Former MBTA Track Inspector Pleads Guilty in Cabot Yard Fraud Case

A former MBTA track inspector pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court in Boston to conspiring to falsify Red Line track inspection reports and to commit overtime fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts announced Thursday.

Andy Vicente, 37, of Bridgewater, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to falsify records and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to The Boston Globe. He was one of five former employees of the MBTA's Cabot Yard facility in South Boston, which stores and maintains Red Line vehicles, who were arrested in May 2025, the Globe reported. Prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against him on Sept. 8, 2026, according to Boston 25 News.

His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2027, and he remains free on conditions, according to the Globe. A plea agreement says prosecutors will seek a sentence "at the low end of the guidelines sentencing range," one year of supervised release and a $200 fee due by sentencing, the Globe reported. A lawyer for Vicente did not immediately respond to the Globe's request for comment.

According to prosecutors, track inspectors used MBTA-issued cellphones with an application called MaxTrax to record their inspections, including whether an inspection had been completed, and the application generated a report. From Jan. 1 to Oct. 16, 2024, prosecutors said, Vicente and his alleged co-conspirators either falsified track inspection reports or helped submit falsified ones, Boston 25 News reported.

Court records say they did so by not completing the inspections and creating reports with information found online, and by extending the recorded duration of the "inspections" in the application "to make the inspection period appear longer than they were," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office as quoted by the Globe. That ensured senior MBTA executives "did not complain about the length of inspections," the office said.

During some of the times Vicente reported inspections, prosecutors said, he was actually at Cabot Yard. WCVB reported that court documents say he would sometimes sit in the coffee and break room there or work on non-MBTA vehicles in the garage during work hours. Prosecutors said the garage was operated by Vicente and his alleged co-conspirators as "an automobile repair shop," according to court records cited by Boston 25 News.

Boston 25 News reported that, according to authorities, Vicente bought non-MBTA vehicles at auto insurance auctions and sold them primarily to an alleged co-conspirator, who is accused of paying him for the vehicles and for work on them. Video surveillance from Sept. 19, 2024, shows Vicente sitting inside the Cabot Yard garage holding his cellphone at a time when he was supposedly performing a track inspection, prosecutors said.

Over the same period, prosecutors said, Vicente and other former employees submitted overtime sheets for hours they did not work. On some occasions, they did not show up at all, showed up hours late or slept in their vehicles, according to Boston 25 News.

State payroll data show the MBTA paid more than $126 million in overtime to employees in 2024, then a record that the agency attributed to the "monumental, somewhat historical level of work completed," the Globe reported. Vicente received $80,000 in overtime that year, according to records cited by the Globe.

The yard first came under scrutiny in October 2024, when the MBTA placed several employees on leave and accused them of working on private vehicles during work hours, the Globe reported. By February 2025, a dozen employees had been fired or placed on administrative leave. That same month, MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng told the Globe that Transit Police had contacted federal authorities about activity at Cabot Yard in the fall. WCVB, whose 5 Investigates unit first reported the investigation, said the MBTA confirmed that eight employees lost their jobs as a result.

Four other former employees have been indicted in the case on charges that include aiding and abetting falsification of records and false statements, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office as reported by WCVB. Those charges are allegations, and those defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Vicente's plea comes as the MBTA's general manager faces a separate summons from the Boston City Council over the Blue Hill Avenue bus lane project; the two matters are unrelated.