Former FDNY chief pleads guilty to conspiring to receive bribes to speed up building inspections
Former FDNY Chief Anthony Saccavino pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to accept thousands of dollars in bribes for speeding up inspections for businesses with matters before the department.
Saccavino, 59, is accused of expediting fire inspections for building owners who could pay up in a scheme that saw him and his co-conspirators rake in nearly $200,000 in illegal kickbacks.
'I accepted cash in exchange for preferential treatment for entities with business before the Bureau of Fire Prevention,' he admitted in Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday morning.
Saccavino, former chief of the bureau, and another chief, former Deputy Assistant Chief Brian Cordasco, were charged with the crimes in September. Cordasco, 49, pleaded guilty a month later to charges he raked in upwards of $5,000 in bribes between 2021 and 2023.
Bureau of Fire Prevention, or BFP, is responsible for greenlighting the installation of fire safety and suppression systems in both commercial and residential buildings, and without a passed inspection by the BFP, a building may not be allowed to open.
A retired FDNY inspector, Henry Santiago, Jr., who has also pleaded guilty to related charges, helped funnel the ill-gotten gains to them as they stepped in to speed up inspections after the pandemic, when a backlog of requests had built up, according to prosecutors.
Saccavino confessed to just one of the five counts he is charged with — still denying charges of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud. Saccavino also still denies that he lied to FBI agents in an interview.
Outside the courtroom, Saccavino's lawyer, Joseph Caldarera, called his client, who was a first responder on 9/11, 'an American hero,' and said that the guilty plea meant Saccavino 'put his family first,' adding that not 'everything' in the indictment was correct.
Saccavino must pay back the $57,000 bribes from the scheme, according to his plea agreement. While the maximum sentence for his crime is five years behind bars, the former chief agreed not to fight any prison time of less than 60 months.
This scheme happened at the same time Mayor Adams' City Hall allegedly worked to fast-track FDNY inspections for real estate developers who were cozy with the administration, using the so-called 'Deputy Mayor of Operations list' — named before it fell under the purview of that official.
The unrelated case against Adams alleges in part that he accepted bribes from associates of the Turkish government to circumvent fire safety checks at the country's Manhattan consulate.
'Anthony Saccavino betrayed the City agency he was chosen to lead by repeatedly selling access to the Bureau of Fire Prevention's services in a pay-to-play bribery scheme,' acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sasson said in a statement.
'This Office will continue to ensure that City officials who place their own interests above those of the public will be held accountable.'
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Greenwood said that if he were to stand trial for this count, prosecutors would have brought a bevy of evidence including cell phone records, FDNY internal email and financial records.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
330 immigrants detained in L.A. since Friday, White House spokesperson says
Immigration agents have arrested 330 immigrants in Los Angeles since Friday, the White House confirmed Wednesday. The numbers came from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who also slammed Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, saying they — President Trump — "fanned the flames" of violence in Los Angeles. During a press briefing, Leavitt said 157 people have also been arrested on assault and obstruction-related charges. That includes a man charged Wednesday with the attempted murder of a police officer for throwing a Molotov cocktail. Overall, Leavitt said that 113, or about a third, of those detained had prior criminal convictions. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security have touted the arrests of specific individuals in recent days, including people from Vietnam, Mexico and the Philippines who had previously been convicted of crimes, such as second-degree murder, rape and child molestation. Leavitt condemned the protests in Los Angeles against raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "These attacks were aimed not just at law enforcement, but at American culture and society itself," she said. "Rioters burned American flags, chanted death to ICE and spray-painted anti-American slogans on buildings." Echoing sentiments Trump has relayed in recent days, Leavitt criticized Newsom and Bass, branding them as radical Democrats. Bass, she said, "embarked on one of the most outrageous campaigns of lies this country has ever seen from an elected official, blaming President Trump and brave law enforcement officers for the violence." "The mob violence is being stomped out," she said. "Criminals responsible will be swiftly brought to justice, and the Trump administration's operations to arrest illegal aliens are continuing unabated." But Trump's top border policy advisor, Tom Homan, told NBC on Tuesday that the protests in Los Angeles are making immigration enforcement "difficult" and more "dangerous." Leavitt issued a stark warning to protesters in other cities. "Let this be an unequivocal message to left-wing radicals in other parts of the country who are thinking about copycatting the violence in an effort to stop this administration's mass deportation efforts: You will not succeed," she said. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
New York Post
20 minutes ago
- New York Post
2 campers found dead on remote island in Lake Superior — 5 people were killed in less than a year on Great Lake
Two campers were found dead on a remote island in the middle of Lake Superior, according to officials — marking the fourth and fifth deaths on the Great Lake in less than a year. The two unidentified individuals were discovered by authorities Sunday in an isolated camping ground on Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, not far from the Canadian coastline, park rangers said in a statement. Isle Royale National Park, where two campers were found dead on Monday, according to authorities. AP Two park rangers traveled to the camp overnight after receiving two separate reports of dead bodies at a campsite on the remote island, the release stated. The bodies were discovered Monday by the rangers, who were also supported from the air via helicopter, officials said. The causes of death for the two campers are not known at this time. Isle Royale National Park, tucked away on the cusp of American territory above Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts and is comprised of 450 small islands, according to the NPS. Isle Royale, the main island, is roughly 50 miles long and 9 miles wide. Three people died in or near Lake Superior's national parks in 2024, according to reports. The wooded trails of remote Isle Royale National Park. AP A 70-year-old man died in July 2024 while scuba diving to see a 535-foot sunken steel ship in the Great Lake, The Detroit News reported. A 37-year-old woman died a month later after suffering a sudden medical emergency while walking in a remote location of Isle Royale National Park in August 2024, the outlet reported. In November, the body of 65-year-old John Kueber washed up on the shore of Michigan's Miners Beach, roughly 150 miles from Isle Royale National Park, according to an NPS statement.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Karoline Leavitt gets fiery as she's pressed on Trump's military response to Los Angeles protests
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt got into a heated back and forth with reporters on Wednesday as she held her first briefing since President Donald Trump' federalized the National Guard in California and sent active-duty Marines to join them in cracking down on protests and unrest over immigration roundups in Los Angeles. Leavitt condemned the protests as 'shameful,' citing what she described as 'left-wing radicals waving foreign flags' who she accused of 'viciously attacking' Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents as well as Los Angeles Police Department officers as part of an assault on 'American culture and society itself.' Leavitt also condemned Democratic elected officials in the Golden State, specifically Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, accusing them of having 'shamefully failed to meet their sworn obligations to their citizens' by not ordering a forceful military response to protesters. She also lauded Trump for ordering the 'mob' of protesters to be 'stamped out.' 'The criminals responsible will be swiftly brought to justice, and the Trump administration's operations to arrest illegal aliens are continuing unabated,' Leavitt said. She added that Newsom and Bass had sided 'with illegal alien criminals in their communities and violent rioters and looters over law enforcement officers who are just doing their jobs.' But Leavitt's pugnacious attacks on California leaders did not satisfy reporters, who repeatedly asked her about the extent to which the military service members who've been deployed in Los Angeles are authorized to aid in immigration law enforcement, nor did she fully explain how Trump's threats to use 'very big force' against protesters at his planned military parade in D.C. this weekend comport with America's constitutional guarantees of free speech. She also aggressively denied that the immigration crackdown that precipitated the protests and violence over the weekend had been ordered up in an effort to change the national conversation from Trump's messy split with billionaire Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX boss who wrapped up a stint as an unpaid adviser to the administration late last month. Asked about the possibility that Trump's crackdown was meant as a distraction to their social media war, Leavitt replied: 'That's an incredibly disingenuous attack.' She said Trump had been moved by 'images of border patrol and ICE agents being hailed with rocks and Molotov cocktails' and 'vehicles being burned to the ground with illegal aliens flying foreign flags.' Leavitt's press briefing came less than a day after Trump threatened to forcibly put down any protests that spoil the military parade he has ordered up for his birthdayon Saturday to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army's founding during the American Revolutionary War. During a media availability in the Oval Office on Tuesday, the president warned that any protests of the parade would be 'met with very big force' on Saturday. He reiterated the explicit threat a moment later, telling 'those people who want to protest' that they would be 'met with very big force' once more. He also opined further that any protest against the parade on Saturday would consist only of 'people who hate our country.' The president has a long history of pushing for the use of state violence against protests, which he considers to be a personal affront and a reflection of weakness on his part. During protests for racial justice in Washington following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer, he reportedly pushed to have military and law enforcement open fire on other protesters, asking then his then-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Mark Milley, why National Guard troops deployed as a result of the demonstrations could not shoot protesters in the legs. But Leavitt denied that Trump has any intention of attacking protests against his parade or his policies this weekend. Seemingly ignorant of the president's history of urging violence against demonstrations, Leavitt claimed the president 'supports the right of Americans to peacefully protest' and 'supports the First Amendment' while suggesting that the protests in Los Angeles have consisted entirely of 'mobs of violent rioters and agitators assaulting law enforcement officers, assaulting our federal immigration authorities.' 'Thankfully, the President took action and stepped in to protect our federal law enforcement agents, to perfect protect federal buildings, to protect the federal mission of deporting illegal criminals off of our streets, and that mission will continue every day, as far as we're concerned,' she said.
