NEW YORK – A federal immigration official who was recorded demanding sex from a young Colombian woman in exchange for a green card was arrested on corruption charges, prosecutors said Friday.

The woman, who is married to an American citizen, said she gave in to one demand for oral sex because she was afraid, but she also used a mobile phone hidden in her purse to record the December encounter and the conversation that preceded it.

Days later she went to a The New York Times to tell her story. She also called the district attorney’s office.

“I want sex,” he said on the recording, according to the Times. “One or two times. That’s all. You get your green card. You won’t have to see me anymore.”

Queens prosecutors said Isaac R. Baichu, an adjudication officer at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Garden City, threatened to hold up the woman’s application and even deport her relatives if she didn’t acquiesce.

Baichu was arrested March 11 after meeting with the woman again, this time with prosecutors listening in.

His attorney did not immediately return phone messages Friday.

Baichu faces misdemeanor charges of coercion and sexual misconduct and a felony charge of receiving a reward for official misconduct. A judge released him on a $15,000 bond.

Baichu was suspended immediately after his arrest, and his pay will be halted, Citizenship and Immigration spokesman Shawn Saucier said. Baichu was hired three years ago and made about $50,000 annually.

BY Heidi Evans
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, February 19th 2008, 12:03 AM

The state attorney general and the Brooklyn district attorney have launched a joint probe into a nonprofit agency whose director allegedly squandered taxpayer dollars meant for disabled people on himself and his pals.

Seibert Phillips, executive director of the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need (SPIN), paid his close personal friend, Carlos Ortiz, $250,000 for a no-show job over 2-1/2 years after the relationship soured, a report by the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities charges.

He also spent thousands of dollars of the agency’s money on business trips, booze, luxury cars, flat-panel TVs and iPods for a dozen staff members.

Phillips, 44, also lied that he had college and social worker’s degrees, and appears to have spun a tangled web of “waste, fraud and abuse” as the center’s $300,000 a-year director, the report charges.

The report’s findings – obtained by the Daily News – were sent to the law enforcement agencies two weeks ago.

An employee first reported Seibert’s alleged corruption 18 months ago.

“We have opened an investigation in cooperation with the state AG’s office to determine what crimes may have been committed,” said Jerry Schmetterer, spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

“There appears to be serious criminal intent here,” a law enforcement source said. “Phillips and others could face prosecution down the road.”

Reached Monday, Phillips said, “I have no comment” and hung up on a reporter.

He denied the allegations last week.

The Evelyn Douglin Center – and its sister organization for children’s services – have headquarters at 241 37th St in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The tax-exempt centers serve more than 300 mentally retarded, autistic and disabled children and adults in a variety of group homes and day care centers.

Among the report’s other findings:

Three of SPIN’s directors did business with the agency, a conflict of interest in nonprofit laws. One board member, psychologist Merrith Hockmeyer, was paid more than $90,000 for services to Evelyn Douglin clients.

Phillips violated federal and state laws forbidding nonprofits from making campaign contributions. Records show Phillips has donated nearly $6,000 to Queens Assemblywoman Vivian Cook since 2002. Cook also received $1,550 in campaign contributions from the Evelyn Douglin Center.

The board of directors failed to “closely monitor” Phillips.

The board’s lawyer, Jack Kiley, could not be reached for comment.

Despite the revelations, Phillips and his board members were allowed to stay on. Phillips, who lives in Rockland County, is expected to leave at the end of this month.

He is being replaced by lawyer Charles Archer, his good friend and a longtime board member.

Attorney for the defense: Matthew D. Myers

Written by Heidi Evans for the New York Daily News – hevans@nydailynews.com

Read the Daily News article

By Matthew Lysiak and Elizabeth Hays
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Monday, February 18th 2008, 1:57 AM

A Brooklyn agency that’s supposed to help the disabled spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on fancy cars, flat-panel TVs, business trips and a $100,000 no-show job for the director’s close friend, a report charges.

Despite the scathing findings, the Sunset Park group’s longtime executive director, Seibert Phillips – who lied about his education credentials and allegedly let his son, who lives in Atlanta, rack up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card – is still at the agency.

Most of the board members at the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need (SPIN) are also still in place – even though many are longtime Phillips cronies who failed for years to rein in the lavish spending.

“[Phillips] should not be there. He should be in prison,” said Tara Cernacek, a former staffer who was fired after she blew the whistle on Phillips’ alleged graft in 2006, sparking the investigation.

“I’m shocked, outraged that they received little more than a slap on the wrist,” she said.

The report’s findings, obtained exclusively by the Daily News, were sent to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes two weeks ago – although Cernacek first complained in the fall of 2006.

State officials have allowed Phillips and board members to stay on at the agency, which gets about $14 million in federal, state and city funds to run adult residential homes and children’s programs for the developmentally disabled.

The report, issued by the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, charged that Phillips’ conduct is “another example of fraud, waste and abuse in the mental hygiene system.”

Phillips, who founded the group in 1996, said he was a certified social worker with a bachelor’s degree from York College and a master’s from Fordham – and both claims were found to be untrue.

Among the report’s findings:

n In 2006, Phillips gave himself a salary of nearly $300,000 as the head of SPIN and its sister group, the Evelyn Douglin Center for Children’s Services – far more than top managers earned at similar nonprofits.

n Phillips gave SPIN staffer Carlos Ortiz – with whom he was having a “personal relationship,” the report stated – a $100,000-a-year, no-show job, a $51,000 company car and health and pension benefits. Reached by The News, Ortiz had no comment.

n On Staff Day 2005, the agency doled out more than $60,000 for 11 flat-panel TVs, 34 iPods and other gifts.

n A dozen top staffers got luxury cars – from Phillips’ $51,475 GMC Denali to property manager Raymond Wynne’s $62,370 Lincoln Navigator. “This appears to be well in excess of what is necessary and inconsistent with proper stewardship of taxpayer funding,” investigators wrote.

n Phillips and two colleagues spent $11,634 on a two-day conference in Chicago, where they paid $3,502.73 for lodging, including room service.

n Phillips’ son, who lives in Atlanta, allegedly racked up nearly $18,000 in gas charges on an agency credit card.

Phillips denied the findings.

SPIN’s board said in a statement it was “extremely troubled” by the report and that Phillips had resigned in November. He is serving as a consultant to ease in the new executive director, Charles Archer – a longtime board member and friend of Phillips.

Phillips is slated to leave at the end of February.

The state office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities – which oversees SPIN and similar agencies – said it allowed board members and Phillips to stay so services “would not be disrupted.”

By Laura Italiano

An alleged cyber-sicko accused of posing online as a co-ed to trick college women into sending him their nude photos has hired a top forensic shrink to prove he’s just a harmless nerd.

Chubby Hunter College student Elvin Chuang, 20, of Brooklyn, is trying to avoid a possible 16-month prison sentence on charges of identity theft, coercion, fraud and general larceny.

He’s hoping an examination by forensic psychologist N.G. Berill, scheduled for Monday, will convince a Manhattan judge that he isn’t really dangerous and shouldn’t be jailed at all.

Berill has consulted on numerous high-profile criminals, including serial killer Joel Rifkin, LIRR mass murderer Colin Ferguson and Abner Louima torture cop Justin Volpe.

“We’re hoping he’ll find my client is not a predator, but is more or less doing this as a college prank” said his lawyer Matthew Myers.

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Fotog Was Louse Who Got The Cheese

By Barbara Ross
Friday, August 18th 2006, 7:20AM

A FRENCH photographer admitted in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday that he ripped off his former roommate of thousands of dollars by pretending to be in financial deals with celebrities like Madonna.

As part of a plea deal, Alexis Quinlin, 46, will be sentenced next month to serve 2 1/2 to 7 1/2 years in prison, and he will have to pay an undetermined amount of money back to two dozen other friends he also swindled.

Although Manhattan prosecutors said in May that Quinlin stole $3.9 million, his lawyer, Matthew Myers, said yesterday that the amount was closer to $325,000.

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