NEW YORK — Employees for the city’s homeless services agency, the U.S. Postal Service, NYCHA, the MTA and a former NYPD school safety agent were among 18 people indicted in Manhattan on Thursday as part of a major white-collar investigation stemming from a probe into ghost guns that involved stealing homeless New Yorkers’ identities to scam a pandemic benefits program.
Public servants in positions across the local, state and federal levels appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court on a variety of different charges laid out in four indictments, including allegations they manufactured and sold 3D ghost guns, conspired to defraud New York’s pandemic unemployment assistant program and committed burglary.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the cases were born from a standard street crime investigation that expanded into a financial fraud probe.
“These alleged schemes were orchestrated and largely operated by city employees, many of whom abused their positions of public trust for personal gain. We see a clear link between those engaging in violent crimes and traditional white-collar fraud at the same time,” Bragg said.
DHS worker Craig Freeman, 56, and an unnamed alleged co-conspirator, who both worked at the Barbara Kleiman DHS shelter in Brooklyn, are accused in charging papers of buying parts and machines to purchase the untraceable firearms.
Prosecutors further accused Adrienne Manigault, 25, and an unnamed alleged co-conspirator of buying hundreds of dollars worth of 3D printing machines and ghost-gun parts to make and distribute between May 2022 and January 2023. Manigault is quoted in court papers texting an alleged accomplice to say a homemade gun was “beautiful,” adding, “I want to shoot it.”
“Both of the conspiracies really underscore how the public can get their hands on these really dangerous goods — creating firearms from the comfort of one’s home,” Bragg said Thursday. “With just a few clicks on popular websites like eBay or Amazon, the public can buy printing machines and gun parts for just a few hundred dollars.”
The DA said the investigation into the ghost guns led to the discovery of the scam targeting New York’s pandemic program.
Former NYPD employee Charde Baker, 35, and an unnamed co-conspirator are accused of being the ringleaders in that scheme, which involved two other DHS employees and 12 other alleged accomplices. They allegedly used private information stolen from unsuspecting shelter residents to submit 70 fraudulent applications to the state Department of Labor.
After applying for assistance in the shelter residents’ names, the group allegedly had the checks sent to addresses along the Upper East Side mail route of an unnamed USPS letter carrier in the scheme.