👮♀️🚕 Taxi Racket Busted By Queens DA & Port Authority
Queens DA charges 10 people with accepting bribes to help drivers jump the JFK dispatch line. Second major JFK taxi dispatch-related prosecution in two years, after Russian hacking incident
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced ten JFK taxi dispatchers were charged with accepting cash bribes in exchange for helping drivers jump places in an airport holding lot line
Bribery allegations come less than two years after Russian hackers were accused of hacking JFK dispatch system and similarly charging drivers money in exchange for skipping waiting lines at the airport’s central holding lot
Should participating NYC TLC-licensed drivers face penalties for paying bribes or are they victims, driven to act unethically because so many others were participating ?
Yesterday, Queens District Attorney (DA) Melinda Katz announced nine taxi dispatchers were arraigned on bribery charges for taking cash in exchange for letting drivers pick up passengers at JFK without waiting behind fellow TLC-licensed drivers at a central dispatch lot. An arrest warrant was issued for a tenth dispatcher who remains at large.
Four of the defendants are accused of accepting more than $1,000 in bribes and are charged with first-degree commercial bribery (a felony). The defendants were all employees of a subcontractor retained by the Port Authority, which operates JFK airport.
A joint investigation between the Queens DA Office and Port Authority found that between January 2022 and February 2024, the defendants are alleged to have accepted a total of over $12,000 in bribes via cash, Zelle, or CashApp payments.
“The victims of corruption, without fail, are honest, hardworking men and women. As if the challenges of making a living as a yellow cab driver were not already enough, the cabbies at JFK had to overcome greed and corruption in their effort to put food on the table for themselves and their families. We will not allow that to stand. My office conducted a lengthy and in-depth investigation into these allegations and will hold the corrupt accountable.”
- Melinda Katz, Queens District Attorney
“The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has zero tolerance for anyone, including individuals working for private contractors, who seek to abuse their positions for private gain and enrich themselves at the expense of the hard-working people who provide services to our airport customers. We thank the Queens District Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners for working with us to root out these contractor employees who improperly seek to gain from others, and bring them to justice.”
- John Gay, Port Authority Inspector General
“I’d like to thank District Attorney Katz, the Port Authority, and our own dedicated Enforcement officers, who assisted in cracking down on this reprehensible bribery scheme. More than 90 percent of our drivers are immigrants, and many of them came here to avoid exactly this kind of corruption in their native lands. Public safety and playing by the rules are precursors for prosperity, and that goes for drivers, too. Any time we learn of drivers bribing dispatchers or operating illegally, we will move to revoke their licenses.”
- David Do, NYC TLC Chair & Commissioner
Russian Hacking Incident
When we first read about the Queens DA actions yesterday, we actually thought it related to another story about Russian hackers helping taxi drivers skip the dispatch line at JFK! However, that indictment is a separate case that Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and John Gay, the Port Authority Inspector General mentioned above, worked on in 2022.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office actually gave an update on sentencing in February that two people, Daniel Abayev (47) and Peter Leyman (49), involved in the hacking / bribery scheme were sentenced to two and four years of prison, respectively. In addition to the prison terms, Abayev and Leyman, both of Queens, were sentenced to three years of supervised release and each ordered to pay $161,858.26 in forfeiture and $3,456,169.50 in restitution. Two others remain at large, related to the case.
At its height, it is alleged that this (not the Queens DA recent bribery case) “pay-to-play” scheme enabled 1,000 expedited yellow cab trips per day (i.e., 1,000 trips * $10 = $10,000 per day💰. In fact, prosecutors said the Abayev and Leyman transferred more than $100,000 of their criminal proceeds to Russia-based hackers that helped them run the scheme, classifying the transfers as “payment for software development” or “payment for services rendered”.
“Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman, allegedly assisted by Russian hackers, wrought havoc on JFK's electronic taxi dispatch system, impacting fair order and creating chaos for honest taxi professionals. Their actions enabled up to 1,000 fraudulent taxi trips daily, underscoring the serious threat cyber hacking poses to critical infrastructure. Through our collaborative efforts with law enforcement partners, their scheme was dismantled, and the defendants have been rightfully sentenced.”
- Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (February 2024)
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Events Leading Up To Queens DA Charges
According to the Queens DA press release (attached below):
In 2022, the Port Authority received complaints alleging that some taxi dispatchers at JFK were taking bribes to allow yellow cab drivers to pick up arriving passengers at terminals without first waiting in the central taxi holding lot
After a preliminary review, the Port Authority’s Office of the Inspector General and the Queens District Attorney’s Airport Investigations Unit launched a probe
The joint investigation found that between January 2022 and February 2024, the defendants accepted a total of over $12,000 in bribes via cash, Zelle, or CashApp payments
The bribes were accepted in small increments, often $5 to $10 per trip
Eight of the defendants were arrested on March 12th when they showed up at JFK for what they believed was a training session. The ninth defendant was arrested separately on March 27th. They all received Desk Appearance Tickets at the time of their arrest. An arrest warrant has been obtained for a 10th dispatcher, who is now being sought.
Brief History of JFK Taxi Dispatch
In 1995, a taxi dispatching system was created at JFK to control the “mad jockeying” of yellow taxis searching for passengers across terminals. Drivers were directed to park in a new holding lot, north of the airport. Cabs would be dispatched in the order they arrived and needed to present a “slip” to a dispatcher in the terminal.
Are Participating NYC TLC Drivers Victims or Enablers?
A question(s) that probably should also be asked revolves around whether the NYC TLC-licensed drivers who participated in either (or both) bribery schemes should face some sort of fine and/or whether compensation for lost income is due to other law-abiding TLC drivers from recovered funds? 🤔
We understand thousands of TLC drivers driving in the taxi medallion industry may have felt justified in skipping the long JFK dispatch lines due to (1) desperation and/or (2) so many others participating in the schemes. They could be viewed as victims and enablers of these bribery rackets (i.e., recruiting other TLC drivers to participate to avoid the $10 fee in the Russian hacking scheme). What’s fairly obvious though is TLC drivers who didn’t participate in these illegal activities and followed the rules, lost income in form of fares and idling time.
Henry Fernandez, 50, who said he started driving only recently and that he was unaware of the hacking, added that he was not surprised to hear about “wiggles” in the industry.
“I don’t think it’s fair, I don’t think it’s nice,” he said.
However, one hour into an expected three-hour wait in the lot, he said he understood the temptation.
“I’m being honest, I’d give $10 to skip the line, I’d give $20,” he said. “I don’t blame them — they were smart.”
- New York Times (‘Russian Hackers’ Latest Target Is Cab Dispatch Line at J.F.K.’, by Benjamin Weiser and Nate Schweber, published Dec 20, 2022)