A LARGE FIRE IN THE MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, suburb of Menomonee Falls completely destroyed a million-dollar-mansion Sunday morning. The house was in full bloom when the Menomonee Falls FD got the alarm shortly after 5:30 am.
WISN-TV
There was nobody home at the time they arrived and the fire is already classed as “suspicious.” The owner of the house was recently implicated in a multi-million dollar daycare center scam that allegedly bilked the state of Wisconsin out of $3 million or more.
WTMJ-TV was on the scene and filed this video report:
Fire units are still on the scene and no further information has been released yet. The fire investigation is just getting underway.
BATTALION CHIEF DAVID CHARELLO of the North Providence Fire Department (Rhode Island) is in court this morning answering to five felony counts, including obtaining money under false pretenses and using a computer to obtain money under false pretenses.
Charello, 50, was arrested on September 23 following a police investigation initiated by the mayor who wanted the FD investigated for overtime abuse. According to police, Charello billed the city on two occasions for $544 and a third time for $1,244 for overtime pay that he never worked for. Two weeks later on October 5 he was suspended without pay pending the outcome of his trial that begins today.
A WOMAN WHO HANDLED THE PAYROLL for the Bath County, Kentucky, EMS is in jail this morning after being charged with embezzling over $50,000 from the agency. Angel Masterson, 36, worked for a private C.P.A. firm that maintained the payroll account for the ambulance agency and she set up a scheme to generate paychecks to herself.
When the EMS sent her this payroll list of employees and number of hours worked, she would compile the wages earned and send the information to the bank where direct-deposits would be sent to the employees’ accounts. Masterson simply added in a fictitious name along with her own bank account number which created paychecks to herself.
The scheme fell apart after she was fired from her job for poor work performance. Her boss who had taken over the payroll account noticed the missing money immediately and notified the police.
THE SUMMER OF 2008 SAW AN INVESTIGATION launched into some dubious practices taking place in the Boston Fire Department retirement and medical offices after a firefighter applied for a full-disability pension for an injured back. Within days of his pension application being submitted, Albert Arroyo appeared in a body-building competition looking the picture of health. After refusing to submit to another medical evaluation, he was fired from the FD.
This video report from WCVB-TV Ch. 5 covers Arroyo’s travails:
The spotlight also shone on James Famolare who had been out on injury leave for two years claiming that he had permanently injured his back from moving a box of personnel files in the office. While on injury leave, FF’s salaries are tax-free giving Famolare a windfall of $300,000 salary with no deductions. Both men were deemed permanently disabled and cleared for their retirements by the same neurologist, Dr. John Mahoney who has cleared dozens of FF’s seeking a disability retirement.
The investigation made headlines later that winter when the FBI showed up and sealed all the records in the FD medical office and began their own investigation into the entire retirement operation.
This Monday the U. S. Attorney’s office along with the FBI Boston field office announced via a press release that the two aforementioned retirees have been charged along with a civilian clerk who worked in the retirement office, with several counts of fraud and perjury.
The Boston Globe has the details of the charges along with a copy of the U. S. Attorney’s press release HERE.
See Firegeezer’s report on the original grand jury probe HERE that gives some outrageous examples such as the district chief who boosted his retirement payment by $26,000 a year from tripping in a puddle while filling in at a higher rand for a few hours.
Firegeezer adds: When this story broke 15 months ago, the Mayor’s office made it sound like everybody who was getting disability pay were fiddling the system, whereas the union claimed that it was being overstated. After the big investigation and the sweep by the FBI, all they have to show for it (so far) are these three arrests. It will be interesting to see if any more indictments come out of this.
BATTALION CHIEF DAVID CHARELLO of the North Providence Fire Department (Rhode Island) is in court this morning answering to five felony counts, including obtaining money under false pretenses and using a computer to obtain money under false pretenses.
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