FORMER CEO AT CITY-FUNDED NONPROFIT HOMELESS SERVICES PROVIDER SENTENCED TO SIX MONTHS IN PRISON

 

Nadia I. Shihata, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued the following statement on the sentencing of THOMAS BRANSKY, 50, the former Chief Executive Officer of Childrens Community Services, Inc. (“CCS”), on charges relating to a scheme to defraud New York City in connection with the provision of temporary housing and homeless services. BRANSKY’s co-defendant and business partner, PETER WEISER, 83, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29, 2026. The two conspired to defraud the City of New York of millions of dollars through a multifaceted scheme to corruptly profit from the nonprofit, which no longer has contracts with the City. U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick sentenced BRANSKY today to six months in prison, followed by three years supervised release. BRANSKY was also ordered to pay approximately $7.69 million in restitution and $1.2 million in forfeiture. He is scheduled to surrender on September 29, 2026. In October 2025, BRANSKY pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and WEISER pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349. DOI investigated this matter in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is prosecuting the case.

DOI Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata said, “These defendants used false statements to defraud the City of New York of more than $50 million, money that went toward paying inflated prices and unreasonable mark-ups for goods and services that should have been used to support New Yorkers in need of housing. There is no excuse or tolerance for these crimes, which exploited public funds and the City’s critical assistance to an extremely vulnerable population. I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for its ongoing partnership to hold accountable anyone who uses the City to illegally enrich themselves.” 

According to the indictment and superseding information, BRANSKY was the Chief Executive Officer of CCS, a not-for-profit homeless services provider that had over $900 million in contracts with the City. As CEO, BRANSKY and others engaged in a scheme to defraud the City through CCS and a group of affiliated entities owned and controlled by WEISER, including by making and causing to be made false statements to the City of New York in order to obtain money. The scheme was furthered by electronic communications and bank wires and included submitting false statements and documents to the City to conceal WEISER’s role and ownership of the affiliated companies. CCS, and ultimately the City, paid over $50 million to WEISER’s companies for various goods and services—many of which were provided by other, legitimate companies and then simply marked up as much as three times their actual cost. Through this scheme, WEISER collected more than $7 million in illicit profits, while BRANSKY earned more than $1.2 million in salary.

Commissioner Shihata thanked Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, for his office’s partnership on this case, which is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Nicholas Chiuchiolo, Ni Qian, and Matthew Weinberg are in charge of the prosecution. Commissioner Shihata also thanked the City Department of Social Services for its cooperation with the investigation.