Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued a statement today regarding the sentencing of a real estate company owner and operator in connection with a scheme to pay bribes and kickbacks to the former President/Chief Executive Officer of a City-funded provider of homeless shelter services. DOI investigated this matter in partnership with the office of Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case.
SHEINA LEVIN, 61, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced to nine months of house arrest, to be served at the beginning of a two-year term of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She was ordered to pay more than $790,000 in forfeiture and pay restitution of more than $838,000. The restitution was ordered to be paid to the Bronx Parent Housing Network (“BPHN”). LEVIN pled guilty in March 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said, “This real estate company owner participated in a scheme to bribe the former CEO of a City-funded, nonprofit homeless shelter provider who steered lucrative business her way. Her felony conviction and the sentence imposed today show that those who put personal greed ahead of the needs of vulnerable City residents will face serious consequences. I thank the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for its partnership in rooting out corruption in taxpayer-funded entities.”
Between May 2019 and January 2021, LEVIN was the owner and operator of a for-profit real estate business. According to the Superseding Information, LEVIN paid bribes and kickbacks to VICTOR RIVERA, then the President and Chief Executive Officer of BPHN, in exchange for agreements through which BPHN sub-leased property that LEVIN controlled. BPHN was and is a not-for-profit organization that provided shelter services to the New York City Department of Homeless Services. LEVIN made hundreds of thousands of dollars of illicit payments to RIVERA and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit through the scheme.
RIVERA pled guilty in February 2022 to conspiring to enrich himself through bribes and kickbacks provided to him by contractors of BPHN and was sentenced later that year to 27 months in prison and two years of supervised release.
Commissioner Strauber thanked U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams and his staff for the prosecution of this matter, which was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Abramowicz and Tara La Morte in the Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. DOI’s investigation was conducted in partnership with Special Agents of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
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