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The former commissioner of New York City’s Department of Buildings was indicted Wednesday on charges he traded favors and influence for more than $150,000 in cash and gifts, including a premium New York Mets season ticket package, a discounted beachfront apartment in Queens, a “bespoke suit,” and a painting by the last surviving apprentice of legendary Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí.
Eric Ulrich, who resigned in November after being questioned by local investigators who seized his cell phone, has “misus[ed] his authority in every public service position he held,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement of facts submitted to New York County Supreme Court Justice Daniel P. Conviser.
Ulrich, 38, was elected to the New York City Council in 2009, a position he held until the end of 2021. In January 2022, Mayor Eric Adams brought Ulrich on as a senior adviser, six months after which Ulrich, a Republican, was appointed Buildings commissioner. On Wednesday morning, he surrendered to authorities on multiple counts of conspiracy, bribe receiving, and offering a false instrument for filing. Ulrich reportedly arrived at the DA’s office toting a copy of the book Killing Jesus: A History, by conservative firebrand and onetime Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.