2 N.Y.C. Fire Department Chiefs Arrested on Bribery Charges

Two high-ranking New York Fire Department chiefs were arrested early Monday and accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to speed up the fire-safety approval process for building projects across the city.

The chiefs, Brian E. Cordasco, 49, and Anthony M. Saccavino, 59, ran the Department’s Bureau of Fire Prevention and were responsible for overseeing fire safety approvals of large-scale building projects, which can often become mired in bureaucratic delays.

The six-count indictment accuses them of soliciting and receiving bribes in that role from 2021 to 2023 for projects underway in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

“For nearly two years, Saccavino and Cordasco misused this authority for their own financial gain,” the indictment charges. The men were also charged with lying to the F.B.I. in February about their involvement in the scheme.

A retired firefighter who expedited building projects, Henry J. Santiago Jr., was identified by federal prosecutors as a co-conspirator who solicited and accepted bribes, but he was not named or charged in the indictment. The New York Times had previously reported his involvement, and he was identified by name by the authorities at a news conference about the case on Monday.

In total, prosecutors accused the three men of accepting a total of more than $190,000 bribes over the life of the scheme.

According to the indictment, the two chiefs steered potential clients who wanted to expedite approval of their building projects to Mr. Santiago, and then ordered that those projects receive preferential treatment. Among the projects they fast-tracked were a high-end restaurant in Manhattan, a Brooklyn apartment building and two hotels near Kennedy Airport in Queens.

After getting paid by his clients, Mr. Santiago delivered bribes to Mr. Saccavino and Mr. Cordasco in cash and by check in face-to-face meetings at Fire Department offices in Brooklyn and steakhouse dinners in Manhattan, prosecutors said.

Mr. Saccavino funneled the illicit payments through a company started by his wife, while Mr. Cordasco received them through a company he had created and claimed was an entertainment business, prosecutors said.

Neither Mr. Saccavino nor Mr. Cordasco could be reached for comment Monday morning. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

There is no indication that the case is related to any of the four separate federal corruption investigations swirling around Mayor Eric Adams, his campaign and some of his most senior aides. The inquiry focused on the mayor is being conducted by the same agencies that investigated the chiefs, however, and also relates in part to fire safety inspections, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

The charges against the chiefs are likely to increase the pressure on Mr. Adams. His administration faces a welter of corruption investigations that led last week to the resignations of two top officials in three days.

The mayor’s police commissioner, Edward Caban, whose phone was seized days earlier by federal agents in a corruption inquiry focused on his twin brother, resigned on Thursday.

On Saturday, the mayor’s chief counsel, a former federal prosecutor from the Southern District who was hired in part for her reputation for integrity, also resigned, a move that two people with knowledge of the matter said was largely borne of frustration because the mayor was not following her advice on certain personnel matters.

The two chiefs, whose homes and offices at Fire Department headquarters were searched by federal agents and city investigators in February, are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Manhattan later on Monday, the people said.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Damian Williams, is overseeing the case against the chiefs as well as three of the four corruption inquiries involving the mayor and his aides.

Mr. Williams announced the indictment of the chiefs at a news conference Monday morning. He was joined by the city’s Department of Investigation commissioner, Jocelyn E. Strauber, and the head of New York’s F.B.I. Office, James E. Dennehy, whose agencies jointly conducted the inquiry.

The indictment charges the two chiefs with bribery and bribery conspiracy; honest services wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy; and making false statements. The crimes were committed as part of a scheme to accept tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for giving preferential treatment to people and companies who had matters pending before the Bureau of Fire Prevention, prosecutors said.

In February, the Fire Department put both men on modified duty and removed them from their positions at the Bureau of Fire Prevention after the searches of Mr. Cordasco’s home in Staten Island and Mr. Saccavino’s home in Harlem. Both men, one official said, have remained on modified duty.

City Payroll records show that in 2023, the Fire Department paid Mr. Saccavino $263,478 and Mr. Cordasco $257,296.

The alleged bribery scheme occurred amid a backdrop of extremely long waits for projects that need approval of fire safety plans and site inspections — delays that became exacerbated during height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Fire Department’s policy in most cases is that plans are reviewed and inspections done in the order that they are requested.

The investigation began about a year ago, one of the people said, when the retired firefighter, Mr. Santiago, told another senior Fire Department chief that he had made the payments to the two men. Mr. Santiago, who retired in December 2019, had been close with Mr. Saccavino and a fire cadet with Mr. Cordasco, but had a falling out with the chiefs in early 2023, according to the indictment.

The official that Mr. Santiago told about the payments responded that he was duty bound to report them to the Department of Investigation, and he did so.

The inquiry focused on the chiefs unfolded as the apparently separate corruption investigation into Mr. Adams’s fund-raising was also moving forward, several of the people said.

That broader inquiry has focused at least in part on whether the Turkish government conspired with Mr. Adams’s campaign to funnel illegal foreign donations into its coffers. In that investigation, the F.B.I. and prosecutors have examined whether Mr. Adams, weeks before his election in 2021, pressured Fire Department officials to sign off on the Turkish government’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns, people with knowledge of the matter have said.

Mr. Adams contacted the fire commissioner at the time, Daniel Nigro, on behalf of the consulate officials, who wanted the department to sign off on the consulate project in time for a September 2021 visit by the Turkish president. The Fire Department did approve the project before that visit.

Mr. Adams has said he did nothing improper, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.