Joseph and Anthony Livreri #
Introduction #
Joseph and Anthony Livreri are the brother co-owners of Aldo’s Pizzeria and Restaurant in Ozone Park, Queens — an establishment New York outlets have described as having a history of mob ties — who became central figures in the corruption cases that unraveled around Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. On September 9, 2026, the pair pleaded guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court to conspiracy and bribery counts, admitting they paid $4,000 to Eric Ulrich, the former city buildings commissioner and onetime senior adviser to Adams, in exchange for city favors. The pleas came less than two weeks before the brothers were scheduled to stand trial alongside Ulrich, and they are the first guilty pleas in a prosecution that helped trigger a cascade of corruption probes into City Hall.
Background Information #
The Livreri brothers took over Aldo’s Pizzeria in Ozone Park, a family-run Queens restaurant. Their political connections ran deep for neighborhood businessmen: then-Councilman Eric Ulrich hired Joseph as a constituent staffer in 2019, and the brothers later donated to Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign. In August 2021, after Adams won the Democratic primary, the brothers and towing-company owner Michael Mazzio hosted a fundraiser at Russo’s On the Bay in Howard Beach that prosecutors said raised $140,000 for the campaign. Charging documents state the brothers met with the mayor-elect and Ulrich at Aldo’s less than ten days before Adams took office in December 2021.
In September 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the brothers in one of five sweeping indictments targeting Ulrich, whom Adams had appointed first as a senior adviser and then as commissioner of the Department of Buildings. The case was among the first of a wave of state and federal corruption prosecutions that ultimately ensnared Adams himself and several of his top aides.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #
Adjudicated vs. alleged. Joseph and Anthony Livreri’s guilty pleas to conspiracy and bribery were entered in Manhattan Supreme Court before Justice Daniel Conviser and are a matter of court record; the admitted conduct covers the $4,000 in payments to Eric Ulrich. The remaining counts from their 2023 indictment were not admitted and remain unproven allegations. Eric Ulrich has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him across five indictments, and any conduct connected to his pending case remains an unproven allegation.
Standing before the court on September 9, 2026, the brothers admitted to a specific bribery scheme: they handed Ulrich $4,000 — in envelopes of cash and, prosecutors alleged, payments via Zelle — to stop the Department of Buildings from enforcing a vacate order against Fortunato Brothers Bakery in Williamsburg, which had been shut down after a fire. Their pleas, however, covered only a fraction of the September 2023 indictment. Prosecutors also alleged, and the brothers did not admit, that they paid Ulrich to fast-track health inspections at Aldo’s after the Health Department closed it over multiple violations, and that they sought his help cutting licensing hurdles so Mazzio could tow on city highways during snowstorms. The indictment further alleged that Ulrich spent the money on gambling, including at an illegal club called the 89th Street CafĂ© that Joseph Livreri partially owned.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement: “In exchange for the bribes they sent to city officials, the defendants sought jobs for themselves and family members and expedited inspections at businesses with health and building code violations.” Department of Investigations commissioner Nadia Shihata called the brothers’ conduct “quintessential public corruption,” saying they used bribery to gain expedited inspections, access to senior members of the Adams administration, and a city job for the daughter of another defendant.
Ulrich, for his part, has pleaded not guilty to a litany of corruption charges across the five indictments, which accuse him of monetizing every public position he held. He has acknowledged struggles with gambling and alcohol addiction but denies accepting bribes; his attorney said in a statement that Ulrich “routinely borrowed money from family and friends related to his gambling and paying bills” and that “there was never any understanding or expectation” he would perform official acts in exchange for borrowed money.
Public Reaction and Consequences #
The guilty pleas landed as the opening collapse in a case that has shadowed City Hall for three years. Reporting noted the brothers entered their pleas just two weeks before they, Ulrich, and their co-defendants were set to face a jury, making them the first to admit guilt among the many defendants charged in the Adams-era probes. Under their plea agreement, the brothers will not cooperate against Ulrich — they would plead the Fifth if called to testify — a deal their attorney, Jake Lasala, confirmed outside court.
The case fed into the broader downfall of the administration the brothers had cultivated ties with. Adams himself was indicted by federal prosecutors in September 2024, and the Justice Department moved to dismiss his case after President Trump returned to office — a dismissal Judge Dale Ho approved while observing that “everything here smacks of a bargain.” Ulrich’s attorney declined to comment on the brothers’ in-court admissions, saying only, “I don’t think there’s anything to say about that.”
Current Status #
The brothers are expected to be sentenced on December 10, 2026. Under the plea deal, Joseph Livreri faces up to six months in jail and five years of probation, while Anthony Livreri is expected to receive five years of probation. Ulrich, who has pleaded not guilty, is due in court as his trial approaches at the end of September 2026; he denies prosecutors’ claims that he collected roughly $150,000 in bribes, Mets season tickets, and a painting. The remaining counts the Livreris were indicted on but did not plead to are resolved as allegations under their plea agreement.
Impact on Their Career/Life #
For two men whose businesses lived and died by city inspections, licenses, and building enforcement, the admissions are a professional reckoning: they stand convicted felons by their own plea, having admitted in open court that they paid a city official to bend enforcement decisions. The case has fixed their names — and their pizzeria’s — to the largest municipal corruption scandal in a generation, with the “mob-tied” framing of their restaurant now joined by a court-verified bribery record. Their access to the Adams administration, once displayed in campaign fundraisers and pre-inauguration meetings, ended with the administration’s own collapse, and their December sentencing will formally close the first guilty chapter of the Adams-era prosecutions.