50-person bribery case sweeps in NY inspectors, landlords

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

50-person bribery case sweeps in NY inspectors, landlords
By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press | February 10, 2015 | Updated: February 10, 2015 10:05pm

NEW YORK (AP) — City inspectors, landlords and contractors formed a 50-person network of graft that exchanged $450,000 in payoffs to get safety violations dismissed, procure phony eviction orders and get fast, favorable and sometimes nonexistent inspections, authorities said Tuesday.

Because of the schemes, a Brooklyn synagogue started building an addition with a cracked wall supported by twisted steel beams, tenants were improperly threatened with eviction so their landlords could raise rents and property owners weren't immediately made to fix problems ranging from a defective hallway ceiling to missing smoke detectors, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and city Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said.

One property owner got slapped with a bogus stop-work order that his contractor arranged to squeeze the owner for further work, they said. And when a worker fell 10 feet from a beam at another site, an inspector who should have reported it instead advised that contractor not to call an ambulance or "it's gonna be a big, big deal," court documents said.

"The actions disadvantaged and harmed tenants in all these buildings and public confidence" in the agencies supposed to oversee them, Vance said.




Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Prosecutor-NY-landlords-handed-cash-to-6073078.php

[TreasonousBastard]

1. This has been in the news around here for a while, but...

I remember the same stories 40 years ago, and the same stories were probably going around 40 years before that.

When I was a kid in Queens in the early 60's, my parents had some major renovations done on the house. The only time we ever saw a cop "walk a beat" on that quiet block was when that work was being done. The contractor didn't say much, but made it clear that the cop's and the inspectors' "benefits" were built into the price.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. I didn't read the entire article, but for those who did...

was racketeering mentioned? The same thing occurs in my city, but it involves passing on inadequate infra-structure to homeowners who belong to private HOAs. All the moons have to be aligned, but it happens and usually takes two generations of bribes and intimidation to make it stick.

[packman]

3. Rodney Dangerfield in Back To School laid it out