What to KnowA former NYC Board of Corrections member Julio Medina, who was additionally CEO of a agency referred to as Exodus, has been indicted for allegedly taking giant bribes to assist two others rip off hundreds of thousands from a metropolis’s emergency housing program amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Medina, 64, is accused of “steering approximately $51 million in public funds” to a few businesspeople in alternate for $2.5 million in alleged kickback, the indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn stated.Chistopher Dantzler allegedly ran an unlicensed safety agency obtained $21 million in contracts to supply safety to lodges offering housing to inmates launched from Rikers amid the pandemic, prosecutors stated.
A former NYC Board of Corrections member Julio Medina, who was additionally CEO of a agency referred to as Exodus, has been indicted for allegedly taking giant bribes to assist two others rip off hundreds of thousands from a metropolis’s emergency housing program amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medina, 64, is accused of “steering approximately $51 million in public funds” to a few businesspeople in alternate for $2.5 million in alleged kickback, the indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn stated.
Chistopher Dantzler allegedly ran an unlicensed safety agency obtained $21 million in contracts to supply safety to lodges offering housing to inmates launched from Rikers amid the pandemic, prosecutors stated.
Dantzler, 49, is accused of hiring paying subcontractors $12 million to carry out safety work and he “retained the remaining $9 million in public funds,” the feds stated.
The FBI and metropolis Division of Investigation stated Weihong Hu owned two lodges in Queens that housed inmates and obtained $12 million in public funds. As well as, they stated she ran a corrupt meals catering enterprise that allegedly obtained $17 million.
Hu, 59, allegedly joined Dantzler in paying kickbacks to Medina that included shopping for him two properties price about $2 million, a $107,000 luxurious car, and paying off money owed owed by Medina’s household, in line with the indictment.
“Whereas New York Metropolis was attempting to curb the unfold of COVID-19, the defendants exploited a nonprofit group to complement themselves, stated performing US Legal professional John Durham.
Exodus obtained a no-bid contract from the town first below Mayor de Blasio and continued by means of the Adams administration.
“The City” web site first reported on the issues with Exodus and questions in regards to the greater than $122,000 million in public funding it had obtained from 2020-2023.
Investigators stated there are texts and pictures of conferences that assist doc the alleged corruption scheme. The three face prices that embrace bribery, wire fraud and cash laundering.
Hu has raised cash for the previous campaigns for Mayor Invoice de Blasio and Mayor Eric Adams. Makes an attempt to succeed in the defendants attorneys for remark weren’t instantly profitable. The three are anticipated to seem in federal courtroom in Brooklyn Thursday afternoon.
