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Head of scandal-plagued NYPD division, Mike Endall, retires without fuss

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Head of scandal-plagued NYPD division, Dep Insp Mike Endall, quietly throws in the towel
 Endall, 49, ran the allegedly corrupt License Division
He was transferred to a full-pay desk job “pending further review,” in April 
Three of his former subordinates, including his ex-second-in-command, Lt. Paul Dean, 45, Sergeant David Villanueva, 43, and Officer Richard Ochetal, 37 were arrested and charged last April in the wake of the  scandal 
The were accused of accepting favors to expedite gun licenses
Paul Dean is accused of snagging free restaurant meals, booze, auto repairs, entertainment, including trips to strip clubs along with former officer Robert Espinel
Former Sgt. David Villanueva, pled guilty to accepting bribery from former prosecutor turned gun lawyer, John Chambers, in exchange for expediting the licences
Endall has not been charged by the feds for corruption in the wake of the probe

“He should have at least been charged administratively with failure to supervise,” groused one law enforcement insider.
“The ironic thing is, he was promoted by [then-Police Commissioner William] Bratton to deputy inspector — while the place was turned into a candy store and they were selling everything in sight.”
Endall makes $177,941 a year, according to city records, meaning his pension upon retirement will be equal to at least half that sum annually.

Retired NYPD Lt. Paul Dean1.jpgFormer Lt. Paul Dean, who filed his retirement papers in December 2015, along with Officer Robert Espinel

Three of Endall’s former employees, including his ex-second-in-command, now-retired Lt. Paul Dean,was caught in the web of the scandal and probe. Dean was arrested on April 25, last year.
Dean is accused of taking free restaurant meals, booze, car repairs and entertainment, including trips to strip clubs, to expedite gun licenses.  Most of the illicit transaction was through Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, a Borough Park Shomrim patrol leader who was arrested by the feds on April 17, 2016 on charges he paid off cops for expedited licenses.
A fourth underling, former Sgt. David Villanueva, pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges, and is cooperating with investigators, federal prosecutors said.
In the aftermath of the arrest and charging of a volunteer officer with the Orthodox Jewish Borough Park Shomrim, Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, 45,  for bribing NYPD officials with cash for expedited gun licences, in April, 2015 – three officers the License Division went under the administrative hammer. Commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Michael Endall, were demoted to administrative work “pending further review.” Sergeant David Villanueva, 43, and Officer Richard Ochetal, 37, were placed on modified duty.

Paul Dean and Robert Espinel1Former NYPD Lt. Paul Dean [left], and ex-officer Robert Espinel [right], were accused of conspiring with a retired detective to “corner the market” on crooked pistol permits issued in New York City .

Former police Lt. Paul Dean and ex-cop Robert Espinel, allegedly took the payoffs in exchange for hard-to-obtain pistol permits from the NYPD License Division, where both were still on the force. The duo believed the take in the  bribes of booze, strippers and hookers they were getting weren’t enough.
The conduit for the gun licence racket was businessman Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein currently serving  32 months in prison for bribing cops as an “expediter” of gun licenses. The charges allege that several cops tried to cash in and corner the expediter market for themselves by forcing Lichtenstein to deal with them. A former Brooklyn prosecutor, John Chambers also allegedly set himself up in the expediting business.

Robert Espinel1.png
Former NYPD officer, Robert Espinel done in by greed

Some of the bribes came from NYPD detective-turned-gun store owner Gaetano “Guy” Valastro, who “expedited” permits for customers of his former shop in Queens, a Manhattan federal court complaint says.
But Dean and Espinel allegedly saw all the cash that was being made by the middlemen who helped applicants score gun licenses, including Valastro and Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges last year, and decided they wanted into ‘the business’ directly, themselves.
They’re allegedly tried to shake down both Lichtenstein and Queens gun-store owner Frank Soohoo for $500 per application before opting to retire in 2016 and go into business with Valastro as permit “expediters,” according to the charge documents.
The plan was to “corner the expediting market” by using their connections to pay bribes to cops in the License Division, where Dean had been the No. 2 in charge, according to the feds.
“I’m done watching people make money off of my back,” Dean allegedly told Lichtenstein during a conversation Lichtenstein recorded.
Dean, 45, and Espinel, 48, were both charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of extortion.
59-year-old Valastro, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying to feds and IAB.
Their fate was sealed with the aid of recordings made by Lichtenstein, which the FBI seized, as well as testimony from Frank Soohoo and disgraced former NYPD officers David Villanueva and Richard Ochetal, both of whom were acting as cooperating witnesses.

Gun lawyer John Chambers1.jpgSelf-proclaimed gun lawyer, John Chambers,  allegedly had Sgt David Villaneuva on his payroll to expedite approval of gun licenses

Former prosecutor and self-proclaimed gun lawyer to the stars, John Chambers, 63, was ensnared and charged with keeping an NYPD officer on the payroll in a bribes-for-permits scam that secured his clients expedited license renewals and also smoothed over legal issues that might have cost them their pistol permits, federal authorities said.
For now, Mike Endall’s plans for retirement have nothing to do with the arrests, insisted Captains Endowment Association president Roy Richter.
“He’s retiring because he has an offer in the private sector that he wants to take advantage of,” Richter said.
“There’s no reason for him to put his life on hold.”
He called the arrests last week “disheartening and embarrassing.”
“There’s absolutely no relationship between Endall’s decisions to retire and the indictments that were announced this week,” Richter said. “Endall’s conduct as a commander has always been above reproach.”

 

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