniewski approved 222 railroad employees.
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