12 Arrested In Timesheet Scam Netting $76G

Eleven people who worked as temporary employees in city agencies under contracts with the Human Resources Administration were arrested Sept. 6 for forging their supervisors' signatures and altering their timesheets to collect a total of $76,149 for work they didn't actually perform, the Department of Investigation announced. A 12th arrest was subsequently made, according to a spokeswoman for Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn.

All 12 were public-assistance clients who were nearing the discontinuation of their benefits and had been placed in HRA's Welfare-to-Work Division, leading to assignments handling building maintenance and clerical duties. They worked in agencies including HRA, the Police Department, the Department of Education and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, although four of those arrested were hired through an HRA contractor.

Four defendants - Vickie Berry, Cheryl Bryant and Lema Eades of HRA and Barbara Giraud of the NYPD - among them accounted for more than $41,000 of the allegedly fraudulent payments. In their cases, the forged timesheets that qualified them for money they did not really earn all covered periods during 2002.

Ms. Hearn said that the improper conduct had been detected by an HRA Timekeeper, and that the matter was then referred to DOI. If convicted, the defendants face as much as seven years behind bars.