More Arrests in NYPD Gun License Bribery Scheme with Rockland Roots

Three former police officers were arrested on Tuesday for their alleged parts in a scheme to accept bribes in exchange for approving gun licenses for the New York Police Department. The new charges come less than a month after a Rockland man whose work as a "fixer" was the catalyst for the massive corruption probe, was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

In addition, it was announced that two other officers pleaded guilty last year and were working with the government on the case.

Former police officers Paul Dean, 44, of Wantagh; Robert Espinel, 47, of Seaford; Gaetano Valastro, 58, of Queens; as well as former Kings County Assistant District Attorney John Chambers, 62, of Manhattan, were all arrested Tuesday morning by FBI agents and NYPD officers. Dean and Espinel were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of extortion; Valastro was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of making false statements. Chambers was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of bribery.

The latest arrests are an expansion of the probe into the ties between Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community and high-ranking officers with the NYPD. They follow three bombshell indictments in June by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Alex Lichtenstein, the Rockland County resident accused of paying bribes to get gun licenses from the New York City Police Department for clients from the Orthodox Jewish community, pleaded guilty in November.

Lichtenstein, who the FBI said paid bribes to get gun licenses from the NYPD and sold them to customers for as much as $18,000 apiece, is a member of the Borough Park's private, Orthodox-only security team, Shomrim. It is a volunteer, "ostensibly unarmed" patrol society whose stated mission includes combating criminal activity and locating missing people in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors said Lichtenstein had been so connected in the NYPD that he spent almost every day there.

"As alleged, for the police officers and expediters charged in this case, the critically important police function of issuing and controlling gun licenses was one they were willing to pervert for personal profit," said Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim. "When police officers violate their oath in this way, they not only betray the public they have sworn to protect, but their fellow officers who do their jobs the right way, remaining faithful to the duties they owe to the public and to each other. This office, along with our partners at the FBI and NYPD, remain as committed as ever to ensure that public servants serve the public, not their personal pocketbooks."

In addition to the arrests made on Tuesday, Kim announced the unsealing of the guilty pleas of David Villanueva, a former NYPD Sergeant from Valley Stream assigned to the License Division, and Frank Soohoo, a gun license expediter. In connection with their pleas, Villanueva and Soohoo agreed to cooperate with the government.

Dean was a member of the NYPD from 1994 through 2016, and was assigned to the License Division from 2008 through 2016. Espinel was part of the NYPD from 1995 to his retirement in 2016, and served in the License Division from 2011 to his retirement. As a lieutenant, Dean was one of the highest-ranking members of the License Division and, from approximately November 2014 through November 2015, regularly ran the day-to-day operations of the division.

According to prosecutors, from at least 2013 through 2016, Dean, Espinel, Villanueva, and Police Officer Richard Ochetal allegedly solicited and accepted bribes from gun license expediters in exchange for providing assistance to the expediters’ clients in obtaining gun licenses quickly and often with little to no diligence. They allegedly obtained bribes from at least three expediters: Lichtenstein, Valastro and Soohoo. Valastro was a former NYPD detective who retired in 1999 and operated a gun store.

Prosecutors say that the bribes included cash payments, paid vacations, food and liquor, the services of prostitutes, and free guns, among other things. In exchange, licenses were approved, expedited and upgraded for clients of Valastro, Lichtenstein and Soohoo. They allegedly did this by not interviewing the applicants and failing to investigate the business-based need for applicants to carry guns. They allegedly approved licenses for individuals with substantial criminal histories, including arrests and convictions for crimes involving weapons or violence, and for individuals with histories of domestic violence.

According to prosecutors, in 2015, upset with the fact that the expediters were making thousands per license while they were doing all the work, Dean and Espinel decided to retire and go into the expediting business. Prosecutors say they planned to bribe Villanueva, Ochetal and others in the License Division to make sure their customers go special treatment. Prosecutors say they planned to run their scheme out of Valastro's store and then steer applicants to him to purchase weapons. They also tried to threaten their competition, prosecutors say. They allegedly tried to coerce Soohoo to share his client list by threatening to use their influence in the License Division to shut down his business if he didn't work with and make payments to them.

"Over the past three years, the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau has conducted a thorough and comprehensive investigation in coordination with the FBI," said NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill. "The behavior, as alleged in today’s charging documents, is intolerable. The charges reflect a serious violation of the oath these officers swore to uphold, eroding at the trust the public has in this Department. The NYPD will continue to investigate alleged wrongdoing and root out corruption wherever it might be found."

Photo: Shutterstock

By Alex Costello and Lanning Taliaferro

SEE ALSO:

• Rockland Gun License 'Fixer' Pleads Guilty
  
• Little Prison Time for Rockland Gun License 'Fixer'
  
• Top NYPD Officials Charged in Corruption Probe Involving Rockland Man