FBI investigating alleged NYPD corruption

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - The New York City Police Department is reportedly under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for alleged corruption including accepting lavish gifts from Super Bowl tickets to vacations abroad.

In return, NYPD officers provided security for private cash and jewelry deliveries and police escorts for funerals and airport trips to transfer bodies to Israel, reported the NY Post.

New details into the investigation include how deep-pocketed businessmen who were the original targets of the probe sought out high-ranking officers they knew could "get things done for them," sources told The Post.

"They don't go to police officers or detectives. They're too far down the food chain,'' a law-enforcement source said of the politically connected Orthodox Jewish businessmen.

"They go straight to the top: the [commanding officer], lieutenants and other top officials at the precinct," the source added. "They get things done for them. All they need to do is make a call."

The probe began during a financial investigation into Mayor de Blasio's cronies Jona Rechnitz, an Upper West Side real-estate powerhouse, and Jeremy Reichberg, a prominent Borough Park figure, according to sources.

Up to 20 officers - including Deputy Inspector James Grant, the head of the Upper East Side's 19th Precinct, and two other deputy inspectors - are being grilled over what they might know, sources said.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Tuesday that the NYPD will "cooperate fully'' with the FBI and called probes like this "the nature of the business."

"We'll just have to see where the investigation goes, and it's something that, as you'd expect, we will participate in and kind of cooperate fully with," said Bratton.

"That's all I'm able to say at this time," he said. "On these investigations, we're not able to comment on them, and that's an agreement with the Bureau."

Detective Michael Milici was placed on modified duty for pleading the Fifth when questioned by a grand jury during the probe - a disciplinary move that Bratton said was "for the good of the department."