Ex Transit Honcho Bought iPhones With MTA Money, DA Says

NEW YORK, NY — One ex-MTA official burned up straphanger cash like a nasty track fire, prosecutors say. The beleaguered transit agency's former chief procurement officer was indicted Thursday for allegedly buying nearly $60,000 worth of iPhones with MTA money so they could be resold, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said.

Angel Barbosa also got the MTA to hike his salary by lying about how much he made at a prior job, prosecutors said. He faces felony charges including grand larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument, officials said.

"New Yorkers entrust government procurement officers with enormous discretionary spending power, and demand in return that these officials spend taxpayer dollars honestly and fairly," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement. "As alleged in this case, Angel Barbosa first cheated New Yorkers out tens of thousands of dollars in the form of his falsely inflated salary, and then stole nearly $60,000 from taxpayers in a smartphone procurement-and-resale scheme."

In 2016, the year before he was reportedly fired from his MTA job, Barbosa allegedly directed an underling to buy more than $58,000 worth of iPhones from an agency vendor without MTA approval, prosecutors said.

The 63 high-tech phones went not to MTA workers but rather to Barbosa, who then passed many of them on to an associate to sell, prosecutors said.

Barbosa allegedly forged earnings statements to back up his bogus claim that he made $30,000 more than his actual salary at New York University, prosecutors said. The false impression led the MTA to pay Barbosa a far higher starting salary than he would have made otherwise, according to prosecutors.

The MTA also hired a friend and former colleague of Barbosa's at an inflated salary after he coached her to do the same, prosecutors said.

Barbosa was fired from his high-ranking MTA post last year amid allegations that he was trading favors with the accounting firm KPMG, the New York Post reported at the time.

The MTA's inspector general helped the Manhattan DA's office uncover the alleged schemes for which Barbosa is charged with cooperation from the transit agency itself, officials said.

"The public has every right to demand that those entrusted with public money respect that trust and perform their duties with honesty and integrity," MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger said in a statement.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)