NYC Buildings head Eric Ulrich resigns after coming under investigation over illegal gambling

Eric Ulrich stepped down as Mayor Adams’ Department of Buildings commissioner Thursday — just two days after it emerged that he’s facing a criminal investigation over illegal gambling.

Ulrich, a former member of the City Council, submitted his resignation in order to not be a “distracting” element for the Adams administration, the mayor told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Queens.

“I respect that decision, and for his family and for the commissioner, we wish him well as he goes through this review,” Adams said.

Kazimir Vilenchik, Ulrich’s deputy, will take over as acting commissioner, according to Adams spokesman Fabien Levy.

“We have full confidence in the team at DOB, and the agency remains fully operational. No city services will be impacted,” Levy said.

Ulrich’s exit marks the first resignation of an Adams-appointed commissioner since the mayor took office in January. Ulrich was elevated to the $240,000-per-year commissioner post in May after serving as a senior adviser to Adams in City Hall for the first stretch of the administration.

The abrupt departure comes on the heels of revelations that Ulrich is wrapped up in a criminal probe undertaken by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

On Tuesday morning, investigators from Bragg’s office served Ulrich with a search warrant outside his home in Queens, questioned him for hours and seized his cell phone as part of a criminal inquiry, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Details about the investigation remain murky, but sources have confirmed it revolves around illegal gambling. A spokeswoman for Bragg declined to comment Thursday.

Ulrich could not be reached Thursday.

Though the DA probe’s exact focus is unknown, it is known that Ulrich, a registered Republican, has a prolific gambling history. Ulrich’s annual financial disclosure shows he raked in upward of $50,000 in lottery winnings last year.

During his years in the Council, Ulrich declared tens of thousands of dollars in gambling winnings, too, ethics filings show.

“I guess I’m a lucky guy,” Ulrich told the Daily News in 2016 of winning more than $10,000 on slot machines.

Also last year, Ulrich revealed on Facebook that he was struggling with alcoholism and trying to get sober.

“The COVID pandemic has affected people in different ways. I regret to say that I developed a drinking problem,” Ulrich wrote. “What used to be mainly a social activity, and a way to cope with stress, has now become too frequent and self-destructive.”

Ulrich, whose former Council district includes Howard Beach, has in the past maintained personal ties with Robert Pisani, a reputed associate of the Bonanno crime family.

Pisani was sentenced to 30 months in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to collecting an illegal gambling debt in furtherance of a racketeering conspiracy, court papers show. Federal prosecutors charged in an indictment that Pisani also supervised and controlled an “illegal gambling business.”

Ahead of Pisani’s sentencing, Ulrich wrote a letter to the presiding judge asking him to go easy on the mob associate, referring to him as a “personal friend” and “a good guy.”

“Mr. Pisani is a kind person, devoted family man and a selfless individual,” Ulrich wrote in the letter.

At his Queens press conference Thursday, Adams distanced himself from any alleged wrongdoing involving Ulrich.

“I do not take reports that are in the media as what actually took place,” he said. “I have not heard from the reviewing body, they have not communicated to me, so I don’t know what the allegations are. Because people print it or rumoring those things, I don’t know.”

Since taking office, Adams has prided himself on giving “second chances” to people both inside and outside his administration with histories of legal trouble.

“I am about giving people an opportunity,” he said in February amid revelations about his close friendship with a couple of ex-convicts. “I mentor people every day. You would be surprised at the types of people that I mentor to put them back on track.”