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Squad 3

Squad 3 oversees City agencies involved in the construction industry, affordable housing, and business regulation, including the City Department of Buildings (DOB), City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the Department of City Planning (DCP), the Business Integrity Commission, and the Department of Small Business Services. Squad 3 investigations have held accountable a landlord charged with harassing rent-regulated tenants so the buildings could be sold at a significant profit, which was New York State’s first-ever prosecution of harassment of rent-regulated tenants under a new law. Squad 3 also issued recommendations to strengthen HPD oversight of landlords who persistently neglect their properties and conducted investigations that led to charges against those who violate the City’s construction safety rules, including the indictment and guilty plea of a company and its former president for operating a sham safety training school; the guilty plea of an executive and a company in a wide-ranging construction fraud case that exploited workers and the City’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises program; and a construction company owner convicted of criminally negligent homicide who was sentenced to jail in the death of a 5-year-old girl. Squad 3 has also conducted investigations that have led to charges against City inspectors who have taken gratuities from homeowners


Squad 3 Reports