The Special Commissioner of Investigation lied about ammunition stashed in a closet and gave it away to employees to avoid a fire code violation, whistleblowers allege.
Top officials with the Special Commissioner of Investigation lied to an FDNY inspector about a stockpile of ammunition, then handed out 114 boxes with a total of 5,700 bullets to co-workers, a bombshell whistleblower lawsuit alleges.
SCI, the agency charged with probing misconduct in city schools, hid the boxes and “squandered city funds” by giving them away to avoid a fire code violation, according to court records.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, names SCI along with the city Law Department, the Conflicts of Interest Board and the Department of Investigation, accusing the three other agencies of failing to penalize the officials despite having all the evidence of wrongdoing.
“Their response lets every whistleblower know that the city does not protect whistleblowers and does not have to follow the law,” said Richard Marin, a computer systems manager who filed the suit on June 3 along with Roberto El Lakkis, a tech investigator, and Ralph Gerard, a vehicle fleet manager.
The SCI— led by Anastasia Coleman — suspended Marin after he threatened to report a “theft” of the ammunition. SCI also terminated El Lakkis and pressured Gerard to resign in lieu of termination. The ousted employees call it retaliation.
Anastasia Coleman. the Special Commission of Investigation for city schools, faces accusation of misconduct in her own agency.
The lawsuit accuses SCI of other misconduct as well, such as falsifying certification of peace officer firearm training. City corporation counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant substantiated that complaint, but did not recommend any discipline.
The suit also cites misuse of E-ZPass. In March 2024, Goode-Trufant concluded that Coleman “failed to enforce and hold all investigators accountable for E-ZPass violations, and permitted some investigators to use E-ZPass for commuting purposes, without requiring reimbursement.”
Goode-Trufant referred her findings to the Conflicts of Interest Board, which has yet to publicly act on them.
The suit also alleges abuse of the 211 waiver hiring process, in which government agencies let employees “double dip” by collecting both a pension and a salary.
The suit also accuses Coleman of violating the city’s Cyber Security Policy by insisting that Marin write on a piece of paper all passwords to the SCI’s computer network.
The cover-up complaints came after El Lakkis called the FDNY in November 2023 to report that SCI was storing excessive ammo in a room with technical equipment and batteries, creating a potential fire hazard.
When FDNY inspector John Delaney visited on Nov. 21, 2023, a closet holding the ammo was locked, and El Lakkis had no key. The inspector left without looking inside.
Soon after, SCI Chief Investigator Michael Bisogna phoned Delaney to tell him that the office had 80 to 90 rounds of ammo in storage — a blatant lie, the suit alleges.
The city fire code requires a permit to store more than 200 rounds. The SCI had no permit.
SCI’s First Deputy Commissioner Daniel Schlachet later told the Law Department that SCI did not distribute any ammo to investigators after November 2023
But smoking-gun emails sent to the Law Department and inadvertently released to the whistleblowers told a different story.
In them, SCI gun custodian Joseph Piwowarski informed Bisogna and SCI deputy chief Jeff Anderson that he had divvied up 114 boxes of .9mm and .38 caliber rounds among nine investigators on Nov. 30, Dec. 5, and Dec. 6, 2023.
Each box had 50 rounds, making a total of 5,700.
Each investigator received eight to 13 boxes, or 400 to 650 rounds apiece.
A photo inside the tech-room closet shows stacks of boxes, most labeled PMC Bronze and American Eagle, two ammo brands.
The SCI stashed 114 boxes of PMC Bronze and American Eagle ammo in a closet. Each box had 50 bullets, making a total of 5,700 rounds.
When interviewed by the Law Department, El Lakkis also furnished security-camera videos showing Piwowarski handing large file folders filled with boxes of bullets to SCI investigators. The Law Department refused to question those investigators, the whistleblowers complained.
“The city is responsible if anyone is injured by those bullets,” Marin told me. “They never tried to recover the ammunition after we complained about the giveaway.”
Piwowarski told the Law Department he distributed ammo for “pistol qualification.” But SCI investigators need only one box each to qualify, the suit says.
SCI investigators are not required to carry guns on duty. Of about 30 staff investigators, fewer than five are peace officers who can carry firearms to officiate their duties, including making arrests. Others can carry concealed weapons as former or retired cops.
A teacher I told about the ammo stash was incredulous: “Who knew all these school investigators were running around with loaded guns? It’s not like SCI goes to schools to protect students and staff. Even our safety agents are unarmed.”
My search of news reports over several decades found none in which an SCI investigator brandished or fired a weapon on the job.
On Nov. 7, 2024, the Law Department gave El Lakkis a final report deeming his complaints of unsafe storage and unlawful distribution of ammunition “unsubstantiated.”
Inexplicably, the report contained an appendix that included Piwowarski’s emails detailing the ammo giveaway.
On Nov. 12, 2025, Marin submitted a whistleblower complaint to the Department of Investigation alleging that the SCI and the Law Department had concealed evidence corroborating El Lakkis’ ammunition safety complaint, and failed to report misuse of city resources.
The DOI has refused to acknowledge receipt of his complaint, Marin said.
On June 21, 2025, SCI suspended Marin. As a union member with civil-service protection, Marin has remained on the city payroll pending a hearing on disciplinary charges including “improper surveillance” of his bosses and removing the hard drive from his office computer. The hearing has not yet occurred.
On July 1, 2025, SCI fired El Lakkis on similar charges.
In response to the suit, SCI spokeswoman Anna Correa said, “SCI does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
The city Law Department filed a motion last week to dismiss the lawsuit. It says officials did act in response to the complaints, but that the plaintiffs cannot ask the court to dictate how the city conducts investigations or what they must conclude.
Lawyers for the whistleblowers asked the judge to disqualify the Law Department from defending the city agencies in the suit because it is also a defendant in the suit, posing a conflict. They asked the court to appoint an independent counsel to review the complaints.
