Members of the New York City Police Department received Super Bowl tickets and trips to London and China in exchange for providing security and police escorts, according to details of an FBI probe reports the
New York Post.
The FBI is looking into whether the gifts were swapped for the favors in an illegal quid-pro-quo. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department will cooperate with the FBI and "we'll see where the investigation goes."
Sources tell The Post politically connected businessmen sought out members of the police department who could "get things done for them."
"They don't go to police officers or detectives. They're too far down the food chain," said a law enforcement source, according to The Post. The FBI has questioned up to 20 members of the NYPD, some at 5 a.m. at their homes.
Wiretaps raised questions in a separate investigation into the activities of businessmen
Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg. Many of the calls were to and from members of the police department.
Reichberg was suspended from his police chaplain role in the Westchester County
Department of Public Safety, reports
The Journal News.
Michael Milici, a detective in Brooklyn's Borough Park, has been placed on desk duty after pleading the Fifth in the probe, according to
The Wall Street Journal.
The gifts included Super Bowl tickets, trips to China, London, Brazil, and Rome, and golf trips to the Dominican Republic. Former Chief of Department Phillip Banks posed in uniform at the Western Wall, even though he was off-duty, during a trip to Israel.
Favors provided included crowd control during Hasidic weddings, escorts for business deliveries, and security when Torahs are moved.
Rechnitz is "always bragging" about his relationships with police, and Reichberg likes to brag about "people he knows," sources told The Post.
A member of law enforcement said Reichberg "thinks he's a big shot because of his so-called connections."
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