Thomas Rubino claimed he was overworked when he was accused of forging 76 New York State Supreme Court justices’ signatures on over 100 official court documents. This was not his first offense, however. In 2011, Rubino forged some insurance settlement forms in Manhattan while working for the personal injury firm Paris & Chaikin.
He told investigators that as his workload increased, his ability to keep up with it all decreased. Whenever he started feeling overwhelmed, he forged signatures and documents. His process included literally cutting out a judge’s signature and taping it onto the document.
Though Rubino’s process was painstaking, he claims that the process of getting the actual signatures was much more tedious.
In 2013 Rubino knew he was caught when he received a letter from a judge who questioned the authenticity of the signature. Soon after, he tried lying to authorities in order to get away.
Rubino, if convicted, faces 234 counts of forgery, and additional charges for possession of 117 forged documents spanning a year and a half.
