New York Attorney General Letitia James is facing mounting accusations that she turned a blind eye to alleged abuses by three scandal-plagued homeless shelter operators while simultaneously benefiting from tens of thousands of dollars in political donations linked to those very organizations.
According to the New York Post, Samaritan Daytop Village, Acacia Network Housing and CORE Services Group have escaped any enforcement action from the attorney generals office since James took office in 2019, even as other oversight bodies have repeatedly flagged serious problems. Over the same period, these heavily taxpayer-funded nonprofits have been scrutinized by the state Comptrollers Office, the state Inspector General, the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) and federal authorities over alleged insider dealing, excessive executive compensation, questionable spending and weak oversight of public funds.
A 2024 DOI review of 51 city-funded shelter providers a list that included Acacia and CORE documented widespread nepotism, lack of competitive bidding and exorbitant salaries across New York Citys sprawling, multi-billion-dollar shelter system. The DOI report also underscored that the attorney general has the statutory authority to bring action to enjoin, void or rescind improper insider transactions at nonprofits, a power critics say James has conspicuously declined to use in these cases.
These are precisely the kinds of abuses the attorney general is supposed to investigate, argued Republican challenger Saritha Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor seeking to oust James in Tuesdays general election. Yet while other watchdog agencies have exposed serious misconduct, Letitia James has refused to hold these operators accountable.
Komatireddy, who has previously accused James of going soft on other troubled shelter providers, said the money trail only deepens public concern. The fact that individuals tied to these [three] organizations have contributed thousands of dollars to her campaigns raises serious questions about whose interests she is protecting, she added, framing the issue as one of basic integrity in the stewardship of public funds.
Campaign finance records show that Samaritan Daytop Villages board includes Vito F. Pitta, a well-connected lobbyist who has personally donated $6,000 to James since 2018. His firm, Pitta LLP, has contributed an additional $22,500 to her political efforts, even as Samaritans finances and operations have come under official scrutiny.
A 2024 audit by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found that Samaritan overbilled the city by $566,556 over a two-year period, highlighting what auditors described as improper charges to taxpayers. A follow-up review earlier this year revealed that the citys Department of Homeless Services still had not recovered $385,109 of that amount, leaving a substantial sum unresolved.
Despite those findings, Samaritans leadership has continued to reward itself handsomely. Its CEO, Mitchell Netburn, received a 25% pay hike to $465,289 in 2025, even though the nonprofit reported operating losses for a third consecutive year, according to its financial filings.
DOI investigators also determined that Samaritan had purchased legal and insurance services from firms connected to its own board members, raising classic conflict-of-interest concerns. At the same time, the groups facilities have been plagued by serious crime and safety failures that directly affect vulnerable residents.
In 2019, Marcus Coles, a house manager at Samaritans residential treatment facility in Ellenville, New York, was arrested for raping a woman under his supervision and later pleaded guilty to a felony sex offense. The state sued Samaritan, alleging it failed to properly vet Coles despite his lengthy criminal record, which included multiple burglary and illegal drug arrests, before the case was ultimately settled.
Yet in March, James office went to court on Samaritans behalf, petitioning a state judge to transfer title of that same Ellenville treatment center to the nonprofit, a move that cleared the way for new state financing after the original corporate owner ceased operations. For critics, the episode illustrates a pattern in which James appears more inclined to facilitate the growth of politically connected nonprofits than to rigorously police their conduct.
Samaritans record in New York City has been equally troubling. In 2022, 3-year-old Shaquan Butler Jr. was discovered dead with bruises at the Pan American Hotel in Elmhurst, Queens, which Samaritan was then operating as a family shelter.
Local elected officials at the time blasted Samaritans management of the facility, pointing to rampant drug use and disorder as evidence of systemic mismanagement. The boys father, Shaquan Butler, was later convicted of the childs murder and sentenced to 32 years in prison, a tragic case that underscored the stakes when government outsources care of at-risk families to poorly supervised contractors.
Acacia Network Housing, another major shelter operator, has its own deep ties to James political orbit. Her longtime chief campaign strategist, Luis Miranda Jr., is a top lobbyist for the Bronx-based nonprofit, which has a long record of health and safety violations at its properties and generous payouts to senior executives.
Miranda and his wife Luz Towns-Miranda donated a combined $25,898 to James campaign committees since 2018, records show, cementing a close financial relationship between the attorney generals political operation and a nonprofit repeatedly cited for substandard conditions. That relationship has drawn particular scrutiny from those who believe New Yorks political class has become too cozy with the nonprofit industry it is supposed to regulate.
In 2019, DOI opened an investigation into Acacia after reports that it had steered tens of millions of dollars to a security company founded by its then-president, Raul Russi, including $12 million in 2017 alone, without properly disclosing the conflict on city forms and tax filings. The DOIs 2024 report highlighted Russis staggering $935,391 annual salary and noted that CEO Lymaris Albors collected $836,684, compensation levels that would be eye-popping even in the private sector, let alone for entities heavily reliant on public money.
CORE Services Group, the third nonprofit at the center of the controversy, was finally cut off by the city in November 2021 after years of red flags. The de Blasio administration had awarded CORE some $763 million in contracts over eight years before the city severed ties, following reporting by the Post and others that its CEO, Jack Brown, had stacked the payroll with friends and built a web of for-profit subcontractors he allegedly used as a personal cash cow.
Brown personally collected more than $1 million a year from CORE and its affiliates combined, a level of enrichment that critics say exemplifies the worst abuses of the citys shelter-industrial complex. He also donated $2,350 to James in 2018, further intertwining the fortunes of a controversial contractor with the states top law enforcement official.
In December 2021, federal agents raided COREs Brooklyn headquarters, and the city later sued the organization to recover $2.3 million in what it called excessive executive salaries. Despite those dramatic enforcement actions by other agencies, James office has not brought its own case against CORE, a silence that conservatives argue reflects a broader reluctance to challenge politically connected nonprofits that reliably support Democratic power structures.
When pressed on James apparent reluctance to act against Samaritan, Acacia and CORE, her campaign did not address the substance of the allegations. Instead, spokesperson Grace Smoker attempted to deflect by invoking national partisan politics, saying, Ms. Komatireddy has raked in donations from Trumps lieutenants and right-wing hacks, including [Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate] Vivek Ramaswamy, a response that may play well with progressive activists but does little to reassure taxpayers that New Yorks top prosecutor is willing to confront corruption within her own political ecosystem.
Login