“Mr. Rivera is well paid,” said David Abramowicz, assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York. “He doesn’t need more than that. He wants more.”
Rivera received more than $66,000 in kickbacks from a company called RJP Construction and its owner, Fernando Rodriguez, a pastor in the Bronx, according to court records. He arranged for RJP to take contract work at a shelter building in the Bronx in exchange for 7% of the construction contract. The kickback was disguised as a “consultation fee” paid to a company run by Mr Rivera and his ex-wife. Mr. Rodriguez is criminally charged charge in a separate healthcare fraud lawsuit, in which he pleaded guilty.
Mr. Rivera pocketed an additional $492,000 in kickbacks from a security firm called the Prime Protective Bureau, which received $12 million in contracts to police the Bronx Parent Housing Network’s shelters . According to prosecutors and Mr. Rivera’s attorneys, Mr. Rivera asked the security firm’s CEO to cut checks on his for-profit company, Outreach Consulting and a private equity firm. Another company run by his son Rivera is called TLV Consultants, according to prosecutors and Rivera’s attorney.
Mr. Rivera also asked the security firm to hire his ex-wife, Lanet Rivera, court records show, after she was forced to resign from the Bronx Mother Housing Network because of a conflict of interest. As of last year, the Prime Minister’s Protection Bureau had paid Ms Rivera more than $372,000. The couple, who married in 2009, separated because of Rivera’s infidelity and criminal case, according to legal filings from Rivera’s attorney.
Prosecutors said the largest kickback payment to Mr Rivera – nearly $690,000 – came from a real estate company whose rental records show was linked to his former business partner, Sheina Levin .
In exchange for renting a shelter building from Urban Residences Corp., Mr. Rivera asked for the money to be returned to a consulting firm run by his son, which has “very little if any business expenses.” ”, according to Mr. Rivera’s attorney and the sentencing government. Prosecutors said Rivera used most of the money to pay off his mortgage.
Attorneys for Ms. Levin declined to comment.
Mr. Rivera’s attorney has argued that Mr. Rivera should be sentenced to probation and community service because of his years of philanthropy and cooperation with the government. But federal prosecutors say the jail time is needed to serve as a warning to other shelter operators who may be looking to exploit taxpayers’ money.
