A whistleblower lawsuit claims that the Special Commissioner of Investigation for New York City schools stockpiled exactly 5,700 rounds of ammunition without a permit in a wooden cabinet at its Manhattan headquarters, then quietly passed the bullets around to its own investigators. The office, known as SCI, exists specifically to independently probe allegations against the city's Department of Education and its employees — making the allegations particularly awkward for an agency built on rooting out other people's misconduct.
The lawsuit was filed by Roberto El Lakkis, a former SCI tech investigator, Richard Marin, an SCI computer systems manager, and Ralph Gerard, an SCI vehicle fleet manager, who brought an Article 78 action seeking to force city agencies to address what they describe as widespread corruption inside SCI. According to the suit, as detailed by Susan Edelman, SCI gun custodian Joseph Piwowarski divvied up 114 boxes of ammunition among nine investigators on Nov. 30, Dec. 5, and Dec. 6 of 2023. Each box held 50 rounds, and investigators allegedly walked away with anywhere from eight to 13 boxes apiece — 400 to 650 rounds per person.
A Watchdog Office in the Financial District
SCI's office sits in Manhattan's Financial District, in a building that also houses the private K-12 Quad Preparatory School, according to the original New York Post report that broke the story. The lawsuit alleges ammunition was kept in a closet that was locked when FDNY inspector John Delaney visited, in a room without a fire extinguisher that also held batteries, a setup the plaintiffs say posed a serious fire hazard. City fire code requires a permit to store more than 200 rounds, a threshold confirmed by city fire regulations and echoed on a separate city business services page, and the suit claims SCI never had one.
El Lakkis says he first raised the ammunition issue with agency higher-ups back in April 2023, then lodged a formal complaint with the FDNY and the city Law Department that November. Soon after an FDNY inspector visited, SCI Chief Investigator Michael Bisogna allegedly phoned him and said the office had only 80 to 90 rounds in storage — a claim the lawsuit calls a blatant lie — and per the Substack report, the inspector left without ever looking inside the locked closet. A subsequent visit reportedly found inspectors unable to access the cabinet at all.
Brown Folders and a Wooden Cabinet
Video evidence cited in the case allegedly shows Piwowarski carrying ammunition out of the tech room in brown folders and handing one to an SCI agent in a green trench coat carrying a brown leather briefcase, per the Post's reporting. Emails submitted to the court reportedly show Piwowarski informing Bisogna and deputy chief Jeff Anderson about the distribution. Photographs of the ammunition cabinet reportedly show 9mm and .38 caliber rounds from American Eagle and PMC Bronze. The plaintiffs further allege agents were told to take the ammunition home, a move they say was meant to conceal the stash from FDNY investigators.
Schlachet, for his part, said the ammunition was stockpiled for SCI peace officers' yearly state-mandated firearms training and that the agency would stop buying ammunition going forward, according to the Post. Marin has said only three peace officers worked for SCI at the time. SCI peace officers can carry firearms to perform their duties, including making arrests, while other investigators may carry concealed weapons as former or retired cops.
Retaliation Claims and a Disputed Clearance
The lawsuit goes further than the ammunition allegations, accusing SCI Commissioner Anastasia Coleman along with the city Law Department, the Conflict of Interest Board, and the Department of Investigation of ignoring evidence and concealing corruption. The suit claims SCI fired, suspended, or forced out whistleblowers who tried to expose wrongdoing. El Lakkis says he was fired for speaking up, while Marin says he was suspended for reporting the ammunition stash and other alleged misconduct. Marin has also said city officials had information about the investigators' alleged wrongdoing but let them continue investigating city schools anyway.
Ralph Gerard, an SCI vehicle fleet manager and a plaintiff in the case, said he was forced out after speaking up about SCI agents' personal use of city-provided EZ-Pass accounts, and described the agency as a toxic place where employees who raised concerns faced retaliation. A city Law Department report dated Nov. 7, 2024, deemed the complaints of unsafe ammunition storage and unlawful distribution unsubstantiated, effectively clearing SCI. The plaintiffs' lawyers have alleged that investigation was rigged, and the whistleblowers have asked the court to disqualify the Law Department from defending the city agencies in the case, arguing it has a conflict of interest since it is also a defendant in the suit.
The Law Department filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit the week before the Substack report was published, according to the report. Attorney Michael Musa-Obregon said the ammunition hoarding, the distribution among staff, and the ensuing cover-up amounted to egregious violations of public trust. SCI spokeswoman Anna Correa said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation, and Bisogna, Piwowarski, and a third official identified as Anderson could not be reached for comment, per the Post's reporting.
