NYPD lieutenant indicted for billing $64K in illegal overtime

An NYPD lieutenant was arrested and indicted Wednesday for allegedly billing $64,000 successful overtime for his commute to work, clip astatine location and hours moonlighting successful backstage security.

At a little quality successful Manhattan Supreme Court — wherever he’s been connected table work since March 2024, erstwhile allegations of his overtime fraud archetypal came to airy — Lt. Thomas Fabrizi, 42, pleaded not blameworthy to second-degree expansive larceny, defrauding the government, and 8 counts of first-degree falsifying concern records.

Following the hearing, an NYPD spokesperson told the Daily News that Fabrizi had been suspended without pay. 

The 19-year NYPD vet, who was lieutenant detective commandant of the NYPD’s large cases squad, is accused of fraudulently filing for overtime wage from July 2023 done February 2024, sometimes amounting to $10,000 a period successful falsely claimed wages.

The Manhattan territory attorney’s bureau alleges that the longtime lieutenant sometimes billed the constabulary section for his commute from the 17th precinct successful Midtown to his location successful Rockland County successful an unmarked SUV assigned to the large lawsuit squad that was lone expected to beryllium utilized for enactment matters. Other times, tribunal papers allege that helium billed for his clip astatine home.

Fabrizi besides filed overtime slips for enactment astatine McCann Protective Services doing firm security, VIP escorts, and information for upscale events, a broadside gig that tribunal papers allege the constabulary section ne'er permitted him to do.

According to prosecutors, the overtime lies continued until an interior probe was launched successful March 2024, erstwhile helium was stripped of his weapon and shield and reassigned from the large lawsuit squad, as The News archetypal reported.

According to nationalist records, Fabrizi made $310,000 past year, astir $60,000 much than NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s existent salary.

His lawyer, Hugo Gabriel Ortega, did not respond to inquiries from The News

A bid of scandals astatine the NYPD stemming from excessive overtime spending has caught the attraction of authorities and national investigators successful New York, with the section logging an astonishing $1.1 cardinal successful overtime successful fiscal twelvemonth 2024 — up by $141 million from the erstwhile year.

Last month, ex-Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey abruptly resigned pursuing allegations helium pressured erstwhile Lt. Quathisha Epps for enactment successful speech for overtime wage successful a substance being investigated by the feds successful Manhattan, starring to a major staffing shakeup successful the NYPD’s precocious ranks. Maddrey denies the allegations.

Epps was the highest-paid subordinate of the NYPD with a wage of  $406,515, The News antecedently reported, equaling $118,203 much than that made by erstwhile Commissioner Edward Caban successful fiscal twelvemonth 2024.

On Sunday, The News reported Epps would discontinue without facing departmental charges but nether suspension without pay, which means she volition not person benefits typically granted to retiring officers, specified arsenic ID granting entree to authorities buildings.