A construction firm indicted in a kickback scheme wants the NYPD to fork over $5.3 million for work at police headquarters — even though its contract was denied over corruption concerns.
MDB Development Corporation claims in a new lawsuit that police officials continued to expand the scope of a 2022 contract to inspect the collapsing facade of 1 Police Plaza, the brutalist HQ of the NYPD, all while promising that the next contract for the actual repair work was incoming.
But years later, that next contract never arrived — partly because the city comptroller’s office rejected an emergency procurement request last fall, citing a 2023 criminal indictment accusing the firm of a $50,000 kickback scheme at an unrelated job site.
Yet NYPD officials ordered MDB to continue to maintain the building’s scaffolding, and to even order custom brickwork for the to-be-awarded contract, all of which has cost the firm at least $5.37 million, according to court papers obtained by The Post.
The city and the NYPD “have refused to pay outstanding balances for both the contracted work and the additional work—most notably, ongoing rental charges for scaffolding and sidewalk bridging (“Scaffolding”), which the NYPD continues to use,” the suit reads.
“An indictment doesn’t mean you don’t get paid,” said an attorney for the firm, Brian Gardner. “You can’t just not pay for past work because of these reasons.”
A spokesperson for the city’s law department said the office was investigating the claims.
Back in 2021, NYPD officials requested an emergency contract for a facade inspection and repair work at 1PP after bricks and other debris fell to the ground a year earlier.
That emergency $5 million contract was granted and awarded to MDB but only for the inspection phase, according to a letter sent last fall from the comptroller’s office obtained through a public records.
The NYPD asked for the same emergency approval to extend to the repair phase — but was denied multiple times by the comptroller’s office, according to the letter from Charlette Hamamgian, deputy comptroller for contracts.
The letter — first reported on by the Daily News — excoriated the department for continuing work with MDB without a proper contract and without vendor safeguards following the criminal indictment of MDB and its owner, Michael DeBellas.
“Due to inadequate oversight by NYPD, MDB had already performed asbestos testing, window testing and additional overhead protection under the emergency contract without first obtaining the Charter-mandated Prior Approval of this Office,” Hamamgian wrote.
All the while, the NYPD directed MDB to order $188,268 in custom brick work, “as brick had a several month lead-time, and the NYPD stated that they did not want a delay with the Phase II work,” the suit claims.
That’s in addition to keeping the extensive scaffolding outside of 1 PPP in place since 2022, which MDB said costs over $200,000 a month.
“There is no justification or excuse whatsoever for the NYPD’s continued nonpayment to MDB for the work, equipment and materials provided to the Project at the NYPD’s request and direction, including MDB’s scaffolding which remains on site serving a critical public safety function to date,” the suit reads.
The NYPD said MDB has not performed work since November 2022 and that the scaffolding is all that remains in place.
In January, DeBellas and MDB pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in connection to the kickback scheme, and paid a $50,000 forfeiture, in addition to hiring an integrity monitor for one year, according to the Manhattan DA’s office.
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