Joe Biden’s business associated Tony Bobulinski, testified before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on Tuesday.
He said, “His family’s foreign influence peddling operation—from China to Ukraine and elsewhere—sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government,” Bobulinski testified.
In other news, it has come to light that dozens of public housing employees in New York City are facing charges of bribery and extortion after the Justice Department made the single largest number of such arrests last week.
As per The New York Times, federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) with accepting cash bribes from contractors in exchange for Housing Authority contracts.
Prosecutors have alleged that the suspects accepted over $2 million in bribes from contractors seeking to secure contracts for nearly 100 buildings under the Housing Authority across all five boroughs.
The contracts amounted to over $13 million in work, with the suspects typically receiving kickbacks of 10% to 20%, and sometimes more, according to prosecutors, the Times reported.
“This culture of corruption at NYCHA ends today,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said during a press conference Tuesday morning, calling it a “classic pay to play” scheme.
A significant portion of the corruption within the Housing Authority pertained to smaller contracts, such as window or plumbing repairs, which initially went unnoticed. City contracts valued at less than $10,000 can be awarded by local development managers without the need for public bidding, making them susceptible to exploitation, the report said.
Lisa Bova-Hiatt, NYCHA’s chief executive, said the suspects “put their greed first and violated the trust of our residents, their fellow NYCHA colleagues, and all New Yorkers.”
“We will not allow bad actors to disrupt or undermine our achievements,” she added.
