Bribes Won Ex-De Blasio Donor Millions In City Contracts, DA Says

NEW YORK, NY — An elaborate bribery scheme involving a former city employee and a onetime donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio netted $250 million in city contracts for a chosen few construction management firms, Manhattan prosecutors said Wednesday. A long-term probe ended with charges against 13 people and nine companies involved in a trio of scams that prosecutors say skirted contracting and election laws while enriching the defendants.

"From 2007 to 2016, a handful of industry players transformed our City’s water infrastructure procurement process into their own personal swamp," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.

As a middle manager at the city Department of Environmental Protection, Ifeanyi "Manny" Madu allegedly leaked confidential details of upcoming public works proejcts to six people and their companies. Those firms went on to bid on the projects knowing exactly what the city was looking for and who would be selecting winners, Vance said.

Among those receiving leaked information was Husam Ahmad of Queens, who until recently ran HAKS, an engineering firm, and served on the board of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit that supports city causes. He was removed from the latter post in February, the New York Daily News reported.

Ahmad's firm and two others used the leaks to win over $250 million worth of city contracts, Vance said. They rewarded Madu by giving sub-contracts worth more than $7.5 million to companies he and his family and friends controlled, prosecutors said, along with more typical gifts of Broadway show tickets, sumptuous meals and hotel stays.

Ahmad and three of his associates also schemed to take over SIMCO Engineering, a firm that was eligible for contracts designated for minority- and women-owned businesses, prosecutors said.

Working with two HAKS employees, Ahmad gave Muhammad Sidiqqi, his former employee, the money to acquire a majority stake in SIMCO to preserve its eligibility for those special contracts while Ahmad maintained control, prosecutors said. Ahmad's "high-income" status would have disqualified SIMCO from getting those contracts if it was known that he controlled it, Vance said.

Madu, his wife and his former assistant also set up "sham" companies eligible for minority contracts that they used to receive lucrative sub-contracts as bribes, Vance said.

Accoridng to prosecutors, Ahmad also tried to buy political clout in the 2013 mayoral race by hosting fundraising luncheons for de Blasio, Democratic candidate Bill Thompson and Joe Lhota, who ran as a Republican and is now the Metropoltian Transportation Authority chairman.

Ahmad got HAKS employees to donate to the candidates' campaigns, then illegally reimbursed them with year-end bonuses, Vance said. Neither the candidates nor the city's Campaign Finance Board knew Ahmad was using illegal tactics, the DA said.

The indicted people and companies face charges including bribery, bribe receiving and corrupting the government. The defendants were arraigned Wednesday morning, Vance said.

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