<\/p>\nAdd Preferred Source<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
The pair also received more than $200,000 in kickbacks in exchange for steering contracts worth millions of dollars to businesses controlled by Edouardo St. Fort and Miguel Jorge, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Tirelus, Samedy and Jorge all pleaded not guilty through their attorneys in court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
St. Fort, a former New York City police sergeant, was arrested in Massachusetts on Tuesday and did not appear in the courtroom. Inquiries to his attorney were not returned.<\/p>\n
The indictment did not outline any wrongdoing by others. All four of the men arrested Tuesday were mentioned in a search warrant, signed March 19, seeking communications between BHRAGS, the Louis sisters and Edu Hermelyn,<\/p>\n
Edu Hermelyn is the husband of state Assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who chairs the Brooklyn Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Messages left for Farah Louis, Debbie Louis and Edu Hermelyn were not returned.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for BHRAGS issued a statement saying the nonprofit has served New Yorkers for more than 50 years \u201cwith integrity and the highest ethical standards, and we take the allegations against Mr. Samedy seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said Samedy is on administrative leave, with his duties handed off to the company\u2019s chief operating officer, and that the company is cooperating with law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Tirelus\u2019 lawyer, Todd Spodek, said he \u201ccategorically disputes the charges and looks forward to clearing his name at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Tirelus and Samedy were charged with wire fraud, embezzlement, and bribery-related offenses and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. St. Fort and Jorge were charged with federal program bribery and related charges, and face up to 10 years each.<\/p>\n
St. Fort, who retired as a New York City police sergeant in 2023, runs Fort NYC Security, records show. Since 2023, the city has agreed to pay more than $7 million to Fort NYC Security to provide security services at homeless shelters, often as a subcontractor for BHRAGS.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city would \u201cdefinitely be looking into\u201d existing contracts that the city has with BHRAGS.<\/p>\n
The existence of a search warrant naming Farah and Debbie Louis doesn\u2019t necessarily indicate that prosecutors plan to bring criminal charges against them, only that investigators persuaded a magistrate judge to allow them to dig deeper and seize evidence.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the governor’s office said Debbie Louis has been placed on leave, and a spokesperson for the City Council said the legislative body \u201ctakes any potential misconduct extremely seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Yorkers deserve confidence in their government,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cIt is essential that the federal investigation proceed fairly and expeditiously to bring this matter to a resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – The U.S. federal courthouse in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Jan. 17, 2023. John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,72819,81,73054,20745,73069,426,73068,9,24,56,63,65,64,833,834,28376,3065,2336,30925,829,831,72820,36626,82],"class_list":["post-181319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brooklyn","tag-debbie-louis","tag-eric-adams","tag-farah-debbie-louis-edouardo-st-fort-bribery","tag-farah-louis","tag-jean-ronald-tirelus","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-miguel-jorge","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30061-ap-massachusetts-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30083-ap-new-york-city-news-no-weather","tag-product-30085-ap-new-york-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30101-ap-rhode-island-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-roberto-samedy","tag-todd-spodek","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}