(The Center Square) — Federal prosecutors have charged four people in New York City with embezzling more than $1.3 million from a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that operated migrant shelters as part of a widening public corruption investigation.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York alleges Jean Ronald Tirelus and Roberto Samedy, former chair and executive director of BHRAGS Home Care Corp., received bribes and kickbacks from subcontractors who provided furniture, security and other services to taxpayer-funded migrant shelters run by the group in exchange for steering city contracts worth millions to their businesses.
Both men were arrested late Tuesday and arraigned on wire fraud, embezzlement, and bribery-related offenses, authorities said. They pleaded not guilty before a U.S. District Court judge in Brooklyn.
The indictment alleges they helped two others — Miguel Jorge and retired NYPD Sgt. Edouardo St. Fort — steered millions of dollars in business to their companies in exchange for alleged bribes and kickbacks. St. Fort has received about $7 million in city contracts to guard shelters, according to the federal indictment. Most of the funding was awarded under emergency contracts authorized by then-Mayor Eric Adams.
“As alleged, the defendants used their leadership positions to loot public funds from an organization devoted to serving vulnerable New Yorkers,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. said in a statement. “Rooting out corruption is a priority for our office, and we will hold accountable anyone who exploits charitable trust for private gain.”
The indictments follow news that federal prosecutors are looking into whether New York City Councilmember Farah Louis and her sister, Debbie Louis — an aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul — helped secure the contracts for St. Fort’s company in exchange for bribes. Neither have been charged with any crimes.
Debbie Louis was placed on leave after Gov. Kathy Hochul was informed about the investigation last week, a Hochul spokesperson said.
A March 19 federal warrant issued for a phone and other items also named Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Edu Hermelyn, a one-time advisor to Adams who resigned last year amid questions about a potential conflict of interest by serving dual leadership roles.
BHRAGS was hired by the city in 2022 to run an emergency migrant shelter. The company has received more than $200 million through contracts with the city to operate the shelter in response to a massive influx of migrants and asylum seekers, records show.
Federal prosecutors allege that between August 2020 and January 2024, Tirelus and Samedy embezzled and fraudulently obtained more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds. In one example, prosecutors said the men persuaded the nonprofit’s board of directors to authorize an $800,000 payment to a shell company. The money was later transferred to a bank controlled by Tirelus, according to authorities.
Christopher Ryan, acting commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation — which is helping federal authorities with the investigation — said the defendants “capitalized on the city’s urgent need for homeless shelter providers by allegedly steering business to favored vendors in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.”
“Those who exploit the City’s need for homeless shelters endanger the very programs meant to help unhoused people,” Ryan said in a statement.
New York City saw hundreds of thousands of migrants flocking to the city between 2022 and 2024 following a surge of immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border. The city spent more than $8 billion on housing, food and other costs for migrants over the past two years, drawing scrutiny from the Trump administration.
Under New York’s right-to-shelter law, the city must provide emergency housing to anyone who requests it, regardless of their immigration status. At one point, the city was operating more than 50 emergency shelters as it struggled to care for more than 70,000 migrants, refugees, and other homeless individuals.
