Earlier today, a federal court in Brooklyn unsealed a superseding indictment against Gary DSilva, Jonathan Velazquez, Luis A. Camarena, and Pradeep Nigam. They face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bribery, as well as substantive counts of wire fraud and federal-program bribery. DSilva and Velazquez are also charged with money laundering conspiracies.
The new charges stem from allegations that DSilva and Velazquez, employees at a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization (the Organization), received kickbacks from Nigam in exchange for directing business to Nigam's vendor company (Vendor 2). This follows a previous indictment from November 2024 involving similar allegations where DSilva and Velazquez reportedly accepted kickbacks from Camarena for business directed to his company (Vendor 1).
Pradeep Nigam has surrendered to authorities and will be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Marcia M. Henry. The arraignment dates for DSilva, Velazquez, and Camarena have not been set.
Joseph Nocella Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI); and Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge at the FBI's New York Field Office announced the charges.
"As alleged, DSilva, Velasquez, and Nigam set up a secret side deal with Nigam and awarded Nigam business contracts worth millions of dollars that provided essential information-technology services to homeless shelters in return for illegal kickbacks," stated United States Attorney Nocella. "Today’s indictment underscores our strong commitment to prosecuting all illegal fraud and contract steering schemes."
DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber added: "These defendants... engaged in kickback schemes in return for millions of dollars in contracts... intended to provide technology services in homeless shelters operated by the non-profit... I thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the New York Office of the FBI for their continued partnership..."
FBI Assistant Director Raia stated: "These four defendants allegedly crafted a kickback scheme to enrich themselves by discreetly contracting a co-conspirator’s company to install security systems in several New York City homeless shelters... The FBI remains committed to investigating any instance of quid pro quo..."
According to the indictment, DSilva and Velazquez worked in the Management Information Systems department at the Organization responsible for soliciting vendors for IT projects. The indictment outlines two schemes where they received kickbacks for steering contracts towards specific vendors.
In one scheme detailed previously, they received approximately $500,000 from Camarena while steering about $1.6 million worth of contracts towards Vendor 1. In another scheme with Vendor 2 owned by Nigam, they approved payments totaling nearly $2 million from which they allegedly received over $700,000 in kickbacks.
The government emphasizes that these charges are merely allegations until proven guilty.
The case is managed by Assistant U.S Attorneys Laura Zuckerwise and Turner Buford with support from paralegal specialist Kavya Kannan under the Public Integrity Section.
