Property Managers Busted in Bribery Schemes

Fourteen people – including two Department of Buildings inspectors, a certified asbestos investigator, a master plumber, and several property managers – have been arrested in three bribery schemes that resulted in shady inspections and construction work at properties in Brooklyn and Queens, the New York Post reports. 

The inspectors were paid off with cash or gifts by property managers, owners and contractors to rubber stamp paperwork for inspections they never actually performed. Asbestos worker Alexander Kogan raked in between $1,500 to $3,000 for each “clean” report he provided the shady property managers, the city’s Department of Investigation (DOI) found during a two-year probe. In some cases, Kogan never checked whether asbestos was present at a property; in others, he used fudged lab results. 

He was caught on wiretap making a deal to fix asbestos papers for property manager Yehuda Unger, who was also arrested. DOI agents witnessed Kogan go into one Brooklyn property and walk out just four minutes later – a timeframe authorities said is too small to perform a proper inspection of the cancer-causing compound. He later filed a report to the city claiming the property was asbestos-free. 

Authorities uncovered a second scheme involving city buildings inspectors Hiram Beza and Dean Mulzac, who greenlit inspections in exchange for bribes from six property managers, who were also nabbed. 

Meanwhile, licensed master plumber Henry Samuels was also charged with renting his license for $1,500 to $2,000 a job to unlicensed plumbers – a dangerous, cost-cutting move called “covering” which was to blame in the deadly East Village explosion in 2015.

“When city inspectors fail to identify violations at properties in exchange for a bribe; when construction professionals sell their licenses for cash, paving the way for unpermitted work; when the presence of asbestos is ignored so construction can move forward without delay – worker and public safety is compromised,” said DOI Commissioner Mark Peters at a press conference announcing the charges.