New details have emerged about some of the 70 suspects arrested in a bribery scandal involving the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).
Among the 70 suspects in the bribery scheme, which was Alex Tolozano, a Bronx-based administrative housing superintendent who had previously been suspended after being caught naked in bed with a woman during a work-related video conference call in 2022.
"During the meeting participants observed Alex Tolozano's phone camera was on the screen for at least two minutes revealing that he was potentially engaged in inappropriate activity with another individual," NYCHA officials said of the incident, as quoted by The City.
Tolozano was immediately given a suspension without pay for 30 days following the incident, but remained an employee at the NYCHA until January 2024. Prior to the Zoom call incident, Tolozano was also suspended in 1995 and 2015 and reprimanded in 2014 over work performance issues, per The New York Post.
Other Staffers Involved in the Scandal
Apart from Tolozano, other NYCHA staffers involved in the bribery scandal have also previously been involved in controversy. Elizabeth Tapia, who is accused of pocketing $11,000 in bribes, had previously been caught giving her boyfriend, a subordinate, preferential treatment by manipulating his time sheets. She was suspended for 15 days, according to The Post.
Dwarka Rupnarian, another defendant who allegedly raked in $83,100 in bribes from contracts worth $508,000, was also previously seen posting snaps from grand overseas family vacations and exotic cars on his Facebook profile.
Henry McPhatter, who served as a superintendent at two buildings in Brooklyn and Harlem from 2020 to 2022, had also previously been given a suspension after he admitted to charging a subordinate $50 to review a resume using his work computer.
NYCHA Controversies
Prior to the $2M corruption scandal, the NYCHA has been the subject of multiple complaints over the years, with tenants sounding the alarm over aging buildings, rodents, and leaky pipes across hundreds of the agency's housing developments.
In 2017, the NYCHA was also found to have submitted false paperwork to the federal government where it claimed that it had conducted inspections of lead paint in apartments even when it failed to inspect its buildings for years.
Additionally, the NYCHA is currently named in a negligence complaint filed by a Brooklyn woman who was brutally stabbed more than 10 times by a career criminal in one of the agency's developments. In the lawsuit, the complainant accused the NYCHA of failing to fix any broken locks or doors in the building despite being aware of the issues.