A former superintendent at the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City and two other Queens NYCHA developments was sentenced to four years in prison for taking more than $330K in bribes from contractors. QNS/file photo.
Feb. 3, 2025 By Bill Parry
A former superintendent at the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City and two other NCHA complexes in Queens was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for awarding micro-purchase contracts and other contract work to vendors.
Juan Mercado, 50, of West Babylon, Long Island, pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges after the city’s Department of Investigation led a probe into his conduct for nearly a decade at Ravenswood, the South Jamaica Houses and the Hammel-Carleton Manor in Edgemere.
When repairs or construction work at NYCHA housing require the use of outside contractors, services must typically be purchased via a bidding process. However, when the value of a contract was under a certain threshold, designated staff at NYCHA developments, including superintendents, could hire a contractor of their choosing without soliciting multiple bids. With either type of contract, a NYCHA employee needed to certify that the work was satisfactorily completed in order for the contractor to receive payment from NYCHA.
Mercado was one of 70 defendants charged with demanding and receiving cash for awarding NYCHA contracts.
“For nearly ten years, this defendant received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from NYCHA vendors in exchange for awarding micro-purchase contracts and other contract work, driving up the cost of services and depriving NYCHA residents of resources intended to improve their homes,” Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said.
Between 2014 and 2023, Mercado typically demanded bribes of approximately 10% to 20% of the contracts he awarded. In total, Mercado demanded and received $329,300 in bribes in exchange for approximately $1,886,000 in NYCHA contracts.
According to court documents, the $29,300 in bribes Mercado demanded and accepted accounts for 16% of the total amount of bribes accepted by all 70 defendants, and the nearly $1.9 million in contracts Mercado awarded accounts for 14% of all bribe-tainted contracts awarded by all 70 defendants, who are being prosecuted by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The contractors typically paid Mercado between $500 and $2,000 for each contract on hundreds of occasions.
“As a public housing superintendent, Juan Mercado held a position of public trust,” U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said. “For years, Mercado abused his position by demanding and accepting more than $300,000 in bribes in connection to repair work at NYCHA developments — money that should have gone to improving the lives of NYCHA residents. As today’s sentence shows, corruption will not be tolerated at any level of government.”
Mercado’s sentence was imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni, who also presided over his guilty plea. In addition to 48 months imprisonment, Mercado was sentenced to three years post-release supervision and agreed to pay $329,300 in restitution to NYCHA and forfeit $329,300 in illegal proceeds.
“Today, with this prison sentence, he faces the consequences of his criminal conduct, joining 63 convicted defendants among the 70 charged,” Strauber said. “I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and our federal law enforcement partners for their commitment to protect NYCHA’s contracting process and public dollars.”
Mercado, who began working at NYCHA in November 1994, was suspended when he was arrested in February 2024 and resigned in April 2024. At the time of his resignation, his salary was approximately $103,650 per year.
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