The worst of the city’s accused pension scammers, a former NYPD cop who taught black-belt karate while collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability checks, is expected to plead guilty as part of a cooperation deal with the government, sources told The Post.
Ex-Queens cop Louis Hurtado, 62, who collected $470,000 in pension payments over 26 years — the most dough over the longest stretch for any participant in the Social Security disability scam — met with a judge and prosecutors in a sealed courtroom on Friday as several of the alleged fraudsters pleaded not guilty to additional charges.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney declined to comment on Hurtado, but said 53 out of the 106 accused scammers have pleaded guilty and $10 million from the estimated $400 million fraud has been recovered.
Hurtado’s attorney did not return calls for comment.
Other top cheaters, including ringleader John Minerva, a former detectives union employee who was nabbed in January with $325,000 in a safety-deposit box in his home and $60,000 in cash, pleaded not guilty to additional charges of grand larceny and conspiracy.
Fellow ringleaders Joseph Esposito and Lavalle Raymond also pleaded not guilty to the same two charges.
The leaders are accused of helping public servants fill out fraudulent applications for benefits, coaching them on how to fake depression and then taking a cash cut of their payments.
Many of the fakers claimed to be living isolated, anxiety-filled lives following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, while they were actually out teaching karate, riding jet skis and deep sea fishing.
Smaller fish Mustafa Dufan — who still helped himself to a tidy $231,086.70, according to authorities — pleaded guilty to grand larceny on Friday.
The portly 51-year-old, who bought a $209,000 home in Margate, FL in 2002, started collecting disability in Aug. 2000.
He was sentenced to three years probation, ordered to pay full restitution for the six-figure take, and told to perform 75 hours of community service.
A contrite Dufan hung his head and told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Fitzgerald, “I’d like to thank you for your time and courtesy your honor.”
Dufan’s bank account, which had been frozen, will be unlocked and he can retain his police identification card, the judge said.