Seventy current and former employees of the New York Housing Authority have been charged with bribery and extortion as part of a large-scale corruption investigation, the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.
At a press conference, the federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, noted that the charges arise from an investigation into alleged payments made to these individuals by contractors, in order to obtain work contracts with NYCHA.
Employees allegedly demanded more than $2 million in bribes from contractors in exchange for awarding work on NYCHA buildings worth more than $13 million.
“If the contractors didn’t pay, the defendants wouldn’t give them the work,” Williams said. “That’s classic pay-to-play. And this culture of corruption at NYCHA ends today.”
These indictments represent the largest number of federal bribery indictments in a single day in the history of the Justice Department, the agency said in a news release.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the defendants worked as NYCHA superintendents.
In a statement, NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt said the employees charged Tuesday “put their greed first and violated the trust of our residents, their NYCHA colleagues, and all New Yorkers.”
“NYCHA has ZERO tolerance for illicit and illegal activities,” Bova-Hiatt said. “These actions are contrary to everything we stand for as public servants and will not be tolerated in any way.”
“Over the past five years, NYCHA has achieved many significant milestones, while remaining vigilant to ensure integrity in every area of our work,” he added. “We have already made transformative changes to our business practices and will continue to do so. We will not allow bad actors to disrupt or undermine our achievements.”
