NEW YORK — Eric Adams may no longer be mayor but the alleged corruption in his administration is extending beyond his time in City Hall.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Tony Herbert, a former official in the Office of the Mayor, with bribery in connection with two separate pay-to-play schemes.
In the first, the indictment said Herbert solicited and received $11,000 in cash from a security company executive in exchange for pressuring other city officials to give the company security contracts at public housing projects.
In the second, the indictment said Herbert took $5,000 in kickbacks from the director of a funeral home in exchange for approving financial assistance for burial services for low income families.
“To prevent these schemes from coming to light, Anthony Herbert, the defendant, filed false financial disclosure forms that omitted his receipt of thousands of dollars from both the Security Company Executive and the Funeral Home Director,” the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors said Herbert abused positions he held from 2022-2025 in both the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and as Citywide Public Housing Liaison.
The indictment quoted Herbert allegedly telling the security executive, “This is what we do, bro. This is what we do. I mean it’s, ain’t nobody gonna do it for us. That was one of the reasons why I told him (i.e., the Mayor) he had to put the security back in NYCHA so that more, so like, you could, you could, uh, (expletive) submit for that.”
Herbert is charged with bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, federal program fraud and wire fraud.
In addition to the pay-to-play schemes, Herbert is charged with submitting a fraudulent loan application for a purported backed good business to obtain a $20,000 loan under the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
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