The founder of a New York City nonprofit helping ex-cons pocketed $2.5 million worth of bribes — including two homes, luxury car loan payments and stacks of cash — in exchange for steering $51 million in COVID funding to two shady businesspeople, federal prosecutors allege.
Julio Medina, 64, founder and CEO of Exodus Transitional Community, which during the pandemic helped the Big Apple place inmates in hotels to help reduce jail populations and slow the spread of COVID-19 in city lockups, was indicted Thursday by the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office.
Exodus accepted $122 million in public funds from the mayor’s office to operate these hotels from June 2020 through December 2023 — but Medina allegedly funneled $51 million of the money to businesses run by co-defendants Christopher Dantzler, 49, and Weihong Hu, 59, in exchange for kickbacks, the feds charged.
Danztler and Hu — an associate of Mayor Eric Adams’ former aide Winnie Greco who donated tens of thousands to the mayor’s 2021 campaign — bought a $1.3 million Washington Heights townhouse for Medina and also bought him a house in Clifton Park, NY and paid for renovations for it for a total of $750,000, prosecutors claimed.
Hu, through her company, allegedly provided over $50,000 in car payments for Medina on a luxury vehicle worth $107,000 and Dantzler, through his business, paid off $75,000 in debts for Medina and his family members, the feds alleged.
Danztler’s company allegedly received funds from Exodus to provide bogus security services at the hotel but his business was not a licensed security company and it didn’t actually provide security services, prosecutors claimed.
Hu’s company ran two hotels in Queens and was also a member of a catering company that provided food services at the hotels, according to the feds.
Hu, of Manhattan, and Dantlzer, of Baldwin, NY, also gave Medina cash bribes, prosecutors claimed.
Photos included in the indictment against the trio showed Medina taking a stack of cash from Hu, around the time Exodus cut her catering company two checks totaling over $187,000, the feds claimed.
“Shamefully, the defendants saw the pandemic as an opportunity to line their pockets with stacks of cash, finance a luxury vehicle, purchase homes and pay off personal debts,” Brooklyn US Attorney John J. Durham said in a statement.
They were all charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the travel act. They face up to 45 years behind bars if convicted on all charges.
The trio were arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday where Judge James Cho set bond at $250,000 for Medina, $20 million for Hu and $750,000 for Dantzler.
“In my judgment, Ms Hu is in many ways a “victim” in this case and not a co- conspirator,” Hu’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman told The Post.
Lawyers for Medina and Dantzler didn’t return requests for comment Friday.
— Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer
