Nonprofit at the center of federal corruption probe still has a $94M city contract

A Brooklyn nonprofit whose leaders were indicted this week on federal bribery and embezzlement charges has a $94 million city contract set to begin this summer — and officials have not said whether they plan to cancel it.

BHRAGS Home Care Corp., which operates homeless shelters across New York City, was awarded the contract last year through a competitive bidding process to provide shelter for single adults in Brooklyn beginning July 1, according to city records.

The Department of Social Services has not said whether it intends to let the contract proceed in light of the charges against the organization's former leadership.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and are in the process of determining next steps in light of these serious allegations," DSS spokesperson Neha Sharma said in a statement.

An indictment, unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, charges Roberto Samedy, BHRAGS’ executive director, and Jean Ronald Tirelus, its former board chair, with embezzling more than $1.3 million from the nonprofit and steering business to companies controlled by co-defendants Edouardo St. Fort and Miguel Jorge in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. A spokesperson for BHRAGS said earlier this week that Samedy is on administrative leave and that the organization has been cooperating with law enforcement.

Attorneys for the two men were not immediately available for comment.

Though most of the new contract's details have not been made public, a notice from late last year inviting public comment on the contract raises additional questions: The Brooklyn address listed for BHRAGS actually leads to a storefront for Fort NYC Security, owned by St. Fort.

The retired NYPD sergeant is accused of paying bribes to the BHRAGS executives in exchange for millions of dollars in shelter security contracts. Fort NYC Security, has been awarded approximately $7 million worth of contracts to guard shelters, according to city comptroller records. BHRAGS tax records also list $1.95 million in payments to the company for “security services.”

John Kaehny, executive director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany, said he would be “very surprised if this contract actually is implemented in July.”

“I'm sure that the city has the legal authority to void the contract for a variety of reasons,” Kaehny said. “The question — ultimately it will be the mayor who decides — is going to be ‘Do we have to do this because if we don't do it then vulnerable people will be terribly hurt, or can we find somebody else who can do this and do it better?’”

The city has paid BHRAGS roughly $130 million through a series of emergency contracts with the Department of Homeless Services since 2022, most of which are set to expire this summer, according to city records.

Emergency contracts involve less oversight than the city’s usual competitive bidding process. Former city Comptroller Brad Lander previously found that city agencies frequently turned to the emergency process during the height of New York’s migrant crisis, ultimately costing the city tens of millions in taxpayer dollars.

DHS first flagged concerns about BHRAGS to the city's Department of Investigation in 2024, according to both agencies. At the time, the city placed BHRAGS on a corrective action plan.

“We are grateful that the authorities swiftly moved on the investigation which led them to uncover deeper issues with this provider,” Sharma said.

The corrective action appears to have set off a legal dispute, according to court records. In September 2024, Fort sued BHRAGS and DHS in Brooklyn Supreme Court, alleging that DHS had instructed BHRAGS to withhold more than $607,000 in payments for security services Fort said he already provided.

The lawsuit was dropped weeks later after BRAGHS settled the matter with the security firm for the full amount. That same month, Fort tried to continue doing business with the city, submitting a bid to provide security services at DHS shelters, but the city rejected the proposal. Fort sued the following April, this time claiming the city’s denial was a form of retaliation.

A Brooklyn judge dismissed the complaint with prejudice in October 2025.

The upcoming contract, unlike the earlier emergency contracts, went through the city’s standard competitive bidding process, which is designed to be transparent to the public and avoid contracts being awarded based on political cronyism. It would run through June 2031, with a renewal option extending through 2035.

At $94 million, it is the largest single contract BHRAGS has received from the city, nearly twice the size of its next largest shelter contract.

On Friday, a Gothamist reporter visited the address listed on the contract notice and found a storefront for Fort NYC Security. It is next to a church and less than a block away from a police station.

Ben Weinberg, the public policy director for the good government group Citizens Union of the City of New York said it was difficult to imagine more red flags for a single contract.

“We have seen in the past public dollars continue to flow to vendors and subcontractors tied to corruption schemes,” Weinberg said. “The city cannot afford to repeat those mistakes. When a vendor facing scrutiny is poised to receive its largest contract yet, particularly for similar services implicated in an ongoing corruption case, officials should take a hard look before committing significant public funds.”

BHRAGS did not respond to a request for comment on the contract's future. The attorney assigned to St. Fort was not immediately available for comment.