A Brooklyn nonprofit that parlayed New York City’s migrant crisis into nearly $200 million in government contracts is now at the center of a widening federal corruption investigation — one that has already produced four arrests and placed the political careers of a city council member and a top aide to Governor Kathy Hochul in jeopardy.
The case against BHRAGS Home Care Corp. offers a granular look at how emergency spending during the asylum seeker surge created fertile ground for alleged graft, embezzlement, and self-dealing — and raises uncomfortable questions about the oversight mechanisms that were supposed to prevent exactly this kind of abuse.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York have charged BHRAGS executive director Roberto Samedy and former board chairman Jean Ronald Tirelus with wire fraud, embezzlement, bribery, and money laundering conspiracy. Two subcontractors — retired NYPD sergeant Edouardo St. Fort and Miguel Jorge — face federal program bribery charges. All four pleaded not guilty and were released on bond.
The Money Trail: $1.3 Million Allegedly Siphoned
According to the indictment unsealed on March 31, 2026, Samedy and Tirelus orchestrated a scheme between August 2020 and January 2024 to embezzle approximately $1.3 million from the taxpayer-funded nonprofit. The most brazen component, prosecutors allege, involved duping BHRAGS’s own board of directors into wiring $800,000 to a shell company controlled by Tirelus. The funds were earmarked for “economic growth and affordable housing” in distressed Brooklyn neighborhoods — money that prosecutors say never reached its intended purpose.
The pair also allegedly accepted more than $200,000 in kickbacks and bribes from St. Fort and Jorge in exchange for steering contracts worth millions of dollars to businesses the two subcontractors controlled. St. Fort, whose company Fort NYC Security received a $3 million contract from the Department of Homeless Services, was arrested at his Massachusetts residence.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella stated that the defendants worked together to exploit an organization entrusted with serving some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Political Connections Under the Microscope
While the four arrests represent the criminal charges filed to date, the investigation’s political dimensions may prove even more consequential. A federal search warrant signed March 19, 2026, named three additional subjects: New York City Council Member Farah Louis, a Brooklyn Democrat; her sister Debbie Esther Louis, who serves as Governor Hochul’s assistant secretary for New York City intergovernmental affairs; and lobbyist Edu Hermelyn, the husband of state Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn — who also chairs the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
No charges have been filed against Louis, her sister, or Hermelyn. However, the scope of the search warrants signals the seriousness of the federal inquiry. According to CBS News reporting, agents executed the warrant at Council Member Louis’s Brooklyn home with weapons drawn after she reportedly declined to open the door without first consulting an attorney. At Debbie Louis’s residence, agents entered after her husband granted access; the couple’s four-year-old daughter was present during the search.
Investigators are probing whether the Louis sisters and Hermelyn accepted bribes or kickbacks in connection with the appropriation of city funds to BHRAGS. City records reviewed by Gothamist indicate that Council Member Louis directed more than $450,000 in discretionary city funds to BHRAGS over a five-year period. Meanwhile, campaign finance records show that BHRAGS president Roberto Samedy made political donations to both Louis and Bichotte Hermelyn, as well as to the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
Governor Hochul’s office confirmed that Debbie Louis was placed on administrative leave after the governor became aware of the corruption probe.
A $94 Million Contract Still Standing
Perhaps the most striking detail to emerge from the investigation is that BHRAGS — despite the indictment of its top two officials — still holds a $94 million city contract to provide shelter for single adults in Brooklyn. The competitively bid contract is set to begin on July 1, 2026, and could run through 2035 with renewals. It represents the largest single contract the nonprofit has ever received from the city, nearly double its next-largest shelter agreement.
The Department of Social Services stated that it is “closely monitoring the situation” and determining next steps but has not announced plans to cancel the contract. The city has already paid BHRAGS approximately $130 million through emergency contracts since 2022, with most of those agreements set to expire in the summer of 2026.
Records also indicate that the Department of Homeless Services flagged concerns about BHRAGS to federal investigators as early as 2024 and placed the organization on a corrective action plan — yet the city continued to award new contracts to the nonprofit.
The Broader Pattern: $8.2 Billion and Counting
The BHRAGS scandal is not an isolated case. It sits within a broader landscape of questionable spending that has accompanied New York City’s response to the migrant surge. According to the New York City Comptroller’s office, the city spent $1.47 billion on asylum seeker shelter and services in fiscal year 2023, $3.75 billion in fiscal year 2024, and $3.02 billion in fiscal year 2025 — a cumulative outlay exceeding $8.2 billion in just three years. Per-household costs averaged $371 per day during the peak spending period.
A series of comptroller audits have documented systemic waste throughout the emergency contracting process. One audit found that a Texas-based disaster firm, SLSCO LP, charged hourly rates 237 percent higher than comparable contractors for identical migrant shelter staffing positions. DocGo, another emergency vendor, billed supervisors at $2,000 per day on a 24-hour basis while staff were on site for only 12-hour shifts.
The city paid for roughly 10,000 hotel rooms that were never used, including nearly $570,000 for 3,500 vacant rooms at the Crowne Plaza JFK Hotel over ten nights and more than $833,000 for 4,902 empty rooms at the Armoni Inn in Upstate Orangeburg over 61 nights. The comptroller’s office concluded that nearly 80 percent of the $13.8 million paid to DocGo for expenses in May and June 2023 were either inadequately documented or not authorized. The comptroller estimated the city could have saved $50 million annually at a single location by hiring city employees instead of private contractors.
Emergency Powers, Minimal Oversight
Much of the problematic spending traces back to the state of emergency declared by Mayor Eric Adams in October 2022, which allowed the administration to fast-track contracts outside the normal competitive bidding process. While emergency procurement authority exists for legitimate reasons, the BHRAGS case and the broader audit findings suggest that the accelerated process created significant gaps in due diligence.
The New York State Comptroller’s office has projected that asylum seeker spending will continue declining — to an estimated $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2026 and $341 million by fiscal year 2029 — as the in-shelter census drops. But the damage to public trust may prove harder to reverse. With billions in taxpayer funds distributed through hastily assembled contracting pipelines, the BHRAGS prosecution may represent only the visible tip of a much larger accountability deficit.
What Remains Unknown
Several critical questions remain unanswered as the investigation continues. Prosecutors have not publicly detailed the full extent of the alleged relationship between BHRAGS leadership and the political figures named in the search warrants. The timeline of Edu Hermelyn’s involvement — and whether his role as husband of the Brooklyn Democratic Party chair created additional avenues of influence — has not been fully explored in public filings.
It also remains unclear why the city continued to award contracts to BHRAGS after its own Department of Homeless Services flagged concerns in 2024, and whether additional nonprofits operating in the migrant shelter space will face similar scrutiny. Tirelus’s attorney has stated that his client “categorically disputes the charges and looks forward to clearing his name at trial.” The investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter, remains active and ongoing.