Hot Brooklyn Real Estate Market Continues To Feed Criminal Activity; Over Three Dozen Landlords, Former & Current Utility Company Employees Get Bagged For Allegedly Installing Illegal & Potentially Dangerous Gas Meters In Residential Buildings Throughout Borough

In Brooklyn, New York, DNAinfo (New York City) reports:

• A ring of nearly 40 landlords and National Grid employees was charged [] with installing illegal and potentially dangerous gas meters across Brooklyn.
  
  Former National Grid staffer Weldon "Al" Findlay, 47, worked with current utility workers to open up accounts and install meters for landlords without required inspections in buildings in Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn Heights, Bushwick, Crown Heights, Midwood and Borough Park, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney.
  
  “This is an unprecedented case, in our opinion, showing that the hot real estate market in Brooklyn serves to feed criminal activity,” acting-DA Eric Gonzalez said during a press conference Thursday.
  
  "This corruption within a major company is particularly alarming, given potential lethal consequences."
  
  Findlay, who worked for National Grid until 2010, used current employees led by Phoebe Bogan, 41, to create accounts for landlords and install the meters without proper inspections by Department of Buildings workers or master plumbers, investigators said.
  
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  Findlay and Bogan would then have other utility employees who were in on the scheme set up the meter and gas lines without regulation, sometimes using "cheap plastic flex piping" like the kind used in the building involved in the East Village explosion in 2015, Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said.
  
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  All the buildings involved have been re-inspected and gas was shut off while violations were addressed, Peters added.
  
  Investigators did not say how many buildings may have been impacted.
  
  DOI investigators first caught wind of the scheme while listening to wire taps during a separate case in Manhattan involving Department of Buildings inspectors, Peters said.
  
  In that probe they heard a landlord speaking with Findlay, who mentioned having an employee at National Grid working with him.
  
  Findlay and Bogan were indicted on felony charges including enterprise corruption in Brooklyn Supreme Court [].
  
  Landlords and property managers faced charges including falsifying business records and bribery.
  
  Findlay pleaded not guilty and was held on $750,000 bail, according to his lawyer, Stephen Zeitlin, who added that he felt the bond was "out of line" for someone with no prior record.
  
  Bogan also pleaded not guilty and was released on $350,000 bond.

For more, see 37 Charged in Scheme to Illegally Install Gas Meters in Brooklyn, DA Says.

For the Brooklyn District Attorney press release, see Seven Defendants, including National Grid Employees, Charged with Enterprise Corruption for Operating Shadow Utility Company that Illegally Installed Gas Meters in Violation of Safety Protocols (Additional 30 defendants, including Landlords, Also Charged in Scheme).