Two brothers charged with bribing a former New York City buildings commissioner who was part of the Adams administration pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery on Wednesday.
The brothers, Joseph and Anthony Livreri, were charged in 2023 with giving the former commissioner, Eric Ulrich, cash that he used in part to fund his gambling at casinos and at the 89th Street Cafe, an illegal gambling club in Queens partially owned by one of the brothers, according to prosecutors.
In their guilty plea before Justice Daniel Conviser of Manhattan Supreme Court, the brothers said that between January 2021 and November 2022 they tried to leverage Mr. Ulrich’s influence as a city official for their own benefit.
The brothers said in court that they gave Mr. Ulrich $4,000 during that time to lift a vacate order on Fortunato Brothers Bakery after the business was shut down because of a fire. (The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the charges against the brothers, did not say what their connection was to the bakery.)
The brothers were indicted in 2023 alongside Mr. Ulrich, who was charged in a wide-ranging corruption scheme. Prosecutors said that Mr. Ulrich took bribes in exchange for using his position in City Hall to help his friends and associates.
In a statement on Wednesday, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said the scheme had “undermined the integrity of city government.”
“A city cannot deliver for its constituents when this type of blatant corruption occurs, and we will continue to pursue additional accountability at trial,” he said.
David Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Ulrich, said that his client maintained his innocence and looked forward to trial. Mr. Ulrich regularly borrowed money from family and friends, Mr. Cohen said, often to support his gambling habit and to pay bills.
“There was never any understanding nor expectation on Mr. Ulrich’s part that he would perform any official act nor try to influence anyone as a result or in exchange for the money he borrowed,” he said.
Mr. Ulrich’s indictment was seen as one of the first legal dominoes to fall in Eric Adams’s Democratic administration. Mr. Ulrich, a former Republican city councilman, was appointed by Mr. Adams first as a senior adviser and then, in May 2022, as his buildings commissioner. Mr. Ulrich resigned six months later, after the investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office was reported in the news.
Since then, others in Mr. Adams’s orbit have been snared in legal trouble. His former chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has been indicted five times by Mr. Bragg’s office. Two of his police commissioners have been targets of investigations, as have his director of Asian affairs, his chief political fund-raiser and others. His liaison to the Muslim community, Mohamed Bahi, pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud.
In 2024, Mr. Adams was himself indicted on federal charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions from foreign nationals and bribery. His was the first indictment of a sitting New York City mayor in modern history. The Justice Department ultimately abandoned the charges against him.
Mr. Ulrich is facing felony charges in four separate cases; a separate indictment against him was dismissed this year. He is scheduled to go to trial later this month in the case that originally included the Livreri brothers.
The brothers’ relationship with Mr. Ulrich stretches back to his tenure as a city councilman from 2009 to 2021, when he hired Joseph Livreri as an aid, according to prosecutors. Mr. Ulrich tried to hire him again after Mr. Ulrich entered City Hall as a senior adviser to the mayor, they said.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Ulrich used his position to benefit the brothers and another associate, Michael Mazzio, who operated a Brooklyn towing company. Mr. Mazzio has also been charged by Mr. Bragg and is scheduled to go to trial later this month.
Mr. Ulrich connected the men to high-ranking officials within city government through exclusive events and dinners, prosecutors said. The men also sought expedited inspections for businesses with health and building code violations, they said.
At the brothers’ sentencing in December, Joseph Livreri faces up to six months in jail and five years of probation. Anthony Livreri faces a sentence of five years of probation.
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