The founding father of a New York Metropolis nonprofit serving to ex-cons pocketed $2.5 million price of bribes — together with two properties, luxurious automobile mortgage funds and stacks of money — in change for steering $51 million in COVID funding to 2 shady businesspeople, federal prosecutors allege.
Julio Medina, 64, founder and CEO of Exodus Transitional Group, which throughout the pandemic helped the Large Apple place inmates in lodges to assist cut back jail populations and sluggish the unfold of COVID-19 in metropolis lockups, was indicted Thursday by the Brooklyn US Legal professional’s Workplace.
Exodus accepted $122 million in public funds from the mayor’s workplace to function these lodges from June 2020 by December 2023 — however Medina allegedly funneled $51 million of the cash to companies run by co-defendants Christopher Dantzler, 49, and Weihong Hu, 59, in change for kickbacks, the feds charged.
Danztler and Hu — an affiliate of Mayor Eric Adams’ former aide Winnie Greco who donated tens of hundreds to the mayor’s 2021 marketing campaign — purchased a $1.3 million Washington Heights townhouse for Medina and in addition purchased him a home in Clifton Park, NY and paid for renovations for it for a complete of $750,000, prosecutors claimed.
Hu, by her firm, allegedly offered over $50,000 in automobile funds for Medina on a luxurious car price $107,000 and Dantzler, by his enterprise, paid off $75,000 in money owed for Medina and his members of the family, the feds alleged.
Danztler’s firm allegedly acquired funds from Exodus to supply bogus safety companies on the resort however his enterprise was not a licensed safety firm and it didn’t really present safety companies, prosecutors claimed.
Hu’s firm ran two lodges in Queens and was additionally a member of a catering firm that offered meals companies on the lodges, in response to the feds.
Hu, of Manhattan, and Dantlzer, of Baldwin, NY, additionally gave Medina money bribes, prosecutors claimed.
Photographs included within the indictment towards the trio confirmed Medina taking a stack of money from Hu, across the time Exodus lower her catering firm two checks totaling over $187,000, the feds claimed.
“Shamefully, the defendants noticed the pandemic as a chance to line their pockets with stacks of money, finance a luxurious car, buy properties and repay private money owed,” Brooklyn US Legal professional John J. Durham mentioned in a press release.
They have been all charged with wire fraud conspiracy, sincere companies wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the journey act. They withstand 45 years behind bars if convicted on all expenses.
The trio have been arraigned in Brooklyn federal court docket on Thursday the place Choose James Cho set bond at $250,000 for Medina, $20 million for Hu and $750,000 for Dantzler.
“In my judgment, Ms Hu is in some ways a “sufferer” on this case and never a co- conspirator,” Hu’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman advised The Submit.
Attorneys for Medina and Dantzler didn’t return requests for remark Friday.
— Extra reporting by Kyle Schnitzer
