Seven airport taxi dispatchers were busted in an undercover sting operation and charged with unlawfully receiving cash bribes in a taxi-dispatching scheme at LaGuardia Airport, prosecutors said.
The seven defendants are all employees of Port Authority contractor Gateway Group One Frontline Services: Louis Evens, 57, of Valley Stream; Delia Gonzalez, 51, of East Elmhurst; Algimir Kabir, 60, of Kew Gardens; Claudine Roberts, 33, of the Bronx; Claude Tobias, 33, of the Bronx; Gary Luc Valerius, 55, of Valley Stream; and Michael Zalt, 66, of Woodside.
According to the charges, between February and June 2015, the defendants allegedly accepted cash payments of $5 to $10 to allow undercover taxi drivers to skip the long lines in the Central Taxi Holding Area, as required by the Port Authority, and instead go straight to the terminals to pick up passengers.
Each of the drivers was charged with second-degree commercial bribe receiving, official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities, and faces up to a year behind bars if convicted.
5 comments:
Just because politicians are corrupt and take bribes every Joe Smow thinks he can too,run for higher office if you want to get away with taking bribes Morons.
I'll sleep much better knowing these hardend criminals are off the street. Now if Brown were to go after DOB inspectors or the politicians then we would have something.
Trump says he donates $ to all politicians to gain access. Isn't this the same as taxi drivers giving money to the dispatchers?
Like everything that is tainted, abused, abrogated and lawless here in the new (and rapidly decaying) Fourth World Capital of Queens County---only the little fish are fried to oblivion---while the big, bloated fish live on like exalted, Babylonian kings.
Otherwise, all corrupt politicians themselves would be shutting down their own 'Three Card Monte' tables, faster than a Times Square raid, circa 1985!
A summary: dishonest jerks taking bribes, an environment in Queens that makes everyone feel entitled to break the law, a policy of outsourcing jobs to low bidder, low life companies that hire anyone, paying them at the cheapest rate and then everyone is surprised that they take bribes. There is no excuse for taking the money, but the bigger picture is contributory.
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