American justice announced on Tuesday a “historic”
anti-corruption crackdown
in the social housing and public housing sector of New York with some 70 arrests and indictments for bribery and extortion.
The federal prosecutor for the jurisdiction of Manhattan, Damian Williams, announced in a press release
“the largest number of federal prosecutions for corruption in a single day in the entire history of the Department of Justice”
.
These are
“70 former and current employees of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA, HLM and social housing office of the city of New York) who were indicted, suspected of having accepted cash payments in exchange for awarding contracts to NYCHA
,” accuses American justice.
Sixty-six of the 70 people pursued, all of whose names, ages and residences have been made public, were arrested Tuesday morning in New York, in the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut and further south in North Carolina.
The New York defendants are expected to appear in federal court in the city today to be formally charged.
Total bribes exceed two million dollars
“Instead of acting in the interest of NYCHA residents, the City of New York or taxpayers, the 70 defendants are suspected of using their positions to line their own pockets,”
thundered the prosecutor Williams.
With the support of New York municipal authorities and the American departments of Labor and Housing, the magistrate assured that his
“prosecution was firmly committed to cleaning up (...) and putting an end today to the culture of corruption that has plagued NYCHA for too long
.
In detail, justice uncovered a widespread system of bribes where a NYCHA employee could demand from 500 to more than 2,000 dollars in cash to award a contract without call for tender of less than 10,000 dollars. , for repairs and maintenance of social housing.
“In total, the defendants demanded more than two million dollars in bribes from contracting companies in exchange for the award of no-bid contracts worth $13 million
. ”
According to the courts, NYCHA is the largest public housing and social housing office in the United States, housing one in 17 New Yorkers in 335 complexes in the megacity of 8.5 million inhabitants.
Founded in 1934, NYCHA receives $1.5 billion in federal funds each year.