Bribery alleged in city school construction.
The New York Sun
By JACOB GERSHMAN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 17, 2005
Six current and former employees of the city agency responsible for public school construction were arrested yesterday for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors between 2000 and 2004, authorities said.
The indictments unsealed in federal district court in Manhattan sent a message to Mayor Bloomberg that the anticorruption safeguards he instituted after taking over the troubled School Construction Authority in 2002 may have fallen short.
While calling the alleged bribery “deplorable,” a senior education department official, Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm, said the construction authority has boosted its anti-corruption effort since the alleged incidents took place, making it significantly more difficult for employees to commit such crimes.
Authorities said the indictments were the result of an investigation that had lasted more than two years. The city’s Department of Investigation, the state attorney general’s office, and FBI officials in New York conducted the probe.
Many of the allegations against the employees stem from the June 2004 arrest of a construction authority contractor who was charged with wire fraud and income tax evasion. In a plea deal, the contractor, unnamed in the indictments, told officials of numerous cases of project officers demanding cash for processing payments. The contractor then tape-recorded meetings with the defendants, during which they are heard offering their services, discussing previous bribes, and accepting cash.
November 24 2005 | Bribes | No Comments »