A New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) motor carrier inspector has pled guilty after he was accused of Workers Compensation fraud along with using his access to sensitive driver information to gain a competitive advantage for his own trucking company that he was operating on the side.
On October 10, Niccolo Mormile, 39, pled guilty to a charge of Attempted False Filing of an Instrument in Suffolk County District Court, according to the New York State Office of Inspector General.
Investigators say that Mormile began engaging in “a series of illegal and improper practices” while operating as a Motor Carrier Investigator for the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) starting in July 2016.
In July 2016, Mormile reportedly claimed that he fell at work and falsely said that he was unable to work due to an injury. Between July 2016 and 2017, he collected $28,580 in Worker’s Compensation benefits.
While collecting those benefits, the Inspector General says that Mormile was “secretly running a private trucking company, CNC Trucking, with a vehicle that repeatedly had violations during DOT inspections. He earned more than $125,000 from this clandestine business during the year he claimed he could not work. During this time and through March 2018, Mormile illegally accessed Driver/Vehicle Examination Reports with sensitive information from state and federal databases and provided it to a private trucking consultant who used the information to gain a competitive advantage over other trucking companies. Mormile and the consultant later married.”
Mormile was suspended from his job as a DOT motor carrier inspector in December 2018.
“This investigator, who we trusted to ensure vehicles are safe for New Yorkers’ daily use, instead engaged in multiple levels of fraud and deceit,” said Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro. “He claimed injury and began collecting workers’ compensation benefits, and then abused the system by operating his own unsafe trucking company and accessing sensitive information to gain a competitive edge. New Yorkers have no tolerance for such illegal conduct and now he will pay the consequences for his repeated wrongs.”
Mormile was ordered to pay full restitution of $28,580 and to resign from state service.
He is due back in court December 18, 2019.