Developer Charged With Bribery of DOB Inspector
Monday was a bad day for small-time developer Vauguens Michel. When a DOB inspector checking out a construction site of Michel’s at 514 Maple Street noticed that another of his properties just five lots away had illegal excavation work going on, the 49-year-old Brooklyn resident offered $500 to try to convince the inspector not write…
Monday was a bad day for small-time developer Vauguens Michel. When a DOB inspector checking out a construction site of Michel’s at 514 Maple Street noticed that another of his properties just five lots away had illegal excavation work going on, the 49-year-old Brooklyn resident offered $500 to try to convince the inspector not write him up. Rebuffed, Michel doubled down with an offer of $1,000. You see, sites with excavation deeper than five feet are required to have shoring and bracing. The hole at 504 Maple (at right) was between 12 and 14 feet deep. Michel may have been playing the game as he thought it was played, but this one backfired in his face. The inspector reported him immediately and the developer was arrested yesterday by the city’s Department of Investigation on charges of Bribery in the Third Degree, a class D felony, and Rewarding Official Misconduct in the Second Degree, a class E felony. In all, he could be looking at up to seven years in the clinker. Do any readers have any anecdotes of inspector bribery they’d care to share? GMAP P*Shark
Photo by Nicholas Strini for Property Shark
Silly developer. Bribes should be in the form of campaign contributions.
The looking the other way happens all the time – this inspector should get a medal (a shame for someone to get a medal for doing their job right)
On Waverly Ave between Park and Myrtle the developer of hideous buildings has 2 areas where they excavated and cause structural damage not to one but 2 brownstones – one of which has some kind of steel beam up it’s side and another where the damage forced the people to move out. How much they paid off the inspectors is beyond me…
Anon 6:05. Testimony is evidence.
I see most of you have not personally been down to your borough DOB. It’s changed dramaticly. DOI and DOB got rid of lots of old inspectors and some left for fear of finally getting caught.
I want to know what evidence they could have other than the inspector saying it happened. Did he record the guy? was there a video camera? if they just take the word of the inspector, then they are giving them, indirectly, the power to put people away merely by lying.
Back in the late ’80s (ancient history, I believe, for most people on this site), there were tales of HPD inspectors who wouldn’t retire when they were 65. The reason? Not dedication to their jobs…but because they couldn’t give up all that extra bribe income….
Does DOB Head Pat Lancaster know that most folks think this bribery still happens all the time? Does the DOB monitor Brownstoner to know that this sort of thing occurs on routine basis??
Does DOB Head Pat Lancaster know that most folks think this bribery still happens all the time? Does the DOB monitor Brownstoner to know that this sort of thing occurs on routine basis??
I think 10:15’s point doesn’t make any sense here. If this guy just didn’t want to take a bribe for something that risky, then why did he report the guy for offering him a bribe? Why not just turn him down, issue the violation, and make it clear that this was just too egregious to look away. That would keep this developer in the inspector’s pocket.
The way it happened suggests to me that the DOB inspector may actually have been taking his job seriously.