Ten MTA workers suspected of filing fake reports on signal inspections and failing to check the equipment have been arrested. Click below to read more.
Eight MTA workers and two low-level subway supervisors will be arrested this week and charged with faking signal inspections, the Daily News has learned.
The workers are suspected of filing bogus reports that claimed they had inspected a host of subway signals, when they in fact failed to check all the equipment during certain shifts, according to sources familiar with the probe.
The two supervisors, Oscar Magalong and Chandrapaul Hariprashad, allegedly entered the info into the MTA signal department’s computer system knowing full well it was bogus, the sources said.
The impending arrests stem from an investigation of signal inspection shenanigans launched in 2010 by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority inspector general and Manhattan prosecutors.
The workers, who are called signal maintainers, and the supervisors are expected to surrender to authorities Friday and be arraigned before a Manhattan Supreme Court justice.
Each suspect will be hit with a felony count of tampering with official records and a misdemeanor rap of official misconduct, the sources added.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. and MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger declined to comment.
But Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen criticized investigators for not securing an indictment against higher-ranking transit bosses in the so-called “Signalgate†scandal.
“The absence of senior management officials is glaring. Signal maintainers follow orders that are sent down from upper management,†he said.
“If the allegations are true, and I’m not saying they are, the pressure to engage in this kind of activity came directly from senior management.â€
Kluger said previously that his investigators alerted prosecutors after uncovering evidence suggesting widespread fraud and falsification of records in the signal department in 2010. Vance’s office convened a grand jury last year, as the joint investigation continued. One signal maintainer was charged last year with filing bogus reports, but passed away before the case was prosecuted.
Early on in the probe, the MTA ordered a sweeping review of the signal inspection process. It concluded that, despite falsification of reports, the subways remained safe.
The system has a “fail-safe†design, meaning trains are halted if a malfunction is detected.
A lawyer for Magalong and Hariprashad didn’t return a call seeking comment Tuesday night.
