Former FDNY Chief Pleads Guilty to Fed Bribery Charges

A former high-ranking FDNY official, Anthony Saccavino, has pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges stemming from a pay-to-play scheme. He faces a maximum of five years in federal prison.

As a former chief of the FDNY’s Bureau of Fire Prevention (BFP), the 59-year-old Saccavino was charged with orchestrating a conspiracy that generated $190,000 in exchange for expedited safety inspections on certain projects, according to prosecutors with the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Saccavino operated out of Manhattan. As part of his plea deal, he’ll forfeit $57,000, the amount that he personally pocketed from the scheme.

“Anthony Saccavino betrayed the City agency he was chosen to lead by repeatedly selling access to the Bureau of Fire Prevention’s services in a pay-to-play bribery scheme,” U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon said. “This Office will continue to ensure that City officials who place their own interests above those of the public will be held accountable.”

Saccavino’s second-in-command, Brian Cordasco of Staten Island, was indicted alongside Saccavino for the crime last September. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 8, 2024, and is set to be sentenced on Feb. 19. He originally pleaded not guilty, before cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors say that both men received the payments from a certain Henry Santiago Jr., a retired FDNY firefighter himself, in order to specifically benefit Santiago’s clients. They would reportedly receive the funds from Santiago at steakhouse dinners or at the BFP headquarters in Manhattan; the money would come in the form of checks, cash, or electronic transfer payments via Zelle.

What’s more, prosecutors say, they lied to their BFP colleagues to hide the bribes. They also reportedly lied to law-enforcement officials.

Santiago, a 46-year-old resident of Staten Island, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribery and wire fraud last September. His combined sentences could land him in prison for life, although he is said to be cooperating with federal investigators.

According to additional details supplied by federal prosecutors in the original September indictment of Saccavino and Cordasco, the BFP is responsible for “overseeing and approving the installation of fire safety and suppression systems in commercial and residential buildings in New York City.”

It does this, in part, “by reviewing and approving design plans and conducting on-site inspections of installed systems.” These inspections are crucial for public safety, and are essentially required before any building can be approved to open for public or private use.

Prosecutors added that Santiago–who paid the bribes to the BFP officials in order to receive preferable treatment for his customers—circumvented the “first come, first served” basis that the system is supposed to operate under. There is a significant waitlist for BFP approval, but clients can legally hire filing processors known as “expeditors” to help them navigate the BFP paperwork process.

Both Saccavino and Cordasco retired before the indictment dropped last year, and were making salaries in the $250,000-to-$300,000 range.

U.S. Attorney Sassoon inherited the case from Damian Williams, her predecessor. Williams resigned from his post late last year after Donald Trump won the presidency, as Trump had signaled he would replace him as head of the SDNY.