A New York bodybuilder allegedly spent years collecting disability benefits by claiming he was unable to work – while running a limo business and pumping iron, the state’s chief prosecutor announced Thursday.
Attorney General Letitia James said investigators got the trick after seeing Anthony Ragusa’s fit form on his wife’s Instagram account, International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Pro Loly Ragusa. She even tagged his business on some posts.
“There are disability benefits to help those who need a safety net when their bodies cannot meet day-to-day obligations,” James said in a statement. “While defrauding the state of thousands of dollars, Anthony Ragusa simultaneously ran a business and posed for pictures of his bodybuilding on the internet. Fraudulently collecting these benefits was not just a shameful slap in the face for those who actually live with disabilities … but one enormous waste of taxpayers’ money. “
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Photos show the breasted Ragusa in Huntington, NY posing with his wife at the gym, on the beach, and elsewhere.
In a picture from November 2019, she describes him as her “partner in crime”. If only she knew.
Prosecutors said Ragusa first applied for a disability pension in 2013 when he said he fell while working as an electrician and sustained serious injuries that made it difficult to put on shoes, walk for more than 15 minutes, or even more than half a minute Sitting hour at a time.
He also said he had suffered severe pain that made it impossible to work in any form. But he allegedly continued to own and operate the New Hyde Park-based White Star Limousine Company.
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Between 2015 and 2020, he repeated his allegations of disability, prosecutors alleged.
Then, in 2017, “he began a physical transformation into a bodybuilder,” the attorney general’s office said, quoting his wife’s “extensive video and photo evidence” on Instagram.
For his efforts, he is now facing grand theft crimes and offers a fake submission tool. He was released at his own discretion or without bail.
Ragusa’s attorney did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.