RIGHT SPEAK: ICYMI: NYC Nonprofit Boss Took $2.5M in Bribes to Steer City COVID Funds to Businesses: Feds; Ex-Juvenile Lifer Pleads Guilty in Montco to Stealing $95K in COVID Relief Funds to Pay His Credit Card Debt, and other C-Virus related stories

NYC nonprofit boss took $2.5M in bribes to steer city COVID funds to businesses: feds:

The founder of a New York City nonprofit helping ex-cons pocketed $2.5 million worth of bribes — including two homes, luxury car loan payments and stacks of cash — in exchange for steering $51 million in COVID funding to two shady businesspeople, federal prosecutors allege.

Julio Medina, 64, founder and CEO of Exodus Transitional Community, which during the pandemic helped the Big Apple place inmates in hotels to help reduce jail populations and slow the spread of COVID-19 in city lockups, was indicted Thursday by the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office.

Exodus accepted $122 million in public funds from the mayor’s office to operate these hotels from June 2020 through December 2023 — but Medina allegedly funneled $51 million of the money to businesses run by co-defendants Christopher Dantzler, 49, and Weihong Hu, 59, in exchange for kickbacks, the feds charged.

Danztler and Hu — an associate of Mayor Eric Adams’ former aide Winnie Greco who donated tens of thousands to the mayor’s 2021 campaign — bought a $1.3 million Washington Heights townhouse for Medina and also bought him a house in Clifton Park, NY and paid for renovations for it for a total of $750,000, prosecutors claimed.

Hu, through her company, allegedly provided over $50,000 in car payments for Medina on a luxury vehicle worth $107,000 and Dantzler, through his business, paid off $75,000 in debts for Medina and his family members, the feds alleged.

Danztler’s company allegedly received funds from Exodus to provide bogus security services at the hotel but his business was not a licensed security company and it didn’t actually provide security services, prosecutors claimed. --->READ MORE HERE

Ex-juvenile lifer pleads guilty in Montco to stealing $95K in COVID relief funds to pay his credit card debt:

A Lansdale man pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $95,000 in rental-assistance funding meant to help landlords during the COVID-19 pandemic, money that he and his wife used to pay off their credit card debt.

Vernon Steed, 56, entered the plea Tuesday to dealing in unlawful proceeds, conspiracy, theft by deception, and related crimes not long after the start of what was expected to be a three-day trial before Montgomery County Court Judge Thomas DelRicci.

Steed, a former juvenile lifer, spent 32 years in state prison for killing a bystander in a North Philadelphia shooting but was freed in 2018 after a U.S. Supreme Court decision triggered a hearing in which he was released on time served.

But his new conviction in Montgomery County is a violation of his parole, prosecutors said, and he may soon find himself back behind bars.

As of Wednesday, Steed remained free on bail, awaiting sentencing in the theft case in which prosecutors say he and his wife, Mary, stole $94,785. His attorney, Edward Foster, did not respond to a request for comment.

County officials discovered the scheme after learning that 10 applications for pandemic rental assistance were made on behalf of a single landlord, a then-deceased woman who was Steed’s sister-in-law, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. --->READ MORE HERE