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Anthony Sciacca, age 67, of Poughkeepsie, was charged Thursday, July 14, by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, Ulster County District Attorney David J. Clegg, and the state police.
After retiring from the Westchester Police Department in 2005, Sciacca became an instructor at Ulster County BOCES teaching criminal justice and earning a salary of over $70,000, DiNapoli said.
As a state retiree under the age of 65, Sciacca was not allowed to earn more than $30,000 annually in other public employment while continuing to receive his pension without a waiver under Section 211 of the Retirement and Social Security Law, the department said.
An investigation revealed that while Sciacca had a lawful waiver from Sept. 1, 2005, through June 2011, he did not have a lawful waiver for the next eight years. During this time, he continued to earn his Ulster County BOCES public salary in excess of $70,000 on top of his monthly pension payments, according to the state comptroller's office.
DiNapoli said when Sciacca was questioned, he allegedly supplied the retirement system with forged documents.
The documents were from the state Department of Education and falsely showed that waivers had been approved, the state comptroller's office said.
Throughout his scheme, Sciacca was able to collect more than $157,000 in pension payments which he was not entitled to, the comptroller's office said.
Sciacca was charged with:
- Grand larceny
- Three counts of forgery
- Three counts of filing a false instrument
- Three counts of falsifying business records
- Retirement fraud
He was arraigned and is due to return to court on Wednesday, July 20.
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