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Queens Pizzeria Owners Plead Guilty to Bribing Former Adams Aide

Their admissions of payments to ex-DOB chief Eric Ulrich remove them as potential witnesses and could alter how broader Adams-era corruption prosecutions proceed.

Overview

  • The Livreri brothers, Anthony and Joseph, pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony conspiracy and bribery counts after admitting they paid former Department of Buildings chief Eric Ulrich for city favors.
  • Prosecutors say the payments, reported as $4,000 in 2022, bought expedited inspections, help avoiding a DOB vacate order at a bakery, job placements for associates, and licensing assistance for a co-defendant.
  • Indictment materials allege some payments funded Ulrich’s gambling at public casinos and at an illegal club partly owned by Joseph Livreri.
  • Under their plea deals the brothers will not cooperate with prosecutors or testify against co-defendant Eric Ulrich if called, and they are due to be sentenced in December 2026.
  • This case was one of the early indictments that launched a wider set of state and federal probes into the Adams administration and the brothers’ guilty pleas may change the course of related trials now underway.