A city welfare agency worker handed out thousands of dollars worth of food stamps in exchange for hundreds of dollars in bribes, court papers state.
The unnamed Human Resources Administration worker took the money from Sean Nicholson, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery raps on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
“Sean Nicholson paid [the co-conspirator] hundreds of dollars in bribes in the Bronx in exchange for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) benefits for himself and others to which the recipients were not entitled,” court papers state.
Nicholson gave the HRA worker $200 in 2010 and kept giving him money until this year — receiving over $5,000 in benefits in exchange, according to the court papers.
Nicholson pleaded guilty on both raps Monday, was freed on $20,000 bond, and will be sentenced in September.
Nicholson defense attorney Paul Fischetti declined to comment.
These new bribery allegations mirror recent crimes committed by HRA employees.
Social worker Tara Tisdale was arrested last year for selling the personal information of her poor and homeless clients to an accomplice who used it to empty their food-stamp accounts, and social worker Elizabeth Valentine was busted in 2013 for writing her boyfriend and his buddies $90,000 in “emergency assistance” checks.
Nearly 140 HRA employees have been axed or forced to resign over the last six years for crimes and misconduct, The Post exclusively reported in January.
“HRA takes employee fraud very seriously and has fired employees who have been found guilty of fraud. We also constantly working to improve our ability to prevent and catch fraud and work closely with law enforcement agencies,” said HRA spokesman David Neustadt.