Guard Took $45,000 in Bribes For Luxuries, Prosecutors Say

NEW YORK — A guard at the federal jail in lower Manhattan where some of the world’s most notorious accused criminals have been held was arrested Thursday and charged with taking more than $45,000 in bribes from an inmate in return for providing him with prohibited items, such as cellphones and alcohol.

The prisoner who paid the bribes was not identified by the government, but a person briefed on the matter said the inmate was Reza Zarrab, the wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader who pleaded guilty in fall and has assisted federal prosecutors in the investigation of a billion-dollar scheme to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Zarrab, who was arrested in March 2016, was held at the jail, known as the Metropolitan Correctional Center, through at least the middle of 2017, officials said. The payments all occurred before he pleaded guilty, and he later admitted to paying the bribes as part of his confessed misconduct. But only a few details about the bribe scheme were offered at the time.

The guard, Victor Casado, 35, of the Bronx, was charged with bribery, honest services fraud and other counts. He had been employed as a correctional officer at the jail since about 2012, the government said.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Zarrab, cited in the document as Inmate-1, learned in late 2016 from another prisoner that Casado wanted to give him his phone number. Zarrab was also told he should pay Casado $5,000 or $10,000, depending on what he could afford.

“Reasoning that it could be helpful to have a prison guard indebted to him,” the complaint said, Zarrab directed one of his Turkish lawyers to provide about $5,000 to Casado. Overseas associates of Zarrab wired the money to the lawyer, and it was eventually given to Casado, the complaint added.

The lawyer has not been identified, but when Zarrab testified in December as a government witness at the trial of a Turkish banker, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was also charged in the sanctions scheme, Zarrab briefly described using a female Turkish lawyer to pay the bribes.

Casado told Zarrab that if he “needed anything, to let Casado know,” according to the complaint.

Over the next few months, Zarrab made two or three additional payments to Casado, the complaint noted.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center has housed many prominent inmates, including some charged in terrorism and mob cases. The Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo is awaiting trial in the jail’s most secure wing. A jail spokesman declined to comment, as did lawyers for Casado and Zarrab.

In return for the bribes, prosecutors said, Casado, on more than five occasions, smuggled alcohol into the jail for Zarrab in plastic water bottles.

The complaint said that Casado also asked Zarrab for $25,000 to help one of his family members in the Dominican Republic, and that Zarrab, working through the lawyer, gave Casado $15,000 in cash.

Zarrab also regularly used Casado to smuggle a cellphone into the jail for his use, officials said.

Zarrab’s lawyer would provide the phone to Casado, who, at the beginning of his shift, would hand it to another inmate, who then passed it to Zarrab, according to the complaint.

A third inmate often held the phone and charged it, the complaint said. Near the end of Casado’s shift, Zarrab would pass the phone back to Casado through the second inmate.

Zarrab paid the second inmate $10,000, using the lawyer to send the money to the inmate’s wife, the complaint noted.

In his trial testimony in December, Zarrab said he used the phone to call family members, including his wife and his young daughter.

The complaint said that the inmate who would charge Zarrab’s phone also stood in line for him at a jail computer. Zarrab, in return, arranged to send money to that inmate’s commissary account.

Casado also smuggled food, vitamin C, over-the-counter pain medication and DayQuil into the jail for Zarrab, the complaint said.

Zarrab’s wealth was an issue throughout his case. After Zarrab’s arrest, Judge Richard M. Berman of U.S. District Court denied his request to be granted a $50 million bond and to live in a leased apartment under 24-hour armed guard and GPS monitoring, all at his own expense. Zarrab also retained more than a dozen lawyers to defend him, before he decided to plead guilty.