FLAT-OUT GREED
DA: 3 honchos at B’klyn complex took nearly $1M in bribes in housing scam
A trio of crooked Coney Island housing officials collected $874,000 in cash bribes to steer deep-pocketed applicants into coveted MitchellLama apartments — and stiff lower-income New Yorkers, authorities charged Tuesday.
Defendants Anna Treybich, Irina Zeltser and Karina Andriyan used the dirty money collectedfromtheirhigh-ranking positions at the Luna Park Housing Corp. to buy pricey Florida real estate along with a high-end collection of fur coats, designer handbags and jewelry. The three were charged in a massive 78-count indictment with conspiracy, grand larceny, bribe-receiving and other crimes dating to 2013.
“This case exposed a pervasive pattern of corruption and bribery in deciding who received an affordable apartment,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “And this case is also about workingclass families being deprived of the affordable housing that they’ve been waiting for.”
Under the lucrative and sophisticated scam, the payoffs were made to ensure that doctored paperwork would be filed for applicants permitted to leapfrog over hundreds of moderate- and middle-income families on the waiting list for a spot in the 1,573 city-supervised Brooklyn co-ops.
The defendants “used these apartments essentially as their own piggy banks,” said city Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett.
Treybich, 71, and Zeltser, 66, were both members of the corporation’s Board of Directors, while Andriyan, 38, worked as the office manager. The youngest suspect was responsible for maintaining the waiting list of applicants and processing applications for the affordable housing complex, officials said.
All three declined to comment after they were arraigned and released on $50,000 bail in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
According to authorities, 18 apartments were involved in the scam where cash was more important than a set of keys to get through the front
door. The total values of those residences: $5 million, or about $275,000 apiece.
The scheme was no secret to the residents of Luna Park.
“Everybody knew what’s going on. It’s been going on for years,” said one woman, who has lived in the complex since 1999. “Everything is under the table. They took down these three people but there’s still more left. There’s so many people involved.”
She said residents knew the prices well. “It’s like, $100,000 for a three-bedroom, 50 and change for a two-bedroom, and I think it’s between 40 and 50 for a one-bedroom,” she said.
People who paid the bribes would often rent them out illegally, she said. “It’s unfair that people are buying apartments like this,” the woman said. “The people who do buy apartments should be kicked out because they illegally bought their apartments.”
Mikhail Diner, 72, another longtime resident, said he tried to organize his neighbors and bring up the bribery scheme at a community meeting last week — and then his car tires were slashed. “I just leased this car a few months ago,” he said. “They made big holes in all four of my tires.”
DA Gonzalez acknowledged the scam was likely more widespread than detailed in the charges. “We would have to be naive to believe that these are the only apartments in Luna Park that were awarded by bribery,” he said, alleging the corrupt system was an “open secret” among local residents.
Assistant District Attorney Vivian Joo said prosecutors could produce “voluminous documents showing forgeries” related to the charges.
There were typically three ways to land one of the apartments sold for prices significantly below market value: Residents could apply to move from one apartment to another; nonresidents could apply for one of the available apartments, or residents who lived with an owner could apply for successor ownership rights.
The internal and external lists were supposed to be kept chronologically in the order they were submitted.
“At Luna Park, there was a fourth option to secure an apartment … bribing those that controlled the application process,” charged Gonzalez as authorities released details of two incidents.
In a 2013 case, a woman surrendered a total of $93,000 cash in regular monthly payments to secure a three-bedroom apartment as a successor tenant after providing forged documents indicating she was the daughter of the elderly resident. Two years later, another co-op purchaser paid $26,000 in illegal money after Treybich altered a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and a passport, officials charged.
“Their alleged greed cheated people who were entitled to apartments that instead went to those willing to pay bribes,” said Gonzalez.
The Mitchell-Lama program was launched in 1955 to provide affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderateand middle-income families. It was sponsored by state Sen. MacNeil Mitchell and Assemblyman Alfred Lama.
Authorities said the city Housing Preservation and Development Department was deceived by the scam into signing off on the deals secured by bribes. “We will continue to work closely with the [city Department of Investigation] on their ongoing investigation, and have already instituted several changes to strengthen our processes to ensure there is fair access to this vital source of affordable housing,” said a Housing Preservation and Development Department statement.