It shouldn’t really surprise us anymore that corruption is being found in just about every area of our lives. And yet, it will never stop being disgusting.
The latest example comes to us from New York City, where a group of about 70 individuals were arrested on allegations of taking bribes and demanding payoffs for simply doing their jobs.
As NBC New York reported, the group was all part of the New York City Housing Authority, a group that is supposed to be in charge of acquiring, building, and maintaining properties to be used to house low-income residents. They also handle applications for such housing projects.
And yet, it seems a large number of these supposed civil servants were only serving their own wallets.
As New York’s Southern District attorney Damian Williams said in a press conference, “The 70 defendants charged today allegedly demanded over two million dollars in bribe money from contractors in exchange for giving out over 13 million dollars of work on NYCHA buildings.”
And worse than that, “if the contractors didn’t pay up, the defendants wouldn’t given them the work.” As Williams correctly stated, it’s a “classic pay-to-play” scheme.
NBC reported that the case or investigation into these individuals had taken at least a year to build. Of the nearly 340 NYCHA developments around the bustling city, it is alleged that bribery took place at close to 100 of them.
Those working construction, maintenance, and even no-bid services like plumbing were essentially “charged” with these kickback fees by NYCHA workers, or they simply didn’t get the job. Needless to say, the whole thing made extortion “business as usual” for the department, NBC said.
It was also reported that the allegations amount to the largest of such busts in the history of the Justice Department.
And don’t think that these people will be getting away with much. Ample evidence, including undercover video footage,proves that a “culture of corruption” has been going on for quite some time. But as Williams says, that ends “today.”
