New York’s acting inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, announced last week that her office nabbed a New York Power Authority employee on charges he used a New York State-issued credit card to buy gas for his personal vehicle and doctored records to cover it up.
Michael Perry, 46, of Clinton, Oneida County, admitted to investigators from the Inspector General’s and District Attorney’s offices that he had used the card to purchase thousands of dollars in gas for his personal use since 2008, according to Scott. He would take a credit card used for fleet vehicles and drive his own vehicle to a nearby gas station to fill it up. He entered fasle information during the transaction to attempt to cover up the improper use of the card, she said.
Perry has been charged with one felony county of first-degree falsifying business records and one misdemeanor county of petit larceny. If he is convicted, he could receive a prison sentence of up to four years. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Utica City Court July 24.
Perry is a full-time security sergeant at the New York Power Authority’s Clark Energy Center in Marcy, also in Oneida County. He has supervised the night shift security force at the center, a job he started in 2007. His current salary is $60,410. The Power Authority has suspended him without pay and brought disciplinary proceedings against him.
“State employees are entrusted to utilize State-issued credit cards for official business, not for personal expenses. The unauthorized taking and misappropriating of state resources will not be tolerated,” Scott said in a statement. “Taxpayers deserve utmost integrity from all state employees, especially those entrusted with state funds.”
