Seventy New York City Housing Authority employees have been convicted of bribery, fraud or extortion after what federal prosecutors called the largest single-day corruption sweep in the Department of Justice's history.
The convictions come after all 70 were arrested and charged in February 2024 with accepting cash bribes in exchange for awarding NYCHA repair contracts, bypassing the agency’s competitive bidding process.
According to federal prosecutors, 56 of the defendants pleaded guilty to felony charges, 11 pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and three were convicted at trial. Collectively, they accepted more than $2.1 million in bribes in exchange for steering over $15 million in contracts.
As part of the plea agreements or verdicts, the workers have been ordered to pay more than $2.1 million in restitution to NYCHA and forfeit an additional $2 million in criminal proceeds, authorities said.
The scheme affected nearly a third of NYCHA’s 335 developments across the five boroughs, according to Jocelyn E. Strauber, commissioner of the city’s Department of Investigation.
“Today’s guilty plea is the latest step in exposing a scheme that exploited NYCHA’s operations, shortchanged its communities, and siphoned trust and resources from NYCHA residents — New Yorkers who deserve better,” said Ricky Patel, special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations New York Field Office.
The defendants, all NYCHA staff at the time, took cash kickbacks ranging from $500 to $2,000, typically about 10% to 20% of each contract's value. In many cases, they demanded payment up front or before signing off on completed work so that the contractor could be paid by NYCHA.
Attorney information for the defendants was not immediately available.
