Nine JFK Airport taxi dispatchers were arraigned on bribery charges on April 1, for accepting between $5 and $10 to allow drivers to cut to the front of the line of taxis waiting to pick up passengers, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. The dispatchers worked for a subcontractor retained by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANY/NJ) to regulate the movement of yellow cabs from a central holding area to the various terminal pick-up locations.
After receiving complaints, a joint investigation by the PANY/NJ’s Office of the Inspector General and the Queens District Attorney’s Airport Investigations Unit found that between January 2022 and February 2024, the nine dispatchers accepted more than $12,000 in bribes. Ranging in age from 21 to 67, they were charged in Queens Criminal Court with second-degree commercial bribe receiving, official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities. Four of the dispatchers were also charged with first-degree felony commercial bribe receiving for accepting more than $1,000. If convicted, the dispatchers face between one and four years in prison. A warrant was issued for a tenth dispatcher, who was still at large in mid-April.
Dispatchers aren’t the only ones at risk of bribery charges, Taxi & Limousine Commissioner David Do says: “Public safety and playing by the rules are precursors for prosperity, and that goes for drivers, too. Any time we learn of drivers bribing dispatchers or operating illegally, we will move to revoke their licenses.”
JFK dispatchers have been busted for bribery before… in 2009, 2014, and in February, a pair of Queens cab drivers were hit with prison time after they admitted to working with Russian hackers to breach the JFK Airport taxi dispatch system to help cabbies skip to the front of pick-up lines.
Source: Crain’s New York Business
