Business Owner Rips Off The MTA
Admittedly I have always had a skeptical eye on the contracts awarded by the MTA to businesses as I figured a decent percentage if not a majority were sweetheart deals or flat out ripoffs.
The latter turned out to be the case as 61 year old Joseph Ioia admitted to ripping off the MTA by providing low-grade fluid for city buses yet charging the agency for the high-quality version. Pete Donohue of the New York Daily News has more in this report:
Joseph Ioia, 61, also will cut a check to cover $863,618.25 as part of a plea deal formalized in court with Manhattan prosecutors Thursday.
As the owner New York Commercial Lubricants on Arlington Ave., Staten Island, Ioia won a contract to provide high-quality transmission fluid for Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses.But he delivered a lower-grade lubricant in 2010 and 2011, he admitted in court.
Click here for the complete report.
I am upset the agency got ripped off yet it is not my biggest complaint of the whole situation. What really rubs me the wrong way is how he gets off so easy to the point of getting weekend only jail time. If that was any average person with a lack of wealth & contacts, I am sure we would have to serve a 24×7 jail sentence for however many years we were convicted for.
I see zero incentive for him or others in similar positions to not try & rip off the MTA again as all you will get if caught is a slap in the wrist of repayment & minimal jail time. You have to love our criminal justice system as they once again give out one more win for the good guys!
xoxo Transit Blogger
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Comments
I will try to explain this carefully, about a few months ago, I once knew someone who I thought was a good friend of mine until she ripped me off,she was posing as an MTA Bus Operator and it was found out that she was an impersonator from the Bronx who was stealing money from the MTA and was also tricking people by selling fake metro cards what were actually refill cards to buyers. Currently she is out in the New York area keeping a low key.
Transit Blogger:
I live in Eastern Missouri, and I shop at Menards, Home Depot, Macys Leftbank Books, Orielly auto parts, locally owned food stores etc. I frequently see announcements about shoplifting and the prosecution, to the fullest extent of the law, of “shoplifters” jail time, as you said 24/7 for a winter coat, some shampoo, and on and on, Jail time and prison time. As you said poor folks who cannot afford a powerhouse attorney do not skate.
I happen to have Matt Taibbi’s “The Divide”, “Griftopia”, and Michelle Alexanders book “The New Jim Crow” detail and support your point. I applaud you for your efforts, which seem to be in defense of the working people who must use “Transit” to get to and from work, not to mention “getting around” for pleasure.
Bloggers like you and Sherrilyn Ifil and David Cay Johnston are the heros, of the digital age.
Thank you for your work on behalf of the transit users.