Manhattan prosecutors today charged two men with stealing more than $300,000 from low-income co-ops they managed on the Lower East Side and in Harlem.
Robert Caballero, 53, and Gordon Jenkins, 72, were arraigned in separate cases on grand larceny charges for allegedly lining their own pockets with building funds from a government program intended to help low-income New Yorkers become home owners.
“Government programs are not piggy banks,” said District Attorney Cy rus Vance Jr .
Caballero, who is also charged with forging checks, is accused of stealing more than $260,000 from a Housing Development Fund Corp. co-op he managed at 172 Forsyth St. He allegedly forged more than 150 checks and deposited $450 checks in his own bank account every week from January 2007 to July 2010.
He was held on $100,000 bail after pleading not guilty.
Jenkins, the treasurer of an HDFC building on West 133rd Street, is accused of stealing more than $50,000 by making unauthorized debit card withdrawals from the building’s bank account from December 2008 to last February.
Jenkins was released without bail.