Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged greater than 60 present and former workers of the New York Metropolis Housing Authority with bribery and extortion, a sweeping indictment of a troubled group.
The unsealing of the complaints was introduced early Tuesday, with further particulars on the scope of the investigation to be unveiled by Damian Williams, the U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of New York, at a late morning information convention.
The defendants had been charged with “accepting money funds from contractors in alternate for awarding NYCHA contracts,” a information launch stated. It added that the greater than 60 federal bribery expenses amounted to a single-day report for the Division of Justice.
Final 12 months, officers on the housing company estimated that it might want some $78 billion over the subsequent twenty years to renovate the getting old system, which is house to a whole lot of hundreds of New Yorkers in an costly metropolis starved for inexpensive flats. Complaints about getting old buildings, rodents, leaky pipes and damaged elevators have dogged the company, which operates greater than 270 developments.
In 2022, NYCHA collected simply 65 p.c of the lease it charged, the bottom share in its practically 100-year historical past.
It is a creating story and will probably be up to date.