NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Nine taxi dispatchers were charged with bribery Monday—accused of pocketing cash from drivers who they let cut in line to pick up passengers at JFK Airport.
Dispatchers are tasked with directing yellow cabs from the central holding lot to various terminal pickup areas. The cabs are released on a first come, first served basis—but prosecutors allege the dispatchers favored drivers who paid them.
The dispatchers were arraigned in Queens County Criminal Court on charges of second-degree commercial bribe receiving, official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities.
Four of them are accused of accepting more than $1,000 in bribes and were charged with felony first-degree commercial bribe receiving, according to the Queens D.A.'s Office.
An arrest warrant was also issued for a 10th dispatcher, who remains at large.
All 10 dispatchers are employees of a subcontractor retained by the Port Authority, which operates the airport.
According to the D.A.'s office, the Port Authority first received complaints in 2022 that some dispatchers were taking bribes to allow cabbies to skip the line, leading to a probe by the Port Authority and Queens D.A.
The investigation found that between January 2022 and February 2024, the dispatchers in the complaint accepted more than $12,000 in bribes via cash, Zelle and CashApp payments, according to prosecutors, who said the bribes were accepted in small increments of around $5 or $10 per trip.
Eight of those accused were arrested on March 12 when they showed up for what they thought was a training session. The ninth was arrested separately on March 27. They were released on desk appearance tickets.
Queens D.A. Melinda Katz said "honest, hardworking men and women" are the victims of such corruption.
"As if the challenges of making a living as a yellow cab driver were not already enough, the cabbies at JFK had to overcome greed and corruption in their effort to put food on the table for themselves and their families," Katz said.
In a statement, Taxi & Limousine Commissioner David Do called the alleged bribery scheme "reprehensible."
"More than 90 percent of our drivers are immigrants, and many of them came here to avoid exactly this kind of corruption in their native lands," Do said.
Drivers caught bribing dispatchers or otherwise operating illegally face the revocation of their licenses, he added.