The MTA awarded a $28.6 million contract to a Spanish company that hatched a fraudulent scheme to lowball its projected profits, a whistleblower suit filed yesterday charges.
Phillip Leshinsky of Brooklyn claims he was fired by Telvent GIT after voicing concerns that the alleged scam by the company’s top execs would be “unethical, dishonest and probably illegal.”
His Manhattan federal court suit seeks $875,000 in lost wages and other damages on grounds that he had engaged in “protected activity” under law to prevent mail and wire fraud.
Leshinsky, who had formerly worked as deputy CFO for the transit agency, says Telvent execs conspired to use an outdated audit that artificially inflated its overhead costs as part of a 2008 bid to maintain the MTA’s electronic-toll system.
MTA Bridges and Tunnels “had announced that it would not permit any company bidding on the contract to make a profit higher than 20 percent,” according to court papers.
Leshinsky, who was taken off the project before being canned from his $165,000-a-year job, doesn’t say in the suit how much his ex-employer actually made.
Neither Telvent nor the MTA responded to requests for comment.