NEW YORK CITY — Four NYPD officials were arrested Monday morning for accepting trips, lavish gifts and prostitutes from two Brooklyn businessmen in exchange for police escorts, access and gun licenses, federal prosecutors said.
Deputy Inspector James Grant, the former commanding officer of the 19th and 66th precincts, Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, the former second-in-command in the housing bureau, and Sgt. David Villanueva, who worked in the department's licensing division, were arrested at their homes on public corruption conspiracy and bribery charges, sources and prosecutors said.
Jeremy Reichberg, who hosted a 2014 fundraiser for the mayor's Campaign for One New York nonprofit, was also arrested at his Brooklyn home on fraud and conspiracy charges, law-enforcement officials said. Alex Lichtenstein, who goes by Shaya, was also arrested and charged with bribing officers to fast-track gun permits, feds said.
"They got, in effect, a police force for themselves and their friends,"U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. "Effectively, they got cops on call."
Officer Richard Ochetal was also arrested on charges he accepted bribes from Lichtenstein in exchange for gun licenses. He has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with investigators, prosecutors said.
"Gun licenses were issued to people who had no business having them," Bharara said.
In a federal criminal complaint, FBI Special Agent Blaire Toleman detailed a four-year relationship between Grant and Reichberg in which the deputy inspector accepted gifts including trips to Rome and Las Vegas, where he received "services" from a prostitute.
Investigators believe Grant, who filed for retirement last month, provided Reichberg police escorts through traffic from the airport when the businessman returned from overseas trips.
According to prosecutors, Grant, who is married with children, flew to Las Vegas in February 2013 on a private jet with a group that included a prostitute, who then stayed in his hotel room.
"I have spoken to law enforcement agents who have debriefed [the prostitute], who confirmed, among other things, that [she] was engaged to accompany the persons on the trip and that Grant and others took advantage of her services during the trip," Toleman said in the federal complaint.
Months later, Grant took a vacation to Rome with his family and others, prosecutors said.
On Christmas Day 2013, Reichberg showed up at Grant's Staten Island home wearing an elf hat and gave him a video game system for his children and a $1,000 piece of jewelry for his wife, prosecutors said.
"These are never good days, never easy days," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said. "Police officers, especially high-ranking members of the department, have to know better."
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