Next stop on the Long Island Rail Road “gravy train” for this former top insider: Jail!
Marie Baran, 66, a former manager of the Railroad Retirement Board, was sentenced Friday to five years behind bars for being one of the major players in the LIRR’s notorious $1 billion disability-fraud scheme.
Manhattan federal Judge Vincent Marrero at the sentencing also ordered a sobbing Baran, of East Meadow, liable for $31.7 million in restitution to the government – the same amount the feds say she bilked taxpayers by defrauding the Railroad Retirement Board.
Baran broke out in tears as the judge issued her sentence – even though Marrero showed her leniency by giving her less time than two other co-defendants found guilty during the same trial.
He also dismissed the government’s allegation that Baran lied to jurors under oath during the trial and should penalized further.
Baran, along with former Dr. Peter Lesniewski and railroad retirement consultant Joseph Rutigliano, was found guilty in August of mail fraud, wire fraud and health-care fraud by helping hundreds of LIRR employees receive sham disability payments by faking career-ending physical ailments. They were the first charged in the scam to head to trial.
Both Lesniewski and Rutigliano were sentenced to eight years in prison, as was Dr. Peter Ajemian, who copped a plea to similar charges in January 2013.
Marrero said Baran deserved less jail time because she had a long history of “charitable work” and, unlike the two doctors and Rutigliano, “was not in a position” of public “trust.”
Baran afterwards declined comment and put on sunglasses while still inside the courthouse to hide her tears.
Her lawyer, Annie Joy D’Elia, said Baran will appeal the guilty verdict.
Prosecutors say Baran had made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a retirement consultant by filling out “cookie cutter” disability applications containing false information.
Thirty-three doctors, consultants, retirees and others have been convicted in the LIRR case. The feds say the scheme extends back to the late 1990s.