{"id":197019,"date":"2026-04-14T16:51:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197019\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T16:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T16:51:40","slug":"brooklyn-migrant-nonprofits-spent-millions-on-salaries-on-irs-blacklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197019\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn migrant nonprofits spent millions on salaries, on IRS blacklist"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0federal indictment\u00a0<\/a>against the leaders of a Brooklyn nonprofit, which takes in $200 million in public contracts, sheds light on a web of\u00a0alleged\u00a0corruption which could also bring down prominent city Democrats.<\/a><\/p>\n

BHRAGS Home Care Inc. and nine related nonprofits are mired in fraud, including delinquent IRS filing notices and warnings from the city\u2019s Department of Homeless Services.<\/p>\n

However, they continue to receive millions from the city and lawmakers, having been paid more than $200 million by the Department of Homeless Services since 2022, according to public records.<\/p>\n

BHRAGS Home Care Inc\u2019s executive director, Roberto Samedy, has been charged with bribery and embezzlement related to the nonprofit he runs in Brooklyn. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n

BHRAGS Executive Director Roberto Samedy and its former board chairman, Jean Ronald Tirelus, have both been indicted.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege levels of corruption within BHRAGS and accuse Samedy and Tirelus of siphoning money and taking kickbacks and bribes. They stand accused of raking in $1.3 million in illicit payments, wire fraud and embezzlement according to the indictment, obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

Joseph Nocella, US attorney for Brooklyn, said the defendants worked together \u201cto loot public funds from an organization devoted to serving vulnerable New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both men have pleaded not guilty and \u00a0lawyers for both claim they will \u201cclear their name\u201d at trial,\u00a0according to ABC news.<\/a>\u00a0They face up to 20 years if convicted.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Democrat Farah Louis, allocated $450,000 to BHRAGS over the last five years.\u00a0Now its CEO and ex-leader are indicted on charges of corruption. Getty Images for Brooklyn Academy Of Music<\/p>\n

The Post has found there are 10 nonprofit companies related to BHRAGS, all with similar names. They were set up to provide services including homeless shelters, migrant shelters and to distribute money to health carers through the fraud-prone Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). Only two are referred to in the indictment.<\/p>\n

Most of them have not been filing their tax returns, some for more than a decade, leading to the majority being blacklisted by the IRS for failing to file.<\/p>\n

BHRAGS Home Care Inc. took in $122 million in total government grants in 2024 \u2014 a jump of more than 54 percent from the previous year when their grants totaled just over $79 million \u2014\u00a0according to records seen by The Post, as the company pivoted out of CDPAP care, and into providing care for the migrants who were, at that time, flooding the city.<\/p>\n

Jean Robert Tirelus (center), the former CEO of BHRAGS Home Care Inc. was charged in a $1.3 million bribery and embezzlement scheme, along with three others. AP<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeless Services flagged concerns about the organization to the Department of Investigation in 2024 and placed the nonprofit on a Corrective Action Plan (CAP), according to\u00a0Gothamist.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite that, one of the tax delinquent nonprofits\u00a0\u2014 BHRAGS Alliance, Inc. \u2014 received more than $100,000 from the city\u2019s Department of Education between 2023 and 2025, according to public records.<\/p>\n

The main group, BHRAGS Home Care Corp., was also\u00a0the\u00a0recipient of hundreds of thousands in discretionary funds from Democratic City Council members, including Brooklyn Democrat Farah Louis<\/a>. She doled out more $450,000 to them over the last five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, federal agents raided the home of Louis and her sister, Debbie Louis \u2014 an aide to Gov. Hochul. The raid was related to the indictment of Samedy and Tirelus, per ABC, but neither sister has been arrested\u00a0or charged with wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

BHRAGS Home Care Inc. open its new office on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn last year. The group took in more than $200 million in public contracts, including $130 million from the city\u2019s Homeless Services Department. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Also named in the federal search warrant for the sisters was Edu Hermelyn, the husband of state Assembly member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who chairs the Brooklyn Democratic Party, the\u00a0AP reported.\u00a0Hermelyn also has not been arrested or charged.<\/p>\n

Former City Council Speaker and Democratic lieutenant governor candidate\u00a0Adrienne Adams\u00a0<\/a>gave BHRAGS Home Care Inc. $375,000 in discretionary funds through her speaker\u2019s budget from 2022 to 2025, Council records show.<\/p>\n

The taxpayer cash was earmarked for the group\u2019s senior and youth after-school programs.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s author Sherline Montoute heads up the human resources department at BHRAGS Home Care Inc. in Brooklyn. Her husband, Roberto Samedy, is the executive director. LinkedIn<\/p>\n

Samedy, who was Executive Director of BHRAGS Home Care Inc., one of the top people in the organization took in the highest salary of more than $376,000, filings show.<\/p>\n

He also hired his children\u2019s author wife, Sherline Montoute, as head of the group\u2019s human resources department, paying her more than $160,000 in salary, according to the group\u2019s 2024 tax filings, the latest publicly available.\u00a0Their relationship should have been reported on the organization\u2019s tax filings, per IRS rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The indictment also alleges that between February 2023 and January 2024, Samedy and Tirelus steered millions in cash to Fort NYC Security, a company controlled by retired NYPD Sergeant Edouardo St. Fort, <\/a>and 1-800 Furniture, a company controlled by Queens businessman Miguel Jorge, The Post can reveal.<\/p>\n

Adrienne Adams also gave BHRAGS Home Care Inc. $375,000 from discretionary funds through her speaker\u2019s budget between 2022 and 2025. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

All four men are now accused of making or accepting bribes,\u00a0according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

In 2023 BHRAGS allegedly paid Fort NYC Security $1.3 million for \u201csecurity services,\u201d according to federal tax filings. The company was also known as 1-800 Security and secured more than $8 million from the city to provide security for homeless shelters, acting\u00a0as\u00a0a subcontractor of BHRAGS, according to the filings.<\/p>\n

In a series of complicated transactions, St. Fort then allegedly paid tens in thousands in bribes to Tirelus and Samedy,\u00a0per the indictment. St. Fort and Jorge have both pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cTirelus and Samedy steered business to companies controlled by St. Fort and Jorge in exchange for bribes and kickbacks,\u201d according to a Department of Justice press release.<\/p>\n

BHRAGS Home Care building on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, which the organization recently built and opened. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n

Both Samedy and Tirelus donated to Farah Louis\u2019s campaigns for City Council where she took over New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams\u2019 seat in 2019.<\/p>\n

Samedy did not return a request for comment. A receptionist at BHRAGS Home Care Inc. said: \u201cHe is absent until further notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tirelus could not be reached by The Post for comment. Louis\u2019s City Council office did not return a request for comment Monday.<\/p>\n

Migrants waiting in line outside the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in New York City in February 2025. The center has since been closed down. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The nonprofit is housed at newly built headquarters on Nostrand Ave, which opened in 2025.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the office in January, Samedy told The Post home care workers made $19.50 an hour\u00a0and that they operate in all five boroughs, primarily dealing with Hispanic, Haitian, Russian and Chinese communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samedy\u00a0said BRAGHS no longer services CDPAP home health clients. However, it is one of the few companies allowed to act as a middleman agency between carers and insurance companies, who don\u2019t have to work with Public Partnerships LLC, which is mandated for almost all\u00a0other\u00a0CDPAP clients in New York State.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like a doctor\u2019s office,\u201d Samedy said. \u201cThe doctor\u2019s office has a contract with the insurance company to see clients. So, we have a contract with the insurance companies, which is the managed care organizations who provide services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group handled millions of dollars from Medicaid, distributing over $68 million in salaries to workers in\u00a02024, mostly within the CDPAP program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0federal indictment\u00a0against the leaders of a Brooklyn nonprofit, which takes in $200 million in public contracts, sheds light…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[14476,98,100,99,7022,2132,23410,57,9,24,6202,63,3610,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-197019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-bribery","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-corruption","13":"tag-democrats","14":"tag-irs","15":"tag-metro","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nonprofits","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-public-health","21":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197019","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=197019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}