NYC Fire Department Chief to Plead Guilty to Bribery Charge, U.S. Says (original) (raw)
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Brian E. Cordasco was one of two former high-ranking officials arrested earlier this month and charged with soliciting and receiving bribes to speed up safety approvals.
Brian Cordasco has agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery conspiracy, federal prosecutors said.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
Sept. 30, 2024
A former chief of the New York Fire Department, who was arrested earlier this month and accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to speed up the fire-safety approval process, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery conspiracy, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
The former chief, Brian E. Cordasco, had been involved in plea negotiations with the government before deciding to plead guilty, according to a letter federal prosecutors sent on Monday to Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan. Prosecutors hoped to schedule a plea hearing for early October.
Lawyers for Mr. Cordasco did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Mr. Cordasco and Anthony M. Saccavino, another retired chief who was also arrested in September, were responsible for overseeing fire safety approvals of large-scale building projects. From 2021 to 2023, the former chiefs solicited and received bribes that involved 30 different projects citywide, according to the six-count indictment.
The retired fire chiefs were both charged with bribery and bribery conspiracy; honest services wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy; and making false statements, including to the F.B.I. during interviews in February. Mr. Saccavino has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The alleged scheme happened during a time when there were long waits, exacerbated by the pandemic, for projects that needed site inspections and approval for fire safety plans. The Fire Department’s policy in most cases has been to review plans and do inspections in the order in which they were requested.
The projects Mr. Cordasco and Mr. Saccavino fast-tracked included a high-end restaurant in Manhattan, an apartment building in Brooklyn and two hotels near Kennedy Airport in Queens, according to prosecutors.
In February, both men were placed on modified duty and removed from their positions at the Fire Department’s Bureau of Fire Prevention after searches of their homes.
In 2023, the Fire Department paid Mr. Cordasco 257,296andMr.Saccavino257,296 and Mr. Saccavino 257,296andMr.Saccavino263,478, prosecutors said.
In the letter filed Monday, prosecutors said that they had made an offer to Mr. Cordasco under which he would plead guilty to count one and that they understood from his lawyers that he intended to accept that offer.
Decisions to plead guilty are subject to change, and a defendant like Mr. Cordasco could decide at the last minute that he wants to fight the charges.
The decision comes shortly after Mayor Eric Adams of New York was charged with bribery and fraud in a federal corruption investigation. Mr. Adams was charged with five counts, including one count of bribery related to accusations that he solicited free and heavily discounted foreign luxury travel in exchange for helping to obtain approval by Fire Department officials of a new Turkish consulate.
There was no indication that the case involving Mr. Cordasco and Mr. Saccavino was related to any of the federal corruption investigations swirling around the mayor, his campaign and some of his most senior aides.
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