Arrest HPD Super For Taking Bribes To Run Rent Scam
By ARI PAUL

A former Department of Housing Preservation and Development worker was indicted July 10 on charges of leading a ring taking bribes from people seeking Section 8 housing payments to cover their rent.

ROSE GILL HEARN: Employee ran 'black market.'

Joba Cortorreal was a supervisor at HPD's lower Manhattan office and had access to Section 8 computer records. She is accused of using this access to create fake Section 8 vouchers, which she sold through people not employed by the agency, and then the system to allow her clients to receive payments. Eighteen others were arrested in connection with the investigation.

Faces Up to 11 Years

Ms. Cortorreal was charged with 26 counts of Bribe Receiving in the Third Degree and 47 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the Fourth Degree. If convicted on all counts, she could serve up to 11 years in prison.

With the help of Arelis Peralta and Damaris Peralta, Ms. Cortorreal is accused of accepting bribes ranging from $3,000 to $7,000 between June 2003 and last August 2006.

According to the Department of Investigation, people learned about the bribery scheme through word of mouth, and met with Ms. Cortorreal's cohorts to make payments at homes, a real estate office and at HPD's office.

DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a statement that the "DOI discovered and shut down a thriving black market structured around a savvy, corrupt city employee who exploited her insider's knowledge to fabricate and sell a valuable product in great demand. But that product - a Section 8 rent subsidy - was not hers to sell. Every public dollar that paid a bribe-giver's rent was diverted from an eligible, needy family waiting for their opportunity to acquire decent housing."