During the height of the pandemic, the founder of a city-funded nonprofit aiding people released from jail allegedly took $2.5 million in cash kickbacks, plus other gifts, including home and luxury car loan payments to funnel tens of millions in public funds to two corrupt businesspeople, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Thursday.
Julio Medina, the executive director and founder of Exodus Transitional Community, solicited and accepted the cash and gifts from hotel executive Weihong Hu, an associate of Mayor Adams’ aide Winnie Greco, and security company president Christopher Dantzler.
In exchange, Medina funneled to them about $51 million in city contracts meant to provide housing and other services to people released from jail during the pandemic, the indictment said.
Photos contained in the indictment show Medina, a former chairperson of the city Board of Correction, allegedly accepting an envelope of cash from Hu at one of the hotels used to house people released from jail during the pandemic.
The nonprofit received roughly $122 million through the emergency housing program overseen by the city, the indictment said. Under the program, people were released from jail into hotels and given reentry services.
“The defendants’ brazen and illegal kickback scheme stole money from the City of New York that was intended to provide emergency housing and support services during the pandemic,” stated U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District John Durham.
“Shamefully, the defendants saw the pandemic as an opportunity to line their pockets with stacks of cash, finance a luxury vehicle, purchase homes and pay off personal debts.”
Prosecutors allege the scheme began as early as April 2020 as the pandemic forced citywide shutdowns and led Mayor de Blasio to order the release of hundreds of detainees from the city’s jails, driving the system’s population to below 4,000 for the first time in memory.
The scheme continued for the next four years, with regular, surreptitious meetings between Medina, Hu and Dantzler to exchange money.
The indictment contains four surveillance photos of Medina meeting with Hu at one of Hu’s hotels in Queens on Sept. 11, 2020. The images show Hu pulling a stack of cash from her wallet, placing it in a manila envelop and sliding it over to Medina, the indictment said.
Both appear to be wearing Adidas tracksuits. Medina is wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap.
Medina then passed over purported checks from the emergency housing program. Two days later, the indictment said, the checks were deposited in Hu-controlled accounts.
Between August 2021 and September 2021, Dantzler, previously an electrician, allegedly paid $75,000 to pay off debts owed by Medina and family members, including a mortgage and a car loan.
In November 2021, Hu used one of her businesses to finance a luxury car for Medina worth $107,000. She then made monthly payments of more than $50,000, the indictment said.
In May 2023, Dantzler paid $750,000 to buy and renovate a home for Media upstate in Clifton Park, the indictment said.
In return, Medina submitted fraudulently inflated budgets to obtain multiple contracts through the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, which was overseeing the housing program. The contracts were inflated to account for the cost of the bribes and kickbacks paid by Dantzler and Hu, the indictment alleges.
To avoid detection of the scheme, Medina submitted false statements to the city claiming no one in Exodus received any financial benefit from the contracts, the indictment said.
At one point, on May 22, 2023, Medina, worrying the scheme was unraveling, unloaded on one of Hu’s employees in a text message.
“Don’t call me no more. I don’t f—ing trust you!” he ranted. “You know I’m under investigation. You are f—ing with the wrong person!”
One of Hu’s hotels was raided by the feds in November, weeks after the mayor was indicted on corruption charges.
Hu was a major fundraiser for the mayor’s 2021 campaign and has extensive ties to Winnie Greco, a senior adviser to Adams whose homes were also raided by the feds in February 2024.
As first reported by the news outlet The City, Greco at one point lived for free in a room at one of Hu’s hotels that was supposed to be reserved for homeless individuals. Under a Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice homeless outreach program, the hotel room Greco stayed in was paid for with taxpayer dollars. Greco resigned from her position in the Adams administration in October 2024.
Some donors who gave to Adams’ 2021 campaign as part of fundraisers hosted by Hu were reportedly reimbursed by her, a practice known as “straw donating” that is illegal.