Eighteen federal, state and city government workers were charged on Thursday in a sprawling indictment that accused them of manufacturing ghost guns, identity theft, fraud and robbery, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
A 2022 investigation into a man who was later indicted for allegedly manufacturing ghost guns in his East Village apartment led prosecutors to a potentially larger scheme. Authorities said they eventually uncovered text messages about what they characterized as a $1.2 million fraud plot to use homeless peoples’ identities to submit 170 fraudulent applications to the state’s pandemic unemployment assistance program. Bragg alleged the group then enlisted a United States postal worker to intercept mail on their behalf.
“Stealing the identity of New Yorkers, many of them homeless, and defrauding a critical social safety net program during one of the most challenging times in our history – our city’s history – is downright shameful,” Bragg said at a press conference on Thursday.
Prosecutors alleged that five city Department of Homeless Services employees and the postal worker abused their government positions to commit the fraud. These employees were accused of using access to departmental databases to access the identities of people staying in homeless shelters.
Other government workers were also accused of participating in the ring, including an NYPD school safety officer, an MTA worker and an employee of the New York City Housing Authority, authorities said.
The indictments identified eight public employees:
- Craig Freeman, 56, Department of Homeless Services
- Charde Baker, 35, Department of Homeless Services
- Latricia Kitchens, 36, Department of Homeless Services
- Garret Whetsell, 38, Department of Homeless Services
- Shanice Roberts, 30, NYPD
- Dawayne Bell, 32 New York City Housing Authority
- David Barr, 33, MTA
- Sabur Khalifah, 43, United States Postal Service
Attorney information for the defendants was not immediately available.
NYCHA…
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