“Federal agents arrested two retired Massachusetts State Police supervisors Friday morning on conspiracy, fraud, and theft charges, alleging they oversaw a years-long scheme to steal tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay, and later destroyed records to cover their tracks.”
“This is a separate and now second case of widespread overtime fraud uncovered by federal authorities in the past three years…”
“Retired State Police lieutenant Daniel J. Griffin, 57, of Belmont, and retired sergeant William W. Robertson, 58, of Westborough, appeared in court Friday on charges including theft of federal funds and wire fraud. Both men pleaded not guilty and were released in lieu of bail.”
“Federal investigators allege Griffin and Robertson and at least three other troopers in the unit they ran collected pay for portions of overtime shifts they never worked, including when they were supposed to have been manning sobriety roadblocks and checkpoints to screen for drunken drivers.”
“In this latest case, State Police investigators overlooked payroll irregularities and red flags within the Traffic Programs Section overseen by Griffin and Robertson, according to internal inspection reports obtained by the Globe. There is no indication the agency acted on the discrepancies. In fact, internal inspectors lauded Griffin for his leadership.”
“Those reports stand in stark contrast to the federal indictment, which outlines a small, rogue unit that operated on State Police headquarters campus and, for at least four years, collected overtime pay for no-show shifts and cut corners.”
“Earlier this fall, upon learning that federal investigators were asking questions amid a grand jury probe, Griffin ordered a trooper: “Don’t tell them [expletive] anything,” according to the indictment.”
“The indictment states Griffin, Robertson, and three other unnamed troopers would regularly arrive late to, and leave early from, overtime shifts. To hide their absences, the group allegedly submitted identical false timesheets and phony traffic citations.”
“The scheme dated at least back to 2015 and continued into 2018, prosecutors said, and the five troopers stole more than $132,000 collectively. Griffin and Robertson allegedly took the biggest hauls of fraudulent overtime pay, $61,022 and $31,753, respectively, prosecutors said.”
“When another overtime scandal first erupted inside the State Police in 2017, members of the Traffic Program Section took steps to avoid detection by shredding and burning records and forms, according to prosecutors. Robertson ordered a trooper to shred a folder that included incriminating records, the indictment said. Another trooper allegedly took a folder of payroll forms to his home and burned them.”
“Amid an inquiry about missing forms, Griffin submitted a memo to his superiors that was designed to mislead them, claiming missing forms were “inadvertently discarded or misplaced” during office moves, according to prosecutors.”
“Griffin and Robertson retired in September and filed for pension payments, which have not yet been issued, state retirement board officials said. Griffin applied for higher than normal pension payouts, claiming he suffered injuries on the job, retirement records show.”
“Griffin faced additional charges for allegedly defrauding a private school, siphoning money from a private security side business that he ran, and filing false tax returns, allegedly hiding over $700,000 from the IRS. The indictment claims Griffin tried to enrich himself in myriad illegal ways.”
“The alleged overtime fraud outlined Friday follows a similar scandal that erupted in early 2018 when 46 troopers from Troop E were found to have collected large sums of taxpayer dollars for hours they never actually worked. Ten troopers have been criminally charged, nine of whom pleaded guilty. The unit, which primarily patrolled the turnpike, was disbanded soon after those allegations surfaced.”
“The overtime funds troopers in the unit allegedly stole came directly from the federal government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and were intended to improve roadway safety by having police enforce rules around dangerous driving behaviors, such as drunk or distracted driving or people riding in vehicles without wearing a seat belt.”
“In March, the federal transportation department’s Office of Inspector General announced the launch of a nationwide audit of highway safety grant programs that dole out hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year. In announcing the audit, the federal agency referenced the troopers who were convicted on federal charges in the Troop E scandal.”
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