A supervisor for a company working on the Hudson Bergen Light Rail system has admitted to stealing $500,000 in no-show wages over a two-year period, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Joseph Ferrara, 56, of North Arlington, pleaded guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals in Newark federal court to one count of embezzling, stealing, and obtaining by fraud more than $487,000 of funds belonging to and under the care, custody and control of the HBLR, which is operated by New Jersey Transit.
Ferrara — who worked as an employee of a subcontractor specializing in electrical work — admitted that between January 2018 and April 2020 he submitted fraudulent claims for compensation related to HBLR he supervised.
The theft charge is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 5, 2024.
The Hudson Bergen Light Rail has two dozen stations throughout Hudson County from North Bergen to Bayonne and serves more than 50,000 passengers each weekday.
As a supervisor, Ferrara was compensated at a regular rate for normal workday hours, at an elevated overtime rate for work performed during non-regular weekday hours and Saturdays, and at a double time rate for work performed on Sundays.
During that 28-month period, Ferrara claimed he worked hundreds of regular, overtime and double time hours knowing that he had not actually performed that work for his employer or on HBLR projects.
Ferrara admitted he spent spent approximately 10 days vacationing in Florida in both late December 2018 and late December 2019 and submitted fraudulent claims representing that he had worked more than 200 hours at regular, overtime and double time rates during those periods.
In total, Ferrara admitted to receiving $487,899 in compensation for hours during which he performed no work. As part of his plea agreement, Ferrara agreed to forfeit this amount.
