Signal Maintainer Charged With Faking Subway Inspections

Metropolitan Transportation Authority signal maintainer Ilya Klyauzov, 57, worked out of the Times Square Queens Signal Quarters on the Number 7 line.

He is also accused of keeping barcodes normally pasted on signal equipment inside his locker, which is expressly against MTA rules and regulations.

Klyauzov has been charged with three counts of tampering with public records in the first degree and one count of official misconduct.

As he was leaving the court house today, Klyauzov told reporters he was "not guilty."

The scandal has centered on the fear that inspectors could simply scan the barcodes off sheets of paper instead of actually inspecting the track signals.

The New York Post reports the MTA inspector general is talking to eight or nine more workers who could be charged. The inspector general last year uncovered evidence that inspections may have been faked for more than a decade. Follow-up inspections have found the system to be safe.