City and federal workers among 18 charged in major white-collar ghost guns investigation, Manhattan DA says

NEW YORK — Employees for the city’s homeless services agency, the U.S. Postal Service, NYCHA, the MTA and a former NYPD school safety agent were among 18 people indicted in Manhattan on Thursday as part of a major white-collar investigation stemming from a probe into ghost guns that involved stealing homeless New Yorkers’ identities to scam a pandemic benefits program.

Public servants in positions across the local, state and federal levels appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court on a variety of different charges laid out in four indictments, including allegations they manufactured and sold 3D ghost guns, conspired to defraud New York’s pandemic unemployment assistant program and committed burglary.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the cases were born from a standard street crime investigation that expanded into a financial fraud probe.

“These alleged schemes were orchestrated and largely operated by city employees, many of whom abused their positions of public trust for personal gain. We see a clear link between those engaging in violent crimes and traditional white-collar fraud at the same time,” Bragg said.

DHS worker Craig Freeman, 56, and an unnamed alleged co-conspirator, who both worked at the Barbara Kleiman DHS shelter in Brooklyn, are accused in charging papers of buying parts and machines to purchase the untraceable firearms.

Prosecutors further accused Adrienne Manigault, 25, and an unnamed alleged co-conspirator of buying hundreds of dollars worth of 3D printing machines and ghost-gun parts to make and distribute between May 2022 and January 2023. Manigault is quoted in court papers texting an alleged accomplice to say a homemade gun was “beautiful,” adding, “I want to shoot it.”

“Both of the conspiracies really underscore how the public can get their hands on these really dangerous goods — creating firearms from the comfort of one’s home,” Bragg said Thursday. “With just a few clicks on popular websites like eBay or Amazon, the public can buy printing machines and gun parts for just a few hundred dollars.”

The DA said the investigation into the ghost guns led to the discovery of the scam targeting New York’s pandemic program.

Former NYPD employee Charde Baker, 35, and an unnamed co-conspirator are accused of being the ringleaders in that scheme, which involved two other DHS employees and 12 other alleged accomplices. They allegedly used private information stolen from unsuspecting shelter residents to submit 70 fraudulent applications to the state Department of Labor.

After applying for assistance in the shelter residents’ names, the group allegedly had the checks sent to addresses along the Upper East Side mail route of an unnamed USPS letter carrier in the scheme.

Bragg said the burglary indictment against Baker and several others stemmed from a disagreement among the accused over how to split illicit profits in the benefits scheme, leading to an apartment robbery.

“Some of the city employees charged in this indictment had access to sensitive personal information that was entrusted to them so that they could do their job assisting unhoused families. Instead, the defendants exploited that information to fraudulently pocket over $1 million in unemployment benefits,” city DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber said in a statement. “DOI is working with the city Department of Social Services to better protect clients’ personal information and address any vulnerabilities.”

Lawyers for those accused did not immediately answer requests for comment.

The arrests followed a more than yearlong investigation stemming from the indictment of East Village man Cliffie Thompson, who’s accused of running a 3D-printing “ghost gun factory” out of his mother’s NYCHA apartment.

Cops discovered 3D printers, plastic firearm components, several rounds of ammunition, a ledger with the names of potential clients and more than two dozen credit cards with fake names during a January 2023 raid of Thompson’s mother’s apartment in NYCHA’s Lillian Wald Houses off the FDR Drive.

Thompson pleaded guilty to weapons charges on Jan. 8 and received a prison term of five years in addition to three years postrelease supervision.