Gov. Kathy Hochul’s running mate – former NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams – dished out $435,000 in taxpayer-funded political pork to a shady migrant-shelter provider at the center of a federal corruption probe, The Post has learned.
The Democratic lieutenant governor candidate gave Brooklyn-based nonprofit BHRAGS Home Care Inc. $375,000 in discretionary funds through her speaker’s pot from 2022 to 2025, Council records show. The taxpayer’s dough was earmarked for the group’s senior and youth after-school programs.
The Queens-based pol also directly tacked on another $60,000 to help it assist the mentally ill, the records show.
In all, the Council under her leadership doled out $544,900 to BHRAGS since 2021, according to the records.
Councilwoman Farah Louis kicked in another $72,000, and other council members chipped in the remaining $37,900, records show.
The feds are looking into whether Louis; her sister, Deborah Louis, who serves as Hochul’s assistant secretary for NYC intergovernmental affairs; Edu Hermelyn, husband of state Assemblywoman and Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn; and others accepted bribes or kickbacks to boost BHRAGS.
The Flatbush-based nonprofit has received $185.4 million in no-bid city contracts since 2022 to provide emergency shelters for migrants and other homeless people, according to NYC Comptroller’s Office records.
The nonprofit’s executive director, Roberto Samedy, its former board chairman, Jean Ronald Tirelus, and two others connected to BHRAGS were arrested Tuesday as part of the corruption probe for allegedly pocketing more than $1 million in kickbacks linked to city-run migrant shelters.
BHRAGS reps have said it’s “fully cooperating with law enforcement” and that Samedy was placed on administrative leave.
Hellbound and Down 