'Corrupt' Brooklyn Cops Allegedly Accepted Hookers, Tickets, Trips and More

Pictured: NYPD Officer James Grant, who allegedly accepted an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas for the Super Bowl 2013, complete with a personal prostitute.

BOROUGH PARK, BROOKLYN — Jeremy Reichberg, a local businessman with deep ties to Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community, was able to bypass city law and secure police favors for him and his friends by bribing high-ranking officers with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), according to three bombshell indictments revealed Monday by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Grant and Harrington accepted "flights, hotel rooms, prostitutes, expensive meals, home improvements, and prime seats to sporting events, among other things" from Reichberg, according to prosecutors.

Here are some of the alleged perks provided to officers by Reichberg and his associate, Manhattan real-estate investor Jona Rechnitz — both of them also big donors to Bill de Blasio during his run for mayor. (Which is why the mayor is sweating right now.)

• An all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas for the 2013 Super Bowl for Grant and his detective friend (the private jet alone cost nearly $60,000 — and when, two years later, Grant didn't receive another invite, he allegedly said: "See you don't love me anymore bro... You don't invite me to the Super Bowl, what the f**k")
• A personal prostitute for the Super Bowl weekend in Vegas
• A two-night stay for Grant's family at the "most luxurious hotel in Rome" (costing upward of $1,000)
• $12,000 in renovations to Grant's home
• A $3,000 watch for Grant
• Regular free lunches and dinners, including a series of $400 to $500 dinners for Harrington at expensive Manhattan restaurants
• Tickets to sporting events, including tickets to a Brooklyn Nets basketball game ($400 each) and tickets to a New York Rangers hockey game ($700 each)
• A Christmas Day visit to both officers' homes from two men dressed up as elves, bearing gifts such as a video game console and fancy jewelry
• A $6,500 trip to Chicago for Harrington's family
• Work contracts with a security firm run by a relative of Harrington's
• Advice and local influence on NYPD job promotions for Grant and Harrington (for instance, Reichberg allegedly took credit for securing Grant top-brass status on the Upper East Side)

And here are some of the backward favors these two ex-Brooklyn cops allegedly offered to Reichberg and Rechnitz in return.

• Police escorts to and from the airport, sometimes "using the lights and sirens of a police car" and, in one case, requiring a lane closure in the Lincoln Tunnel
• On-call police response to the businessmen's various properties for reports of vandalism, trespassing, suspected break-ins, "diamond-related disputes" with customers and even a feud with a neighboring diamond shop
• Extra cop patrols at the local synagogue
• "VIP treatment" beyond police barricades at public events, such as the New York City Marathon and the New Year's Eve ball drop at Times Square
• Special NYPD cards for the businessmen and their friends, which they could flash at officers in the field in exchange for special "courtesies" (even, in one case, when an associate of Reichberg's was pulled over for "driving like a f**king lunatic" and blowing through red lights in Brooklyn)
• NYPD officers sent to disperse protesters at Reichberg's friend's business
• Easy and quick access to NYPD-issued gun licenses (more on this below)

Two other indictments, also unsealed Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, detail additional bribery charges against two NYPD officers in the Gun Licensing Division: Richard Ochetal and David Villanueva.

In exchange for issuing under-the-table gun licenses, Villanueva allegedly accepted liquor, limo rides, a winery tour and thousands of dollars in cash from Alex "Chaya" Lichtenstein, 44 — another big name on the Brooklyn business scene, an alleged associate of the two main moneymen at the center of the scandal and a member of Borough Park's private, Orthodox-only security team.

Lichtenstein then charged his clients up to $18,000 for the illegitimate licenses, according to prosecutors—around one-third of which he would pass to Villanueva.

Throughout the course of this dangerous scheme, prosecutors said, gun licenses were issued to over 100 people without proper paperwork.

Even more frightening: The secret client list allegedly included one person who had previously been arrested for assault, and another person with four domestic-violence complaints.

"An officer who betrays his badge betrays every honorable officer," Preet Bahrara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, said grimly at a Monday press conference.

And Diego Rodriquez, second in command at the FBI's New York field office, issued a blistering statement on the allegations of local corruption.

“The abuses of power alleged in this case are not victimless crimes. The victims are the citizens of New York, who rely on officers to fulfill their sworn duty. The victims are the upstanding police officers who do everything in their power to uphold the law and protect the public. The victims are public trust and confidence in law enforcement, both critical to ensuring public safety. The FBI, along with our partners, will continue to root out this kind of decay at every level in order to protect our citizens from the devastating consequences of corruption that undermines safety, and erodes the trust between law enforcement and the public.”

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, for his part, said Monday that he saw some irony in the charges, seeing as the department "strongly" encourages cops at all levels "develop relationships with their communities."

Bratton said he would be addressing the issue of corruption in a meeting with top officers at the end of the month. "You learn from [failures] and then you move forward," he said.

Info on the sweeping FBI corruption probe into top NYC officials has been leaking to city newspapers for months. However, Monday's arrests and indictments are the first official confirmation that this thing is really going down.

According to Murray Weiss, DNAinfo's ace crime reporter, nearly a dozen top cops at the NYPD have become ensnared in the ongoing federal investigation. One by one, the department has been transferring them to less powerful positions and/or stripping them of their guns and badges.

In anticipation of the FBI takedown, James Grant, facing perhaps the worst of the allegations, announced his retirement late last month — an apparent attempt to protect his fat NYPD pension. We'll see how that plays out with the prosecution.

UPDATE, June 20, 6 p.m.: According to the Israeli media, Reichberg has been released on $500,000 bail. Photo below.