Opinion ID: 8410694
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendants' Convictions and Original Sentences

Text: The fraud scheme for which defendants stand convicted sought to take advantage of a disability pension plan made available to LIRR employees by the RRB. The LIRR's own pension plan allowed employees with 20 or more years of service to retire as early as age 50 and to receive payments equal to half their pre-retirement income. When an employee reached age 62 or 65, he was eligible for an additional retirement pension from the RRB. The RRB also offered disability pensions to employees of any age who were no longer able to work, for which payments began immediately upon approval of a disability claim. As part of a decades-long scheme to defraud the RRB, defendants Rutigliano, Ajemian, Lesniewski, and Baran, together with 17 confederates, repeatedly submitted applications for disability pensions based on fabricated medical documents. Orthopedic physicians Ajemian and Lesniewski created these fabricated documents. Rutigliano, a former LIRR conductor and union local president, obtained a disability pension for himself by submitting false documentation of his physical condition from Lesniewski. Rutigliano also acted as a facilitator or consultant for numerous other LIRR employees seeking disability pensions, charging approximately $1,000 per person to fill out fraudulent applications. Baran, a former RRB employee whose LIRR-employed husband obtained an RRB disability pension through a fraudulent application supported by Lesniewski, also acted as a facilitator-for-hire, submitting disability pension applications for LIRR employees that she knew were supported by fraudulent documentation. On January 18, 2013, Ajemian entered into an agreement with the government and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail, wire, and health care fraud, as well as substantive health care fraud. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1347 , 1349. On May 24, 2013, the district court sentenced Ajemian inter alia  to 96 months' imprisonment and ordered $116,500,000 restitution, the amount identified in his plea agreement. Further consistent with that agreement, Ajemian did not challenge his conviction or any part of his sentence on direct appeal. Rutigliano, Lesniewski, and Baran stood trial and, on August 6, 2013, a jury found them guilty of multiple conspiratorial and substantive counts of mail, wire, and health care fraud. See id. §§ 371, 1341, 1343, 1347, 1349. The district court sentenced Rutigliano and Lesniewski inter alia to 96 months' imprisonment each and to $82,356,348 and $70,632,900 in restitution respectively. It sentenced Baran inter alia to 60 months' imprisonment and $31,398,907 restitution. The restitution amounts ordered were based on data compiled by Natasha Marx, an Auditor in the Office of the RRB Inspector General, and reflected disability pension payments made to identified LIRR annuitants-for whom each defendant had submitted or supported fraudulent claims-as of the dates the RRB terminated their disability pensions due to the discovery of the fraud. Rutigliano, Lesniewski, and Baran unsuccessfully challenged their convictions, including their sentences, on direct appeal. See United States v. Rutigliano , 790 F.3d 389 (2d Cir. 2015) ; United States v. Rutigliano , 614 Fed.Appx. 542 (2d Cir. 2015).