Ex-NYC Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich surrenders to DA with Bill O’Reilly book in tow
Former city Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney Wednesday morning with a copy of Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Jesus” in his hand.
Prosecutors later announced that Ulrich had been charged with pocketing more than $150,000 in bribes during his years in public service – including a premium Mets season tickets package valued at nearly $10,000, a discounted and fully furnished luxury apartment in a beachfront building in Rockaway Park, a bespoke suit and expensive artwork.
His arrest is part of a wide-ranging corruption probe from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that has also ensnared a top donor to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, prosecutors said.
Ulrich, 38, resigned from the Adams administration in November after it was revealed that he was under investigation and had turned his cellphone over as part of a criminal gambling probe.
Ulrich faces five separate indictments charging him with various counts of conspiracy, bribe receiving and offering a false instrument for filing, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Wednesday.
He allegedly accepted or solicited bribes as a Queens city councilman, as a senior adviser to Adams and as the commissioner of the Department of Buildings.
“At every possible turn,” Bragg said, Ulrich used his taxpayer-funded roles “to line his own pockets.”
He was charged alongside businessmen, friends, and associates who “paid him in return for access and favors,” Bragg said.
Sources told The Post on Tuesday that prosecutors were looking into whether Ulrich got into debt playing card games linked to organized crime, with the alleged games going back to his time as a Queens city councilman.
Ulrich was not charged at the time and prosecutors continued their investigation, seemingly paying closer attention to possible favors exchanged by the pol — and news breaking over the summer that a grand jury had been hearing evidence against him and that a criminal indictment was imminent.
New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber on Wednesday said that Ulrich had promised the six other defendants charged “favors such as expedited inspections and city employment for their relatives.”
The other defendants include Brooklyn real estate developer Mark Caller, who is likely to face charges related to his alleged offering of a discounted apartment to Ulrich, as well as Queens pizzeria owners and brothers Joseph and Anthony Livreri.
Caller raised nearly $50,000 toward Adams’ mayoral campaign, according to law enforcement sources.
His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Tuesday that his client “intends to plead not guilty and we anticipate that he will be fully exonerated.”
The Livreri brothers, who co-own a Queens pizza shop with alleged Mafia ties, co-hosted a fundraiser for Adams’ mayoral campaign in August 2021.
Michael Mazzio, the operator of a Brooklyn towing company, Paul Grego, who expedites permit and plan approvals at the DOB and Victor Truta, a former city Department of Correction officer, were also charged.
Ulrich allegedly received money from the Livreri brothers and Mazzio, most of which went to gambling at public casinos and at the 89th Street Cafe, an illegal gambling club, Bragg said.
Ulrich — who as of January had been selling insurance to make ends meet — recently wrote a children’s book in which dogs are judges and juries in the court system.
