A retired FDNY chief accused of fast-tracking safety inspections for thousands of dollars in off-the-books kickbacks pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit bribery.
Chief Brian Cordasco, 49, will also have to cough up $57,000 in ill-gotten gains from the bribery scam, which prosecutors said earned him and Chief Anthony Saccavino more than $190,000 in illegal payoffs.
The two retired chiefs were charged with bribery, wire fraud, lying to the FBI, and related charges on Sept. 16.
“Brian Cordasco abused the public’s trust repeatedly by selling access to the Bureau of Fire Prevention’s services in a pay-to-play bribery scheme,” Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement. “Today’s guilty plea should send a message that SDNY is committed to holding our public officials accountable when they resort to corruption.”
The two chiefs — who oversaw safety inspections for large city buildings and projects as the head of the FDNY’s Bureau of Fire Prevention — exploited a backlog of inspections during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic and agreed to bump paying developers to the top of the line.