New York Police have arrested more than 40 owners, executives, and tanker drivers, alleging they have rigged the delivery trucks to shortchange customers on heating oil.
The arrests are part of a New York Police probe into the suspected scam on heating oil customers, which includes city agencies, owners of smaller buildings, schools, and shelters for homeless people says Yahoo News.
According to Yahoo News and DNA Info, New York Police prosecutors say the accused were equipping the trucks with diverter valves that gave fake readouts of how much oil each customer receives at delivery.
The scammers allegedly also used other tricks to fool measuring devices designed to prevent such fraud from occurring.
The cost to the city is estimated at U.S$4 million while police are estimating the scammers stole around $18 to $34 million in oil.
Crain’s New York Business reports the indictments are the latest in decades of such allegations within New York City’s lucrative heating-oil industry.
Past industry scamming allegations have involved deliberate dilution of the heating oil with used oil, diesel and motor oil, and even boiler sludge residue.
Yahoo News reports that a source says many such operations are ongoing in the city of New York, but a source told it this “prime one was the overcharging by millions.”
