Why are the Rabbis not Returning Donations?

LostMessiah and our contributors, April 14, 2016

“SICKENING “SHANDA” FOR THE “YIDDEN”

Anyone notice how all the politicians rush to publicly return all of this dirty corrupt money but never a word from all the Mosdos who take filthy gelt from crooks like Rechnitz, and yes his cousin Rechnitz too, year in and year out, and there is never a Rabbi who demands that the money be returned but rather, the buildings are adorned with these crooks’ names.”

 

We received the above from a commenter to our posts. For kicks we decided to do a Google Search. We used a number of search terms and combinations to see if we could find an instance of a Rabbi demanding that donations from seemingly shady donors be returned. Sadly, we could not find one. Obviously, there were dozens of results when we added the word “politicians” to the search.

But, what we did not expect was to come across the following post from November of 2014 by FailedMessiah. We noticed that the article seemed odd relative to many other posts on the same subject (see highlighted sentence in **red). It seemed as if it had been edited after-the-fact and not just updated. It felt like a re-write which prompted us to do some follow up.

We discovered that since the writing of the FailedMessiah article (partially posted below), the problems with nursing homes and care facilities owned or operated by Shlomo Rechnitz (cousin to Jona Rechnitz) have continued. We note that what appears to be either an attempt to excuse the substandard care at his facilities or to exonerate Shlomo Rechnitz  from responsibility for it was tested by time and failed.

We further postulate that the only thing that has changed are the tactics used to deal with the problems. Rather than take responsibility for the problems and fix them, facility owners and operators have opted instead to file for bankruptcy.

Fortuitously, in the same set of searches and the links that followed, we were directed to an article by a law firm indicating that nursing home owners are avoiding lawsuits by declaring bankruptcy, effective quashing any further need to investigate and avoiding accountability. 

In a piece entitled “Are Nursing Homes Filing for Bankruptcy for the Wrong Reasons,” Kimmel Carter, a law firm cites both the Sacramento Bee articles, the Wall Street Journal and a New York Times article related to the same subject. 

A Troubling Pattern of Bankruptcy Filings

A string of nursing home chains have recently filed for bankruptcy, not because they are unprofitable or in debt, but rather as a way to avoid impending lawsuits, brought on primarily by elderly residents who have experienced neglect in a nursing home’s care.

These lawsuits are on the rise, and it is no wonder: according to one 2014 study, one in three patients who leave hospitals to go to long-term nursing facilities are harmed in their treatment at their new homes.

“Nursing home residents all over the country are suffering from injuries and are seeing their health decline due to neglect on the part of nursing home staff and leadership,” says Kimmel Carter Managing Partner Lawrance Kimmel, who has significant experience representing nursing home neglect victims and their families.

Several types of neglect may lead to injury and other health issues, Kimmel says, from neglect of basic needs, including food and water, to a lack of proper medical attention or medication for bed sores, infections and other conditions.

Since legal actions are halted when a company files for bankruptcy, doing so is one way that some nursing home management companies are dodging their accountability for incidences of inadequate care.

The group of nursing home management companies that have seemingly sought bankruptcy for this reason includes the Country Villa chain, which operated 19 facilities throughout California before its legal troubles began. Facing seven class action lawsuits, including two alleging improper patient care and one related to medications, Country Villa filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, 2014. While the company did have issues related to its cash flow, Country Villa’s chief executive admitted that his employer’s legal problems were the primary reason for the filing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

See also :“Facing Suits, a Nursing Home in California Seeks Bankruptcy”.

Whether or not our commenter thought that his statement about returns of dirty money contributions would tangentially lead us here or not, is up for discussion. Given the mixed reviews of Shlomo Rechnitz by other contributors of our comments section, we think the resulting findings of our searches might be apropos. In Yiddish parlance, perhaps this was “Beshert”

If Shlomo Rechnitz’s companies are declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying restitution to harmed families or to escape scrutiny by regulators and attorneys then he epitomizes the  Shanda described by our commenter.

We leave it to our contributors and commenters to ponder.   

THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY TO DISCUSS NORDLICHT, HUBERFELD, BODNER

 

April 14, 2016

BUT HE GIVES LOTS OF CHARITY…

In Rothstein Fiasco, Fraud Begets Fraud

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2010

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/in-rothstein-fiasco-fraud-begets-fraud-6444645

“When Scott Rothstein was spending millions in his bid to take over Fort Lauderdale, his many doubters strongly suspected that the money couldn’t possibly be legitimate. And the question heard ’round the city was: Where is this guy getting his money?

There was talk of Russian Mob connections and computer porn. Some suspected the Italian Mafia. Now we know a whole lot of it came from a similarly dubious source, New York hedge funds.

Hedge fund owner George Levin was the key money source, with his Banyon fund pumping hundreds of millions into Rothstein’s scheme. When Rothstein’s Ponzi scheme imploded and he fled to Morocco, Levin held a major meeting of investors at his office across from the Galleria Mall on Sunrise Boulevard.

Many of them, we have since learned, have dubious histories. Levin himself ran a model car company that was hit with a federal fraud conviction. His right-hand man at Banyon, Frank Preve, is a convicted felon. Mel Lifshitz is a disbarred attorney and convicted tax evader. Then you have hedge fund owner Murray Huberfeld, a serial SEC violator whom I wrote about last week.

Now let me introduce you to the reported $50 million man, Meir “Mark” Nordlicht, who has business ties to Huberfeld and who has also been alleged to have been involved in a previous fraud. A big one. Nordlicht, remember, was reportedly present at that meeting of panicked Rothstein investors on November 1.

Nordlicht runs a $500 million New York hedge fund called Platinum Management and, like Huberfeld, put his money into Rothstein’s scheme via loans to Levin’s Banyon fund. Levin told me earlier this week that he was introduced to both

Nordlicht and Huberfeld through a broker and had never done business with them in the past. Levin wouldn’t elaborate further.

To understand Mark Nordlicht, you must first know his father, Jules Nordlicht. Back in 1978, Jules Nordlicht pleaded guilty on a federal charge of conspiracy to create $27 million in fraudulent tax losses through manipulation of market for crude oil futures. It’s not clear what sentence he served, but it is crystal-clear that his criminal conviction didn’t keep him out of the high-flying commodity trading business.

Jules Nordlicht went on to become a major shareholder at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the largest commodity futures exchange in the world. His son, Mark, followed in his footsteps, becoming a wheeler-dealer in the dicey energy futures market.

Mark Nordlicht became chairman of Optionable Inc., a company he founded that had a rather Rothstein-like implosion in 2007 amid allegations of fraud and insider trading. While the company was still flying high in January 2007, Nordlicht and two other executives, including Optionable CEO Kevin Cassidy, sold 10.2 million shares of the company to NYMEX for $29 million. Mark Nordlicht personally accounted for seven million of those shares, which he sold for a whopping $18,830,000.

In May, the wheels fell off of Optionable. It was learned at that time that CEO Cassidy had felony credit card and tax evasion convictions in his past that he didn’t disclose. On top of that, Optionable had a series of dubious dealings with a broker named David Lee at the Bank of Montreal that caused huge losses for the bank. Lee and Cassidy were close friends.

So what happens? NYMEX announced that it would compete with Optionable rather than join it and declared an almost total writedown on its Optionable investment. Optionable stock plunged, and the company was hit with SEC actions and class action lawsuits.

One lawsuit filed against Mark Nordlicht explains the “bogus” relationship NYMEX and Optionable this way: “[A] key reason the unusual NYMEX transaction went forward was the influence of Jules Nordlicht, a NYMEX shareholder with significant holdings and — lo and behold — also an ex-con and the father of Mark Nordlicht. Nordlicht Senior, who had liquidated 2.19 million shares in Optionable’s IPO and therefore had no vested interest in the future of his son’s Company, (except to see thathis son made as much illegal profits as possible), also pleaded guilty to price rigging the crude oil market in 1978.”

Needless to say, Optionable was a major business scandal, and the stock plummeted to a few cents, where it remains today. But Nordlicht has never been named personally in SEC actions, despite the fact that he was chairman of the company when the apparent fraudulent activity occurred. Today, he remains in charge of his $500 million hedge fund that apparently sank $50 million into Rothstein’s scheme.

The Nordlicht family’s connection to fellow Levin/Rothstein investor Huberfeld is clear. They share a New York address, run similar hedge funds, and have invested in the same businesses. In fact, when Huberfeld was subpoenaed in the infamous Solomon Dwek case, it was in connection with his activities with Nordlicht’s Platinum fund. Another interesting observation: The hedge funds of Nordlicht and Huberfeld — which together reportedly control nearly $1 billion — both share names with types of American Express cards.

The question hanging in the air is where have Nordlicht and Huberfeld gotten all that money to invest? Considering their histories, it would seem any sane and rational investor wouldn’t get near either of them. What is the original source of all this crazy money that found its way into Rothstein’s Ponzi and enabled the lawyer to turn Fort Lauderdale on its head?

I’ll close with an observation: The Securities and Exchange Commission is an abject failure of a regulatory agency on par with the Florida Ethics Commission. Unfortunately, the SEC is a whole lot more important to America and the world.”

de Blasio is speaking…to lawyers

April 13, 2016

** BREAKING ***

De Blasio Hires White Collar Crime Lawyer For Federal Probe

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160413/midtown/de-blasio-tells-campaign-lawyer-call-us-attorney-about-federal-probe

Damn Ignorant Canadians – the “knew” Blockbusting…

 

Ignorance is no Excuse

92.7WOBM, April 13, 2016

New tactics circumvent No Knock law in Toms River

Read More: New tactics circumvent No Knock law in Toms River | http://wobm.com/new-tactics-circumvent-no-knock-law-in-toms-river/?trackback=fbshare_top&trackback=tsmclip

 

“The biggest problem we’re having is people are telling their neighbors or the Neighborhood Watch captain or whatever, and they’re not reporting it to us directly and they’re not getting the information from the person who is soliciting,” said Little.

Little urges residents to step up and offered advice on what homeowners can do to help police.

“The best thing they could do is actually get a business card from this person, get a good look at them so they can identify them later, and we’ll do everything we can to get out there, take a report, get the best description we can with the information we’re provided, and then that person will still have to go sign a complaint,” Little said. 

While directly approaching a home with a “No Knock” sticker or leaving a flyer at the residence is a violation of the Township’s policy, Little pointed out that solicitations by phone and direct mail are legal.

“They also think that just somebody driving down the street and looking at houses is a violation. That is not a violation,” said Little. He pointed out that that situation sometimes leads to calls to police about suspicious people.

“There’s a little bit of panic going on, at the same time, we understand everybody’s frustration. We know some of the tricks that are being used, or trying to be used, but there’s a fine line between somebody just driving or being another resident in our town, or somebody possibly wanting to be a resident in our town and doing something illegal,” explained Little.

A police officer also must have probable cause to issue a summons and must win that in court beyond a reasonable doubt, according to Little.

“He has to convince a judge that this person actually intended to violate this ordinance,” Little explained. However, Little had a warning for those who try to claim they are unaware of the No Knock ordinance.

“Ignorance is no excuse. We are still going to prosecute,” Little said.

Read More: New tactics circumvent No Knock law in Toms River | http://wobm.com/new-tactics-circumvent-no-knock-law-in-toms-river/?trackback=fbshare_top&trackback=tsmclip

Rivington Street – An Alluring Unwind

 

Can the Rivington Deal Be Undone?

April 13, 2016

 

*** BREAKING NEWS ***

Bharara looking into Rivington deal, sources say

Politico New York, April 2016

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/04/8596489/bharara-looking-rivington-deal-sources-say

“Allure paid $28 million for the property and promptly requested the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) lift restrictions on the deed that required it to be a non-profit healthcare facility. After the nursing home operator paid a $16 million fee, the agency lifted the restrictions on Nov. 11, 2015. Three months later, Allure sold it for $116 million to Slate Property Group, which Capalino also represents, though not for this particular transaction.

City Hall is reviewing whether it has grounds to sue Allure, which had indicated in an email it would try to maintain the facility as a nursing home. Allure and Capalino have maintained they did nothing wrong.”

FINALLY THE FEDS ARE GETTING INVOLVED IN THE ALLURE DEAL

U.S. Attorney Probes Manhattan Land Deal

Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-attorney-probes-manhattan-land-deal-1460515338

“The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is examining a decision by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration to lift deed restrictions on a Lower East Side health-care facility, a move that allowed the building to be sold for what appears to be a $72 million profit, people familiar with the matter said. “

Seabrook Connection II, Spiritual Trip to Israel…

 

SEABROOK, THE CORRECTION OFFICERS’ BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION, TRIPS TO ISRAEL – a long history

April 13, 2016

Rikers Inquiry Expands to Include Union Chief’s Financial Dealings

The New York Times, June 2, 2015

“Questionable financial dealings are at the heart of a lawsuit filed against Mr. Seabrook this year by William Valentin, a union executive board member who was stripped recently of his annual union stipend of $84,000 by Mr. Seabrook. Mr. Valentin alleges that Mr. Seabrook invested $10 million of the union’s money into a hedge fund in March 2014 without consulting the board or even identifying the fund to them.

Continue reading the main story

Richard Gilbert, Mr. Valentin’s lawyer, said, “It’s a violation of the union’s constitution and bylaws and raises serious questions as to whether Mr. Seabrook is making it up as he goes along to suit himself rather than serve the membership’s best interests.”

It is not known whether Mr. Huberfeld has any connection with the hedge fund Mr. Seabrook invested in. Mr. Huberfeld did not respond to telephone messages left at his home.

In an affidavit for the lawsuit, Mr. Seabrook acknowledged making the investment but did not identify the hedge fund involved. He denied any wrongdoing and said that the investment had earned more than $475,000 over a three-month period. That does not match the numbers in the union’s audited financial statements for 2014, which list a $47,529 return for the unnamed fund.

Mr. Huberfeld is on the board of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is also named in the subpoena. Prosecutors requested records of any payment made by the union to the center and its Museum of Tolerance.

In May 2014, 50 officers from the union, including Mr. Seabrook, took part in an orientation presentation for the “tolerance training” program at the museum, at a cost of $2,500, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean with the Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Cooper said it was the only fee the union had ever paid to the center. He said he knew nothing about a subpoena or a criminal investigation.

Mr. Seabrook acknowledged in his response to Mr. Valentin’s lawsuit that he took two trips to Israel, saying that the union paid for one trip and he paid for the other. He said that the trips helped him make important political connections that were beneficial to the union’s interests.

“My trip to Israel was immensely spiritually rewarding to me,” Mr. Seabrook said.”

Additional Sources:

Hedge Fund Blog, May 27, 2015

The Seabrook Connection – Investments Gone…?

HAMLET PERALTA AND PLATINUM PARTNERS – the Norman Seabrook Connection

It has been reported that Norman Seabrook invested the New York City’s Correction Officers Benevolent Association’s funds with Hamlet Peralta, who has recently been charged in a $12M Ponzi Scheme involving Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg. R&R claim to have been duped. We are not so sure.  Norman Seabrook, as reported in this article, has also been investigated for using his position to enrich himself. If Seabrook has an R&R connection either through Peralta or otherwise remains to be seen and the focus on this article is simply Seabrook’s investments.

We are researching to see if R&R shared these investments with him also.

LostMessiah, April 13, 2016

 

The top-performing hedge fund manager that’s too hot for big money to handle

• By Lawrence Delevingne

• Filed April 13, 2016, 4 p.m. GMT

Guided by Mark Nordlicht, Platinum Partners has racked up returns that are the envy of the industry. But its winning strategy – lending to troubled companies – carries risks that many institutional investors would just as soon not take.

 

“The 47-year-old Nordlicht lives an unflashy life in suburban Westchester County with his wife and children, usually driving himself to and from work at Platinum’s sleek midtown Manhattan offices.

He has strong ties in the New York-area Jewish community, the source of some of his funds’ investors. These include, according to public tax filings for 2014, a charitable trust set up by day-trading pioneer Aaron Elbogen, who was fined $1.4 million for illegal trading and bookkeeping while the chief executive of Datek Securities Corp; the Century 21 Associates Foundation, led by department store executive Raymond Gindi; and the SFF Foundation, a non-profit controlled by the Schron family, known for its real estate investments. All declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

Nordlicht has enriched his investors with his focus on higher-risk debt that can yield far more than traditional fixed-income investments. And after years of near-zero interest rates, it’s a strategy increasingly sought out by big, otherwise conservative institutional investors hungry for higher yields.

Still, many big money investors who have looked at Platinum have walked away. Cambridge Associates, which counsels some of the world’s largest pension funds and endowments, recommended to a client around 2010 that it not invest with Platinum and has not changed its stance on Nordlicht’s firm since then, according to people familiar with the situation.

In an email, Cambridge said it does not “discuss specific investment managers.” It added: “We can say that we take our due diligence process very seriously.”

Among institutional investors that have considered putting money with Platinum but ultimately chose not to are the endowment of Yeshiva University, which is the alma mater of several Platinum employees, and large hedge fund allocator GAM, according to people familiar with the institutions.

One institutional investor that did get in is New York City’s Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, according to two people familiar with the situation. The New York Times reported in June last year that Norman Seabrook, the union’s leader, was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for potentially using his position to enrich himself. A broad subpoena from prosecutors requested that the union supply information related to Platinum, but the connection was not clear, according to the report.

A spokesman for the union declined to comment. The Justice Department and Seabrook did not respond to requests for comment.”

To read Lawrence Delevingne’s Reuters Investigates article in its entirety click, here.