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.
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