A Long Island man was charged last week for allegedly making thousands of dollars worth of fake Long Island Rail Road tickets and selling them to passengers.
Michael Wright, 27, of Rockville Centre was arraigned on charges of third-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, identity theft in the first degree and second-degree trademark counterfeiting, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office. He is being held on $3,000 bail, with his next court appearance scheduled for Aug. 26.
A search warrant executed at Wright’s residence in June yielded computer equipment, along with materials used to make the counterfeit tickets, including a laminating machine and adhesive film. A forensic analysis of Wright’s flash drives also allegedly revealed images of weekly and monthly LIRR train tickets with dates in March, April, May and June of this year. Both the fake tickets and the images, according to the criminal complaint, contained the patented trademarks of the MTA and LIRR.
“The defendant is alleged to have orchestrated a complicated counterfeiting scheme,” Queens DA Richard Brown said. “For months, he allegedly created look-alike tickets, printed them from his home computer and then sold them to LIRR train riders. The defendant’s alleged actions stole money from the MTA – cheating the system, commuters and the public.”
MTA Police Chief Michael Coan added, “This case is a great example of coordination between LIRR conductors who noticed the counterfeit tickets and MTA Police investigators who traced them back to the source. Their professionalism was key to identifying this pattern of fraudulent tickets and foiling the defendant’s operation. I want to thank District Attorney Brown and his team for recognizing the seriousness of this case and for aggressively helping bring it to a successful conclusion.”
There are 23 LIRR stations across Queens.
By Michael Cusenza
