Crooked gun license broker Shaya Lichtenstein’s access to police was so good that his applicants didn’t even have to come to headquarters for a mandated interview before they got their permits.
That revelation comes from John Chambers, a Manhattan lawyer who specializes in New York City gun licenses.
Chambers is now representing a number of Lichtenstein’s clients who have either had their licenses suspended as a result of Lichtenstein’s indictment.
The NYPD has suspended 37 permits as part of their review of the permits.
NYPD policy requires deep and extensive background checks, and a lengthy interview after the applicants are fingerprinted.
Chambers said Lichtenstein’s clients, especially the more recent ones, only had to submit a minimal amount of documentation before they got their licenses.
“There is a mountain of documentation that’s required, but all some of them needed to send in was a few pieces of paper for the permit to go forward,” Chambers said.
Lichtenstein was charged April 18 in Manhattan Federal Court with bribing cops with $6,000 in cash and other goodies to expedite gun permit requests.
A former leader of the Brooklyn Shomrim security patrol, he billed his clients between $5,000 and $25,000 for the service, records show.
Lichtenstein, 44, was so cozy with cops in the license division that he’d spent nearly every day inside the office in Police Headquarters since 2014, federal court papers say.
