Bay Shore man sentenced for accepting bribe as NYCHA public housing official

A former New York City public housing official was sentenced Wednesday to 33 months in prison and will pay a $100,000 fine for soliciting and receiving a $2,000 bribe, a news release from the City of New York Department of Investigation said.

Leroy Gibbs, of Bay Shore, a resident buildings superintendent for the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA, was also sentenced to three years’ supervised release, 360 hours of community service and $4,000 in forfeiture and restitution. 

Gibbs is to surrender on May 8.

In October, Gibbs, 58, pleaded guilty to one felony count of receipt of a bribe by an agent of an organization receiving federal funds, in connection with the award of no-bid contracts.

“Instead of acting in the best interests of NYCHA and its residents, this now-former NYCHA supervisor used his position and his authority to enrich himself by awarding contracts in exchange for kickbacks,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said. “This kind of corruption will not be tolerated and as today’s proceeding shows, it warrants a significant penalty.”

According to the criminal complaint, in September 2019, Gibbs, then employed as the resident buildings superintendent at Frederick Douglass Houses in Manhattan, solicited and accepted approximately $2,000 in bribes from a NYCHA vendor, who was acting as a confidential informant for the Department of Investigations. The bribe was in exchange for awarding that vendor two jobs at a NYCHA property. The jobs were valued at just under $10,000 in total, the release said.

Gibbs awarded these contracts for construction and repair work, which, because they were valued at less than $10,000, were not subject to competitive bidding requirements, the release said.

Gibbs began employment with NYCHA in April 1987. He was receiving an annual salary of approximately $93,630 as a resident buildings superintendent. He retired in September 2022, after he was charged in this case, the release said. 

The case was prosecuted by the office of Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the release said.

In a separate matter, a second NYCHA superintendent, Julio Figueroa, 45, of Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in November to accepting bribes for awarding no-bid contracts and is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday. Figueroa resigned from NYCHA in December.