- Office of the Inspector General
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Office of the Attorney General (AGO) have reached settlements with three additional former Massachusetts State Police (MSP) troopers to repay the Commonwealth a total of $32,336.49 for overtime they allegedly did not work. The troopers were members of the MSP’s now-disbanded Troop E, which patrolled the Massachusetts Turnpike.
With these filings, the OIG and AGO will have recovered over $236,000 this year from eleven former MSP troopers for unworked overtime. In April, the Offices settled claims against two former troopers, who repaid a total of $110,000 to the state. In June, the Offices settled claims against six former troopers, who repaid $94,273.53.
In separate consent judgments filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, the Commonwealth alleged that the following troopers submitted time cards between 2015 and 2017 for overtime they did not work:
- Stephen Mihalek, 363 hours across 107 shifts;
- Carlos Nunez, 94 hours across 42 shifts; and
- Keith Sweeney, 18 hours across 6 shifts.
These cases were handled by William Durkin, Director and Senior Counsel of Inspector General Glenn Cunha’s Civil Recovery Unit, and Meghan MacKenzie, Lead Counsel for the Civil Recovery Unit, with support from Division Chief Amy Crafts of Attorney General Maura Healey’s False Claims Division.
Created in 2019, the Civil Recovery Unit pursues civil actions, with authorization from the AGO, to recover public funds lost due to fraud, false claims and other wrongful conduct. It works closely with the AGO, the OIG’s other investigative units as well as other state agencies and local governments. The OIG operates a hotline for reporting fraud involving public funds or property at 800-322-1323 or IGO-FightFraud@mass.gov.
In 2015 AG Healey created the False Claims Division to safeguard public funds by enforcing high standards of integrity against companies and individuals that make false statements to obtain government contracts or funds. Anyone with information about suspected fraud or abuse relating to state or municipal contracts or funds is urged to contact the False Claims Division’s tip line at 617-963-2600.