A retired FDNY fire chief Accused of taking bribe for speedy security inspection He faces up to five years in prison after admitting his role in the years-old scheme Tuesday.
“I plead guilty, your honor,” Brian Cordasco, 50, said at a hearing in Manhattan federal court as he faces charges of taking advantage of his high-ranking position in the FDNY’s Bureau of Fire Prevention along with fellow chief Anthony Saccavino. Just three weeks after, Brian Cordasco said. , receive approximately $200,000 in illegal payments.
Court papers say Cordasco and Saccavino arranged for a middleman — retired smoker Henry Santiago — to help real estate developers, high-end restaurants and dozens of other “clients” get to the front of the inspection queue for a fee. Junior – worked with.
“He would bring up to speed on cases that were unavailable to the general public,” prosecutor Daniel Wolf said in court Tuesday.
Cardasco, wearing a dark suit and glasses, calmly admitted during the half-hour hearing that he knew his role in running what the feds called a two-year bribery scheme was illegal and wrong.
He was then indicted on one count of conspiracy to solicit and receive bribes – the first public guilty plea in a series of widespread corruption cases involving the administration of Mayor Eric Adams.
Cordasco faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 19. But his lawyers say they will pressure District Judge Lewis Lyman to take a lenient stance in light of the retired firefighter’s decades of service.
His defense attorney Frank Rothman said, “This is the only crime of his life.” told The Post last week.
Prosecutors said Cordasco also agreed to forfeit $57,000 as part of the terms of his plea deal.
Middleman Santiago Jr. pleaded guilty in September to one count of bribery conspiracy, court records show. The case against Sacavino is still pending.
There is no indication that the Cordasco case is directly related to Unprecedented corruption allegations Adams is facing down, and the bribery scheme extends to the mayoralties of both Adams and Bill de Blasio, court papers allege.
But these allegations are similar to a key allegation in Adams’ bribery and fraud case – that Adams, as de facto mayor-elect, raised security concerns with the Turkish Consulate building in Manhattan after receiving alleged bribes from Turkish businessmen. Leaned on FDNY to ignore. A Turkish diplomat.
The case is also being brought by the Public Corruption Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the same unit that is prosecuting Adams.
fed Unveiled their latest City Hall indictment In the midst of Tuesday’s plea hearing — a case charging recently ousted Adams associate Mohammed Bahi with witness tampering and destruction of evidence.
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