Dock scammers still on payroll

Dock scammers still on payroll

By Hillary Chabot  |   Thursday, April 7, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage
Photo by Nancy Lane

Convicted of bilking Massport in a brazen scheme that included putting kids as young as 2 years old on the payroll, 18 longshoremen are not only still on the job on the South Boston docks, they’ve scored two raises since their 2006 bust — with another bump slated for this fall, a Herald review found.

All told, 20 dock workers employed by a Massport contractor were convicted in 2008 of a complex scam in which some falsely pumped up employee hours, others pocketed fraudulent unemployment pay and others put their young children on the payroll to give them bogus seniority and fatten their wages as adult longshoremen years later.

But records show — and Massport honchos confirmed — that 18 of the convicted longshoremen are still on the payroll, received raises in 2006 and 2009 and have another coming in October. One of the other dock workers, a Massport employee, was fired after his conviction, and the other is dead.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, who prosecuted the men, asked that they be barred from working on Massport docks, but a judge denied her request.

“It is extremely troubling that some of these men have returned to work where they committed their crimes and that they continue to earn salaries from the same public authority that they scammed in the first place,” Coakley told the Herald.

Among the longshoremen who are still loading and storing cargo at the busy South Boston port:

• A former yard boss — sentenced to a year and a half in jail for fraud, larceny and conspiracy — is back on the docks as a general worker at Conley Terminal and filed for 89 hours in the first week in January, according to payroll records obtained by the Herald.

• A convicted former chief timekeeper — who paid a $5,000 fine for fraud, including putting his then-2-year-old daughter on the payroll — is a so-called “pool man” working on the Massport docks, records show.

• A convicted former supervisor — who was fined $2,500 for falsely reporting work hours for no-show relatives — is also working as “pool man,” records state.

• Another convicted longshoreman — who was ordered to pay more than $20,000 for multiple fraud counts — currently oversees refrigerated cargo at the South Boston terminal, according to Massport officials.

Massport Port Director Mike Leone said the 18 longshoremen are still on the job because they are protected by an ironclad union contract long-held by the International Longshoremen’s Association.

“For first-time offenses, the maximum suspension is for 30 days,” said Leone, who added he hopes to renegotiate the longshoremen’s contract when it ends in 2012.

Officials from the longshoremen’s union did not return multiple calls for comment.

Under their contract, the 18 convicted longshoremen will be getting a $1 per hour boost in October, according to Massport officials. They got similar raises in 2006 and 2009 that were negotiated as part of the union contract, officials confirmed.

State Sen. Robert Hedlund (D-Weymouth), who sits on a legislative committee that oversees state spending, blasted the baffling payouts.

“If someone defrauded a public agency they should be fired, they shouldn’t be getting a raise,” Hedlund said. “Whoever is negotiating these contracts should be more responsible.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1328979