Ex-FDNY chief gets 20 months in prison for fast-tracking inspections in $200K pay-to-play bribery scheme
A former FDNY chief “betrayed the trust” of New Yorkers by taking bribes to fast-track fire inspections, a Manhattan judge said Monday before sentencing him to 20 months in prison.“You betrayed the trust that the Fire Department and the people of New York placed in you,” Judge Lewis Liman said of Brian Cordasco, 50, before ordering the retired smoke-eater to serve the prison time and pay $157,000 in restitution and fines.Cordasco pleaded guilty in October to scheming with supervisor Anthony Saccavino at the FDNY Bureau of Fire Prevention to take nearly $200,000 in kickbacks — including from high-end restaurants and hotels near JFK International Airport — in exchange for a prized spot on City Hall’s inspection “VIP list.”The two FDNY chiefs and middleman Henry Santiago Jr.exploited a hefty backlog of projects at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to score illicit cash payouts from clients eager to move forward on projects quickly, prosecutors with the Southern District of New York alleged.“The crime was opportunistic,” Judge Liman said Monday.
“You took advantage of your position, and you took advantage of the COVID crisis.”Manhattan feds pushed for Cordasco, who was netting a salary of $250,000 a year, to serve up to four years in prison for pocketing payoffs in a scheme involving 30 projects across the city.“There was no reason he had to engage in this conduct but greed,” prosecutor Jessica Greenwood told the court.Cordasco’s lawyers pushed the judge to sentence him to one year of home confinement, suggesting that a broader culture of corruption at City Hall may be responsible for his crimes as well.The attorney, David Stern, did not refer to Mayor Eric Adams by name.But Hizzoner was accused — in an indictment dropping from the same Manhattan feds days after Cordasco and Saccavino were arrested — of taking travel perk bribes from Turks in exchange for fast-tracking FDNY inspections at the Manhattan Turkish consulate building.A...