Employees of the New York City homeless services agency (DHS), the Postal Service (USPS), the Public Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and a former security officer NYPD schoolchildren were among 18 people charged yesterday in Manhattan after a ghost gun investigation uncovered a million-dollar identity theft scam on indigent New Yorkers during the pandemic.
Public servants in positions at the local, state and federal levels appeared before the Manhattan Supreme Court for a variety of charges brought in four indictments, including manufacturing and selling 3D ghost guns, conspired to defraud New York’s pandemic unemployment assistance program, and robbery.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the cases grew out of a standard street crime investigation that expanded into a financial fraud probe, he summarized. Daily News.
“These assumptions plans were largely orchestrated and operated by city employees, many of whom abused their positions of public trust for personal benefit. “We see a clear link between those who engage in violent crime and traditional white collar fraud at the same time,” Bragg said.
The district attorney said the investigation into ghost guns led to the discovery of the scam targeting New York’s pandemic program. The arrests followed a more than year-long investigation stemming from the indictment of Cliffie Thompson, an East Village man convicted of running a 3D-printing “ghost gun factory” out of his mother’s apartment in a NYCHA building.
Thompson pleaded guilty to weapons charges on Jan. 8 and received a five-year prison sentence plus three years of post-release supervision.
Former NYPD employee Charde Baker and an unnamed accomplice are accused of being the ringleaders of that scheme, which involved two DHS employees and 12 other alleged accomplices. Supposedly used private information stolen from unsuspecting shelter residents to submit 170 fraudulent applications to the state Department of Labor.
After requesting assistance on behalf of residents of the “Barbara Kleiman” shelter in Brooklyn, the group allegedly mailed the checks to addresses along the Upper East Side mail route of a USPS complicit mail carrier.
“Some of the city employees accused had access to confidential personal information that they were entrusted with so that they could do their work helping homeless families. Instead, the defendants exploited that information to fraudulently pocketing more than $1 million in unemployment benefits,” city Department of Investigation (DOI) Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement. “DOI is working with the city’s Department of Social Services to better protect clients’ personal information and address any vulnerabilities.”
Last month there were others three scandals related to municipal employees in New York: On February 29, the FBI conducted raids on two homes in the Bronx owned by Winnie Greco, director of Asian affairs for the city’s mayor, Eric Adams.
Previously, the homes and offices of two New York City Fire Department (FDNY) inspection chiefs were raided as part of an investigation into alleged FBI corruption.
Days before, 55 current employees of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and 15 retirees were arrested on February 6. The list includes several Hispanics identified as “super” buildings in several counties. Was the largest number of federal bribery charges filed in a single day in the history of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
2024-03-08 14:34:23
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