A Brooklyn nonprofit whose leaders were indicted this week on federal bribery and embezzlement charges has a $94 million city contract set to begin this summer \u2014 and officials have not said whether they plan to cancel it.<\/p>\n
BHRAGS Home Care Corp., which operates homeless shelters across New York City, was awarded the contract last year through a competitive bidding process to provide shelter for single adults in Brooklyn beginning July 1, according to city records.<\/p>\n
The Department of Social Services has not said whether it intends to let the contract proceed in light of the charges against the organization’s former leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are closely monitoring the situation and are in the process of determining next steps in light of these serious allegations,” DSS spokesperson Neha Sharma said in a statement.<\/p>\n
An indictment, unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, charges Roberto Samedy, BHRAGS\u2019 executive director, and Jean Ronald Tirelus, its former board chair, with embezzling more than $1.3 million from the nonprofit and steering business to companies controlled by co-defendants Edouardo St. Fort and Miguel Jorge in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. A spokesperson for BHRAGS said earlier this week that Samedy is on administrative leave and that the organization has been cooperating with law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for the two men were not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
Though most of the new contract’s details have not been made public, a notice from late last year inviting public comment on the contract raises additional questions: The Brooklyn address listed for BHRAGS actually leads to a storefront for Fort NYC Security, owned by St. Fort.<\/p>\n
The retired NYPD sergeant is accused of paying bribes to the BHRAGS executives in exchange for millions of dollars in shelter security contracts. Fort NYC Security, has been awarded approximately $7 million worth of contracts to guard shelters, according to city comptroller records. BHRAGS tax records also list $1.95 million in payments to the company for \u201csecurity services.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Kaehny, executive director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany, said he would be \u201cvery surprised if this contract actually is implemented in July.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m sure that the city has the legal authority to void the contract for a variety of reasons,\u201d Kaehny said. \u201cThe question \u2014 ultimately it will be the mayor who decides \u2014 is going to be \u2018Do we have to do this because if we don’t do it then vulnerable people will be terribly hurt, or can we find somebody else who can do this and do it better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The city has paid BHRAGS roughly $130 million through a series of emergency contracts with the Department of Homeless Services since 2022, most of which are set to expire this summer, according to city records.<\/p>\n