The extent of the Big Apple’s rotten core appeared to grow as a report tied the FDNY commissioner to China while two former chiefs were indicted on federal charges.
Only days after NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned amid his own federal investigation and with calls coming in for New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) to step down, FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker’s connections came under scrutiny little more than a month after being appointed.
According to a report from the New York Post, the commissioner, who never served as a firefighter, had previously run the private security firm T&M USA LLC. Included among their clientele was Miles Guo, the Chinese billionaire convicted of racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering who had admitted to federal investigators that he’d worked for Chinese intelligence.
“Guo had worked with T&M Security to install cameras in his apartment, but they no longer work for him,” an April 2020 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York detailed.
Images shared on social media featured Tucker and former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin, T&M’s vice president, posing with Guo in his Manhattan apartment.
Robert Tucker and Duncan Levin
T&M Protection pic.twitter.com/4laAjKFu1s
— Mischa (@MischaEDM) April 29, 2023
In a statement to the Post, a T&M spokesperson expressed that due to company policy, they could neither “disclose the identity of any of our clients nor reveal information regarding any services related to client matters.”
Meanwhile, Tucker also had a connection to Caban’s Assistant Director of the Police Commissioner Liason Unit, Lin Gui’an, who had been reported to have ties to the Chinese Communist Party through, among other associations, his role with United Front, a nonprofit linked to a network of CCP-controlled community groups.
The Post detailed that a March 2022 email with Lin Gui’an’s resume had been sent to Caban by a T&M personal assistant and copied to Tucker. The newspaper noted Lin had worked “at an elite golf course in Scarsdale — where Tucker owns a sprawling, $7 million mansion — but had gone on to become a White Plains auxiliary cop and administrator at that time.”
A statement from T&M attorney Meryl Lutsky offered, “To put this in context, for approximately the past ten years, Robert Tucker has served as a Board Member on both the New York City Police Foundation as well as the FDNY Foundation, among others.”
“Additionally, Mr. Tucker was appointed to the Public Safety & Justice Committee of Mayor Adams’ transition team in 2021. In those various capacities, Mr. Tucker has received and forwarded many resumes to the appropriate NYC agencies, including the resume you referenced,” added Lutsky.
The report on Tucker came as former FDNY Chiefs Brian Cordasco and Anthony Saccavino pled not guilty after they were indicted on charges of bribery, corruption and for making false statements with allegations suggesting, during their time as chiefs for the Bureau of Fire Prevention they received nearly $200,000 for expediting projects for certain people and companies.
SDNY U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams stated during a press conference, “They allegedly created a VIP lane for faster service that could only be accessed with bribes.”
Two former high-ranking FDNY officials charged with bribery, corruption, and false statements offenseshttps://t.co/VSxHlOmTYy
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) September 16, 2024
As noted above, Caban had resigned as federal authorities seized his and his twin brother’s cell phones amid allegations that James Caban worked as a fixer for bars and restaurants.
News of the connection followed the arrest of Linda Sun, a top aide to disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) who’d become deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) before she was let go in 2023 and indicted recently for allegedly working as an undisclosed agent for China.
The raid on her home followed additional reported raids on the homes of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, Adams’ campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs, and International Affairs Aide Rana Abbasova while Hizzoner was probed for potential collusion with the Turkish government.
Succeeding Laura Kavanagh, who resigned as commissioner after reportedly vowing to “hunt…down” former President Donald Trump-supporting firefighters who’d booed New York Attorney General Letitia James, Tucker assumed office on August 12.
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