FORMER CEO OF CITY-FUNDED BRONX PARENT HOUSING NETWORK PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO ENRICH HIMSELF IN A BRIBERY AND KICKBACK SCHEME

 

 Daniel G. Cort, Acting Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued a statement on today’s guilty plea entered by VICTOR RIVERA on a charge of conspiring to enrich himself through bribes and kickbacks provided to him by contractors of the Bronx Parent Housing Network (“BPHN”), the City-funded nonprofit he once ran. RIVERA pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein accepted his plea in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. His sentencing date was scheduled for May 6, 2022. DOI investigated this matter in partnership with the office of Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

 Acting Commissioner Daniel G. Cort said, “Instead of protecting the City-funded nonprofit he once ran, this defendant abused his power, using the nonprofit as a hub for his illicit scheme – drawing bribes and kickbacks from the contractors doing business related to and for the organization and yielding hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit gains. This type of corruption puts a financial strain on publicly-funded nonprofits and undermines the services for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers. I am grateful for the partnership of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on this important investigation and for their successful prosecution of this matter.”

 RIVERA, 61, of Stony Point, New York, was charged in March 2021 with engaging in a scheme to enrich himself and his relatives by soliciting and accepting bribes and kickbacks from contractors doing work related to or for the nonprofit that he ran. (RIVERA is no longer employed by BPHN). That nonprofit operates homeless shelters, and affordable housing facilities in New York City and annually spent millions of dollars in public funds on real estate, security, cleaning, construction, and food expenses, among other costs related to the housing and social services the nonprofit provided. Between 2013 and 2020, the illegal scheme yielded RIVERA at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit gains. RIVERA laundered some of the corrupt payments through intermediary entities he controlled, including through a purported consulting company nominally owned by one of RIVERA’s relatives.

 Acting Commissioner Cort thanked U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, and his staff, for their partnership and successful prosecution of this matter.

 The investigation was prosecuted by the Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, specifically Assistant United States Attorneys David Abramowicz and Tara La Morte.

 DOI’s investigation was conducted in partnership with Special Agents of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.