By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complex and its superintendent were tied to a massive bribery bust on Tuesday that saw 70 current and former NYCHA employees charged with allegedly taking cash payments in exchange for awarding contracts.
The NYCHA bust represents the largest number of federal bribery charges dished out on a single day in Department of Justice history.
Overall, the alleged illegal activity took place between 2013 and 2023 and involved dozens of NYCHA employees receiving $2 million in kickbacks in exchange for more than $13 million in contracted work at almost 100 NYCHA buildings across the city.
“Instead of acting in the interests of NYCHA residents, the City of New York, or taxpayers, the 70 defendants charged today allegedly used their jobs at NYCHA to line their own pockets,” Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news release. “NYCHA residents deserve better.”
One of the complexes involved was the Stephen Wise Towers on the Upper West Side at West 90th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.
The alleged crimes at the complex involve Willie Williams, who was the assistant superintendent at the Wise Towers from around September 2018 through October 2019, according to court documents. A cooperating witness told the DOJ that they started performing work at the Wise Towers in 2015, but things changed in 2019 when they were awarded three contracts from January to March of 2019, court documents show.
During that time, the witness paid Williams around $500 in cash for two of the contacts, according to the legal documents.
Also during that period, a different witness told the DOJ that they were awarded six contracts for work at the Wise Towers from January through April of 2019, for which the witness paid $200 in cash for the first contract, and then 10 percent of the contract price in cash for the remaining five bids, according to the complaint.
“From at least in or about 2015 through at least in or about 2019, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, WILLIE WILLIAMS, the defendant, knowingly committed and attempted to commit extortion,” the legal document reads.
Williams, who retired from NYCHA in October of 2019, has been charged with solicitation and receipt of a bribe, and extortion under color of official right, according to the DOJ. The two charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 and 20 years, respectively.
You can find out more about the NYCHA bust — HERE.
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If true, fully contemptible behavior as tenants struggle with substandard conditions.
I’m so tired of leaving comments for more than fifteen yrs trying to get a low income application for a house or a three bedroom apt I work for the city they don’t give a rats ass about working peopple
Just to state the very obvious, the only cases in which the superintendants were caught were those cases in which the contractor was secretly working with the investigators. But there must be countless cases in which bribes were given to superintendants by contractors who were not working with the investigators, but simply wanted the business and were happy to pay bribes to get it. The latter must be far more numerous than the former.
This is why the apartment I live in isn’t in good condition and one of my kids bedroom was on fire year 2021. I have waited right after 2 years to be fix and today this is still unsolved issueLincoln Abrabram .Hope to get a refund for my damaged furniture and Christmas gifts under the tree when my apartment was flooded of water because of an radiation heater linking hot steaming water that damaged my kid’s bedroom set and Christmas gifts since 2020 until now.
Renters insurance
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.
Ronald Reagan
The government sure helped big banks in 2008/9, then big businesses in 2020.
Reagan and his ilk are all in favor of the government helping the already well off.
Reagan said government doesn’t work and the GOP has spend the last 45 years trying to prove him correct. He poisoned the country and the Republican Party with those words.
You wouldn’t be saying that if you lived in a flood zone FEMA showed up on your doorstep. Or if you were about to drown on the roof of your house and government emergency rescue teams sent a helicopter to rescue you. A ridiculous statement by a ridiculous president.
I don’t think that was the type of help Reagan was referring to. Be more imaginative.
seriously, Boris?
So maybe he was talking about Social Security… or Medicare… or Medicaid… or SNAP… or public health care (H+H, VA, etc)… or National Parks… or all the COVID aid received… or the Voting Rights Act… or the various Civil Rights Acts… or… or… or…
btw, the War on Poverty (Great Society) was a tremendous success. It was just too short-lived, and was upended by Vietnam.
I don’t think anyone thinks that when their house is on fire and they hear sirens approaching.
Glenn Beck thinks the fire department should be private/optional.
Contemptible behavior, yes, but $2 million over 10 years? Small potatoes. People pay their supers more than $200 for x-mas bonus.
I hope he loses his pension.