A former city housing honcho said Monday he raked in $2.5 million in bribes from developers and contractors looking to access affordable housing contracts.
The stunning admission from former Housing Preservation and Development Department assistant commissioner Wendell Walters came as he testified in the Brooklyn federal court bribery trial of developer Steve Dunn and his lawyer partners Lee Hymowitz and Michael Freeman.
Walters — who began working at HPD after playing college hoops at Iona University and getting a degree from the Cardozo School of Law — was arrested in 2011 for corruption. He entered into a cooperation deal with the feds.
The waves of dirty cash came in so frequently that Walters stopped adding up his grand total, he told jurors.
“I kind of stopped counting at a certain point,” he said of lump payments that often numbered in the six figures. “I didn’t really keep a spreadsheet. It was all in my head. I just kept stuffing it in a bag.”
Walters was also paid in the form of pricey vacations to France, Greece, and Jamaica as well as watches and fancy home appliances.
Walters said he purchased a blue-chip Harlem town house with some of his cash — and must now forfeit the $1.8 million property.
Known as “The Big Man” for his towering 6-foot-7 frame, Walters told the court that suitors all but begged to bribe him in order to secure lucrative contracts to renovate and develop housing stock.
He previously pleaded guilty to bribery and racketeering counts.