Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A company that provided door-to-door Metro Access bus services to the disabled and elderly on behalf of the Washington Metropolitan Transit Agency needs to pay D.C., Maryland and Virginia $150,000 in restitution as part of two settlement reached with the jurisdictions.
Two drivers sued MV Transportation in 2014 alleging the company charged WMATA for passengers who didn’t answer their doors when the bus came. The problem was the passengers couldn’t answer their doors because they were dead, and the company knew that according to the drivers.
“The suit alleged that MV Transportation cheated WMATA and thereby cheating the taxpayers of all three jurisdictions and the federal government out of tens of thousands of dollars,” Rob Marus with the Office of the Attorney General for D.C. told WMAL.
The drivers also claimed the company was charging WMATA to send wheelchair accessible vehicles to pick up passengers who didn’t use wheelchairs. Those busses are more expensive to run than others used for Metro Access.
Of the $150,000 settlement, Virginia will get $22,531, Maryland $92,040, and D.C. $35,831. Maryland’s share is part of a separate agreement from the one reached with Virginia and D.C.
“Each state pays into the Metro system, and we expect that our taxpayers’ contributions will be used for the benefit of riders, not lost to fraudulent billing practices,” Virginia Attorney General Herring said in a press release.
That press release also said MV Transportation didn’t admit doing anything wrong.
The fraudulent charges were made between 2005 and 2013. Marus said these types of cases often go undetected until a lawsuit is filed.
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