Bronx District Leader And Former Board Of Elections Employee Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Commit Extortion And Fraud

Matthew Podolsky, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that NICOLE TORRES, an elected district leader in the Bronx and former employee of the New York City Board of Elections, (the “NYC-BOE”), pled guilty today to conspiracy to commit extortion and mail fraud for illegally demanding payments from Bronx residents in exchange for selecting those individuals as poll workers and for agreeing with others to falsify documents to make it appear that certain individuals had worked as poll workers when they had not.  TORRES pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.

Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said: “For five years, Nicole Torres abused her position of public trust as an elected official and City employee by taking bribes and falsifying records in connection with the selection and placement of poll workers in the Bronx.  Today’s plea highlights this Office’s commitment to rooting out corruption in local government, and to protecting the integrity of poll workers and our elections.”

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment:

From at least 2019 through at least 2024, TORRES was a district leader for New York’s 81st Assembly District in the Bronx, New York.  In addition, from at least 2016 through at least 2024, TORRES was an employee of the NYC-BOE.  While working at the NYC-BOE, TORRES had, at times, been responsible for ensuring that poll workers were paid for their work during early voting and election day. TORRES abused her power as a district leader and a NYC-BOE employee to engage in two illegal schemes. 

First, from at least 2019 through August 2024, TORRES agreed to require and required Bronx residents to pay a sum of money, usually $150, either to her or to a local organization (the “Bronx Organization”) in exchange for TORRES selecting those individuals as poll workers for upcoming elections.  Both the Bronx Organization and TORRES profited from the scheme.  TORRES personally obtained at least approximately $28,000 in illegal payments.  TORRES received the payments, often in the amount of $150, through mobile payment applications, money orders, and checks.  In certain instances, TORRES received money orders or checks that were written out to the Bronx Organization, and TORRES altered the payee line on those money orders or checks to say “Nicole Torres” so that she could deposit that money into her personal bank account. 

Second, from at least 2018 through August 2024, TORRES agreed to falsify the Forms Booklet—which is a NYC-BOE record in which poll workers record their attendance at a particular poll site—to make it appear that certain individuals (the “NoShow Poll Workers”) worked as poll workers during early voting and election day when, in truth and fact, and as TORRES well knew, those individuals did not work on those dates.  TORRES often worked with coordinators who oversaw the Forms Booklets at specific poll sites.  These coordinators signed in No-Show Poll Workers in the Forms Booklets, frequently at TORRES’s direction. TORRES and her coconspirators then received the salaries for the NoShow Poll Workers—sometimes through the mail—and split the fraudulently obtained salaries among themselves.  Based on her participation in the scheme, TORRES personally obtained at least approximately $36,000 in fraud proceeds.   

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TORRES, 44, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, which each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence is prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.  TORRES is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Vyskocil on July 8, 2025. 

Mr. Podolsky praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Department of Investigation. 

The case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin M. Burkett and Rebecca T. Dell are in charge of the prosecution.