FDNY Fire Chief Arrested for Taking $190K in Bribes to Skip Inspection Line

On May 14, 2025, Anthony Saccavino — a chief of the New York City Fire Department's Bureau of Fire Prevention and a 30-plus-year FDNY veteran earning a $263,000 annual salary — was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to solicit and receive a bribe in connection with a scheme that corrupted the city's fire-safety inspection process across more than 30 building projects. Prosecutors described Saccavino as the mastermind of a pay-to-play operation running from 2021 to 2023 in which he and fellow chief Brian Cordasco solicited and received approximately $190,000 in bribes funneled through retired firefighter Henry Santiago Jr., who operated an unsanctioned expediting business; developers and property owners paid Santiago, and the chiefs used their Bureau of Fire Prevention authority to move those clients to the front of the queue for plan reviews and inspections, exploiting a COVID-era backlog that left compliant applicants waiting. Saccavino personally pocketed approximately $57,000, lied to subordinates to justify the improper queue-jumping, and lied to law enforcement when questioned. U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman of the Southern District of New York also ordered Saccavino to pay a $150,000 fine and forfeit $57,000. Among the dozens of projects fast-tracked through the scheme were buildings whose delayed competitors — developers who paid nothing and played by the rules — watched their opening timelines stretch by months while Saccavino's paying customers walked to the front of a line that existed specifically to protect the public.