Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

New York City Corruption

by April 22, 2025
April 22, 2025
New York City Corruption

Chris Edwards

Many American cities have corruption problems—from Chicago and New York to Scranton and Harrisburg. In these cities, politicians and bureaucrats abuse their discretionary powers over licensing, permitting, zoning, contracting, and other activities. They shake down individuals and businesses to gain bribes, campaign aid, and other personal benefits in return for providing special approvals, exemptions, and handouts.

Big government subsidy and regulatory schemes fuel corruption, as we see, for example, with housing tax credits, alcohol licensing, and marijuana licensing. It also appears that political structures make some cities more scandal-prone than others. Chicago’s system of “alderman privilege,” for example, has been a driver of corruption for decades. 

New York City has long suffered from corruption in building permitting, inspections, gun permitting, and many other things. Recently, the city has been rocked by scandal at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Last year, prosecutors charged 70 current and former NYCHA employees with bribery and extortion. It was the “Largest Number of Federal Bribery Charges on a Single Day in Department of Justice History.”

A new article in The City discusses the aftermath of the shocking scandal. A year later, the city is continuing to contract with the same corrupt companies that have been bribing NYCHA officials for years.

One year after a sweeping corruption takedown at the New York City Housing Authority, law enforcement’s scorecard reads like this: 64 convictions out of the 70 housing authority employees arrested on charges of taking cash bribes to hand out contracts to vendors performing public housing repairs.

… Since the big sweep on Feb. 6, 2024, billed as the biggest one-day takedown in Department of Justice history, NYCHA has awarded hundreds of contracts worth a total of $7.8 million to eight companies whose operators have publicly confessed to participating in the decade-long bribery conspiracy.

All of these corrupt contractors have admitted under oath that they regularly handed over cash bribes from $500 to $2,000 in the basements and stairwells of NYCHA developments to dozens of NYCHA staffers, sometimes for years. None of the vendors were charged with a crime. All were granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony against the NYCHA employees they paid off.

… The eight bribe-paying vendors that The City discovered are still getting NYCHA work have, over the years, racked up $70 million in taxpayer-funded contracts for everything from installing vinyl tile to performing minor repairs to painting apartments, an analysis of contract records found.

… NYCHA staffers came to regularly demand cash to either award a no-bid contract or sign off on individual jobs under a blanket contract. All told, they pocketed more than $2 million in bribes over the last 10 years, prosecutors alleged.

NYCHA head Lisa Bova-Hiatt said, “These actions are counter to everything we stand for as public servants and will not be tolerated in any form.” But the agency has tolerated these contracting rip-offs for at least a decade. And it has tolerated the reality that a large share of the repairs that NYCHA paid for may not even have been made.

The well-funded NYCHA has tolerated much more. CNN noted, “The city’s housing authority—plagued for decades by lead paint hazards, rat infestations, inadequate heating, and broken elevators—receives more than $1.5 billion in federal funding each year.”

As for NYC more generally, it has tolerated wasteful and corrupt government for decades. For example, here is a report on widespread permitting corruption in the city from 1960.

Why do the sophisticated residents of the nation’s largest city tolerate such crappy government? The city is jammed full of lawyers, accountants, and finance experts. It should have the best public management in the nation, not some of the worst. 

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Parents tell SCOTUS: LGBTQ storybooks in classrooms clash with our faith
next post
‘Let us be the parents’: Supreme Court should let parents opt kids out of LGBTQ school lessons, lawyer argues

You may also like

The Senate’s Budget Shell Game: Big Spending, Empty...

February 11, 2025

Badge of Honor: Cato Designated ‘Vexsome’ FOIA Requester...

February 7, 2024

Friday Feature: Navigate School Choice

October 25, 2024

Questioning the Housing Crisis: A Different Approach to...

January 6, 2025

Large-Scale Food Stamp Fraud

May 30, 2025

In Minneapolis, Planners Mix Basic Income and Rent...

November 8, 2024

Why Do States Protect Car Dealers?

March 29, 2025

Cato Seeks Injunction To Obtain DOJ Internal FISA...

February 22, 2024

On Inflation Reduction Act Reform, Anything Short of...

November 12, 2024

As the Public Schooling Battle Map Passes 4,000...

April 5, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Protecting Confidential Business Translations with Secure Mode from MachineTranslation.com

      June 24, 2025
    • Farage proposes £250k tax break for non-doms, triggering backlash over ‘billionaire loophole’

      June 24, 2025
    • Amazon commits £40bn to UK expansion with new fulfilment centres, studio upgrades and tech investment

      June 24, 2025
    • HSBC faces £150m dilemma over office space as return-to-work drive clashes with post-pandemic downsizing

      June 24, 2025
    • Trump admin secures pledge from 75% of health insurers in bid to improve patient care

      June 23, 2025
    • Trump hails ‘monumental’ damage as experts await verdict on Iran’s nuclear program

      June 23, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,291)
    • Investing (2,064)
    • Politics (15,766)
    • Stocks (3,164)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved