The New York Attorney General's office has banned a Brooklyn expediting company and barred an architect from practicing after finding they ran a scheme to fast-track DOB approvals using forged documents, according to the Attorney General's announcement.

Here's how it worked, per the AG: Basic Group and an affiliated architect allegedly filed altered or fabricated plans and certifications to get NYC Department of Buildings sign-offs faster than the normal review queue allows — the kind of shortcut that every legitimate GC waiting in that same queue pays for in lost time.

The settlement bars the architect from practicing before DOB and bans Basic Group's principals from the expediting business, according to the Attorney General's office. No criminal charges were announced alongside the civil settlement, and the order does not name additional projects affected.

Why you should care: DOB's review backlog is real, and a scheme like this shows how some players buy their way around it while everyone else waits their turn. If you've used an expediter you don't know well, this is a good week to ask exactly what documents they're filing on your behalf and whether they've ever been the subject of a DOB or AG inquiry.

The case was first reported by The Real Deal. There's no indication yet that DOB is auditing permits the banned architect touched — worth watching if you have a project that moved through review unusually fast in the past few years and used an outside expediter.

What to do now: if your project used a third-party expediter for DOB approvals, ask for their filing history and check the architect isn't on a DOB or AG exclusion list before your next submission goes in.