The sibling owners of an Ozone Park pizzeria charged with bribing a top aide to ex-Mayor Eric Adams pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy charges Wednesday, the first guilty pleas in a case that kicked off a damning series of corruption probes of the Adams administration nearly three years ago.
Brothers Anthony and Joseph Livreri were charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Sept. 13, 2023, in one of five sweeping indictments that targeted Eric Ulrich, whom Adams had appointed first as a senior advisor and then as building commissioner.
The Ulrich case was Round One in a stream of subsequent state and federal corruption indictments that would ultimately ensnare the mayor himself, along with several of his top aides, including his chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, his one-time chief of staff, Frank Carone, and Jesse Hamilton, a protege Adams appointed to oversee the city’s leases.
Standing before Acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Conviser, both brothers entered guilty pleas less than two weeks before they and their co-defendants were scheduled to go to trial, admitting they bribed Ulrich in exchange for his help in gaining favorable treatment from the Adams administration.
Ulrich and the other co-defendants have all pleaded not guilty and as of this week had planned to take their case to a jury. On Wednesday both brothers admitted to handing Ulrich $4,000 in an envelope to get rid of a city Building Department vacate order on a Brooklyn bakery. Their attorney, Jake Lasala, said outside court they are not cooperating with prosecutors.
Late Wednesday following the Livreris’ guilty pleas, Ulrich’s attorney, David Cohen, declined to comment on the brothers’ statements in court that they had handed him $4,000 in cash, replying, “I don’t think there’s anything to say about that.”
Cohen provided a statement he’s made in the past about his client, asserting that Ulrich “routinely borrowed money from family and friends related to his gambling and paying bills. There was never any understanding or expectation on Mr. Ulrich’s part that he would perform any official act in exchange for the money he borrowed.”
In an 18-page indictment, prosecutors alleged the Livreris gave Ulrich money to fund his gambling at public casinos — and at an illegal club called the 89th Street Cafe owned by Joseph Livreri.
Ulrich had hired Joseph as a part-time aide when he was a member of the City Council representing parts of Queens; once he was a senior mayoral aide he pushed City Hall to hire Joseph, the indictment said. Prosecutors also alleged that Ulrich helped the Livreris gain special treatment from city bureaucrats, including arranging an expedited inspection of their Ozone Park restaurant, Aldo’s Pizzeria, after the Health Department shut it down for multiple health code violations.
ADAMS WORLD INVESTIGATED: Follow The City Reporter’s Coverage of the Eric Adams scandals.
In August 2021, after Adams had won the Democratic mayoral primary and was expected to win the general election, the Livreri brothers and Michael Mazzio, owner of Mike’s Heavy Duty Towing, hosted a fundraiser at Russo’s of Howard Beach that raised $140,000 for the Adams campaign.
Two days after Christmas 2021, the Livreris met with the newly elected mayor and Ulrich at Aldo’s. At the time of the sitdown with Adams, Mazzio was facing criminal charges of operating a fraudulent monopoly of towing brought by the Manhattan DA. Weeks later Adams named Ulrich as one of his “senior advisors,” and a few months later as his buildings commissioner.
Prosecutors alleged the Livreri brothers sent Ulrich payments via Zelle and sometimes handed over envelopes of cash.
Besides Ulrich, the criminal cases against other top Adams aides are ongoing, including those of Lewis-Martin, Carone and Hamilton. All have pleaded not guilty to all charges and as of this week their attorneys say they intend to go to trial.
Mayor Adams, on the other hand, managed to walk away after he was indicted by the Manhattan U.S. attorney in September 2024. A few months later after President Donald Trump began his second term, his Department of Justice moved to withdraw the case in exchange for the mayor’s cooperation on the administration’s immigrant deportation campaign.
Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho reluctantly approved the dismissal but made a point of saying, “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”
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