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

• February 8, 2022: DOI's Investigation into Arverne by the Sea Homeowners

• February 15, 2017: Interim Report on Monitorship of the City's Rapid Repairs and Build it Back Programs

• January 12, 2017: Corruption Vulnerabilities at the Brooklyn Union Gas Company D/B/A National Grid NY

• November 17, 2015: Investigation into 2015 Fatality from a Piece of Facade and the City Department of Buildings' Failure to Enforce Facade Inspections

• November 10, 2015: Fuel Oil Delivery and the Schemes that Stole Millions of Dollars in Taxpayer Funds

• October 9, 2014: Build it Back Program: A Status Report

• September 30, 2014: Investigation into the Tenant Interim Lease Program

• July 2, 2014: Falsification of Site Safety Records in New York City Construction

• March 9, 2012: Investigation of Seedco's Workforce Center Contracts with the New York City Department of Small Business Services

• February 27, 2012: DOI and DOB Issue Findings in Investigation of Fatal Elevator Incident at 285 Madison Ave

• June 19, 2009: Investigation of Administrative Issues Relating to the Fatal Fire of August 18, 2007 at 130 Liberty Street