New York City’s Board of Elections improperly gave unearned annual leave and unjustified sick leave to one of the agency’s former lawyers who pleaded guilty in 2022 to allegations that he made interns wrestle shirtless with him, according to a Department of Investigation report released on Tuesday.
According to the report, the board improperly gave 23 annual leave days to Steven Richman, along with approximately 60 days of sick leave – a value of $61,609. Richman’s salary at the time was $190,786, according to records.
“DOI’s investigation of how BOE chose to pay its former general counsel, while that individual was under criminal investigation, found that BOE failed to document its actions and failed to comply with best practices,” DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said in a statement.
Richman pleaded guilty in 2022 to two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct after an investigation by the DOI and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, authorities said.
According to his plea, Richman admitted to promising security jobs to interns who could pass a “physical fitness assessment," which involved Richman wrestling with them. According to two subsequent civil lawsuits, the interns were told to wrestle shirtless with Richman and placed into a chokehold, where they lost consciousness.
The 18-page DOI report found that the Board of Elections granted Richman leave without explanation while he was being criminally investigated for the allegations involving the interns. According to the report, even though Richman did not have the time accrued in the city’s time management system, he was still allowed to carry a negative balance.
The report said elections commissioners voted to override a city policy of adding time, but could not provide documentation of such a vote. The report said it was Executive Director Michael Ryan who authorized the improper use of unearned time off.
“Ryan represented that Richman would use his annual leave balance until it was exhausted, and then be advanced time subject to repayment,” the report said. “This is inconsistent with Ryan’s representation to DOI that the BOE Commissioners had granted Richman’s [unearned leave].”
Ryan said the report doesn’t accurately reflect the sequence of events. In his response to the DOI, Ryan said that the Board of Commissioners voted to suspend Richman with pay.
“In order to effectuate same, it appears that the Board’s payroll department processed a grant of time,” Ryan wrote in response to the report.
The board declined to comment further.
Richman’s lawyer, Arnold Kirss, called the report “ridiculous.”
“The employee did everything correctly, and I believe that the Board of Elections and the City of New York did everything correctly under their control, which we had no control over,” Kriss said in a phone interview.
In a letter to the DOI, city Comptroller Brad Lander’s office said the Board of Elections did not disclose the circumstances around Richman’s departure, and in the future, will require official approval to pay unusual non-sick leave.
