{"id":376751,"date":"2026-10-19T10:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376751\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T10:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:56:13","slug":"disgraced-ex-nyc-buildings-head-finally-heads-to-trial-for-allegedly-pocketing-thousands-in-bribes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376751\/","title":{"rendered":"Disgraced ex-NYC Buildings head finally heads to trial for allegedly pocketing thousands in bribes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disgraced ex-New York City Buildings Department head Eric Ulrich is finally standing trial \u2014 more than three years after he was indicted with trading political favors for thousands of dollars <\/a>worth of bribes.<\/p>\n

Ulrich, 41, will have a bench trial that kicks off Monday in front of Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Daniel Conviser \u2014 with Manhattan prosecutors set to outline accusations that he ran a years-long scheme doling out political short cuts in exchange for goodies.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege that Ulrich, a former Republican city councilman, used the funds to up his profile with a premium $10,000 Mets season tickets plan, bespoke suits and a painting by an apprentice of Salvador Dali.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer NYC DOB Commissioner Eric Ulrich will finally head to trial Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n

Ulrich was charged in September 2023 with a total of 16 felonies that spread across five indictments stemming from his time served in three political posts \u2014 including as a Queens councilmember and a stint as a senior advisor to former Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n

He lasted only six months in the buildings commissioner role before he resigned<\/a> following an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The disgraced DOB head will be tried on two separate indictments including one with co-defendant Michael Mazzio, an operator of a Brooklyn towing company, who paid Ulrich to help expedite building and health inspections, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have said Ulrich, who has claimed that he\u2019s too poor to afford an attorney<\/a>, used the funds to purchase Mets season ticket packages, including shelling out nearly $5,000 for 10 tickets to the Mets-Yankees Subway Series in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ulrich was initially charged alongside six other defendants, including Queens pizza joint owners and brothers, Joseph and Anthony Livreri, who are alleged to have mafia ties.<\/p>\n

The Livreri brothers, the co-owners of Aldo\u2019s Pizzeria and Restaurant in Ozone Park, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy and bribery charges<\/a> after admitting to paying Ulrich $4,000 to stop the DOB from forcing them to vacate a business that was torched in a fire.<\/p>\n

\"ManhattanManhattan prosecutors have said Eric Ulrich took bribes to give others a free pass. Steven Hirsch for NY Post<\/p>\n

One of the indictments against Adams donor and real estate developer Mark Caller was dismissed in January.<\/p>\n

The cases of other defendants in other indictments \u2014 Paul Grego and Victor Truta \u2014 remain active, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Ulrich is charged with multiple counts of offering a false instrument for filing and bribery.<\/p>\n

He faces up to a minimum of five years behind bars if convicted of bribery.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last several weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disgraced ex-New York City Buildings Department head Eric Ulrich is finally standing trial \u2014 more than three years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14476,81,128595,4327,57,9,56,63,65,64,4721,58],"class_list":["post-376751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bribery","tag-eric-adams","tag-eric-ulrich","tag-manhattan-supreme-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-trials","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376751","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=376751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}