Nadia I. Shihata, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued the following statement on the sentencings of four defendants involved in two fraud and bribery schemes that paid kickbacks in return for business from a City-funded nonprofit. GARY DSILVA, JONATHAN VELAZQUEZ, LUIS A. CAMARENA and PRADEEP NIGAM each pleaded guilty last year for their roles in the case that DOI investigated with the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which handled the prosecution.
DOI Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata said, “These defendants engaged in criminal kickback schemes wherein two defendants exploited their positions at a City-funded social services nonprofit to steer millions of dollars in contracts meant for City homeless shelters to two preferred vendors owned by the remaining defendants, in return for more than a million dollars in kickbacks. The more than $3 million that these defendants have been ordered to pay in restitution and forfeiture demonstrates the significant impact of the criminal schemes, which undercut critical contracts serving one of the City’s most vulnerable populations – those who are unhoused.”
U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez presided over the sentencings of the four individuals, who collectively have been ordered to pay $1,025,647 in restitution on a joint and several basis:
• July 9, 2026:CAMARENA, the fourth and final defendant, was sentenced to two years’ probation, with the first six months to be served on home detention, along with 50 hours of community service; and he was ordered to pay $199,073 in restitution and $224,161 in forfeiture.
• July 6, 2026: DSILVA was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and one year of supervised release; and was ordered to pay $1,025,647 in restitution and $714,913 in forfeiture.
• June 30, 2026: VELAZQUEZ was sentenced to two years’ probation, with the first six months to be served on home detention; and he was ordered to pay $1,025,647 in restitution and $714,913 in forfeiture.
• May 21, 2026: NIGAM was sentenced to two years’ probation and 200 hours of community service; and was ordered to pay $275,524 in restitution, $413,287 in forfeiture and a $200,000 fine.
DSILVA AND VELAZQUEZ were employed in the Management Information Systems department of a Brooklyn-based City-funded nonprofit organization (“the Organization”) that supplied numerous services to indigent New Yorkers, including administering multiple homeless shelters. As part of their work for the Organization, DSILVA and VELAZQUEZ were responsible for soliciting vendors to complete various projects involving information technology. The two schemes involved DSILVA and VELAZQUEZ receiving kickbacks for steering contracts from the Organization to specific vendors. In one scheme, DSILVA and VELAZQUEZ received over $500,000 in kickbacks from CAMARENA in return for steering approximately $1.6 million in contracts to a company owned by CAMARENA to install and/or replace security cameras at the Organization’s homeless shelters. DSILVA, VELAZQUEZ, AND CAMARENA pleaded guilty to participating in this first scheme. In the second scheme, NIGAM made payments to DSILVA and VELAZQUEZ in exchange for DSILVA AND VELAZQUEZ approving of payments from the Organization to NIGAM’s company. The payments from the Organization were for the installation and maintenance of telephone, internet, and network services at homeless shelters operated by the Organization. DSILVA, VELAZQUEZ, and NIGAM had a secret deal whereby they agreed to split profits that NIGAM’s company made on the payments from the Organization. The Organization paid nearly $2 million to NIGAM’s company during the operation of the scheme and NIGAM paid kickbacks exceeding $700,000 to DSILVA and VELAZQUEZ. NIGAM pleaded guilty to participating in this second scheme.
DOI Commissioner Shihata thanked United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella, Jr., and Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Office, James C. Barnacle, Jr., and their staffs, for their partnership on this case.
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