CORRUPT NYC DoB INSPECTORS ALLEGEDLY SOLD CRANE LICENSES FOR $ 200
Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Michael Pascalli, at the courthouse in Manhattan on Tuesday, is a crane operator for a company named in a corruption case.
By JOHN ELIGON Published: October 7, 2008 A passing grade on a practical exam for a crane operator’s license started at $200, as did the passing grade for a crane inspection. The answers to the written portion of the operator’s test were pricier: $3,000. Skip to next paragraph
Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
James Delayo has been charged with taking a bribe.
Each of these exchanges of money, prosecutors said, was putting the safety of New York City at risk.
For more than a decade, the city’s chief crane inspector conspired with a Long Island-based crane company to ensure that its cranes were certified without receiving valid inspections and that its crane operators had an easy time acquiring licenses, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The inspector, James Delayo, 60, as well as Michael Sackaris, the owner of Nu-Way Crane Service, Michael Pascalli, a crane operator with Nu-Way, and the company itself have been indicted on multiple corruption charges.
The indictments, unsealed on Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, came after two crane collapses...
