Two Manhattan property managers charged with stealing from low-income buildings

A property manager and a treasurer at two Housing Development Fund Corporation buildings on the Lower East Side and the Upper West Side have been accused of stealing from the buildings, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office announced today. The DA’s office filed felony charges against Robert Caballero and Gordon Jenkins, for stealing from two separate low-income co-ops.

Caballero was indicted on charges of grand larceny, forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument and falsifying business records for forging checks and stealing more than $260,000 from an HDFC co-operative at 172 Forsyth Street, for which he was the property manager.

Jenkins, meanwhile, was charged with grand larceny for stealing more than $50,000 from a different HDFC co-op at 136 West 133rd Street, for which he acted as treasurer.

“Government programs are not piggy banks,” Vance said in a statement. “Though acting independently of one another, the defendants in these two cases are charged with stealing from members of a program that was intended to help low-income New Yorkers achieve the dream of home ownership.”

Attorneys for Caballero and Jenkins were not immediately available for comment. The two men could each be facing up to 15 years in prison for the alleged crimes. — Katherine Clarke