Lichtenstein, Ameri and the Shomrim, NYPD??

The Shomrim, Legitimizing a Business of Organized Crime with the NYPD as their Partners…

“it would be a mistake to conclude that for the Shomrim at least these relationships are motivated by the prospect of personal financial gain or status concerns, even though there’s no doubt that having an “in” with the cops can boost one’s standing in the community. Instead, access and influence are the means of achieving a more important communal goal: the freedom to operate as the de facto police force of their communities, but with backup from the cops in the most dangerous situations.

In some sense, it is almost as if the Shomrim view the NYPD as their auxiliary police.”

The Daily Beast

LostMessiah May 15, 2016

We have posted articles on the Shomrim, CB12, Shaya Lichtenstein, David Greenfield, Yanky Daskal, Barry Spitzer and  many of the others, whom in one article we referred to as Players 1-9. We have made no bones about trying to unwind the web of criminal activity and corruption which, after the growing body count in the investigations seems to be not so far off from what is being uncovered. We thank our readers for that information.

The death of Michael Ameri has also been reported by us and information can be found in the article in the Daily Beast, which has bee woven through our comments.

“NYPD Inspector Michael Ameri shot himself Friday in a Department car hours after the FBI reportedly questioned him for a second time about a series of alleged payoffs made by members of New York’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community—including several big donors to Mayor Bill de Blasio—to high-ranking officials in the NYPD.. There is evidence that he was involved in the bribery/ arms dealing forays of Shaya Licthenstein who was indicted 2 weeks ago.”  The Daily Beast

Shaya Lichtenstein  was a member of Borough Park’s Shomrim, giving him access to high ranking NYPD officers and a series of avenues with which to move money, gun licenses and guns.

There are links we have yet to make: Council Member David Greenfield‘s would not be where he is but for his connections to CB12 and the Shomrim. The power he wields does not end in Boro Park with the Shomrim, with CB 12. That power touch areas of zoning which allow organizations like Allure to get zoning permits changed at will. While Greenfield may not have been involved (directly) in the Rivington deal, he certainly could have his hands in the till on the Red Hook deal, where Barry Braunstein is trying to acquire the rights to a nursing home in a flood zone, a move that requires some changes to zoning. Many within that community think it will be shut down and turned into luxury housing at some point in the not so distant future were Braunstein to be successful. David Greenfield will likely be the one to make that decision.

Barry Spitzer is another one we want to know more about. His involvement in the Shomrim is the least of it. He has access to thousands of dollars and there is little question in our minds, the means to hide his activities. He and Greenfield appear to have a unique relationship wherein neither of their backs go unscratched. Spitzer also seems to have his hands in pockets both here an in Israel and likes to be photographed with high ranking officials, particularly on trips abroad. 

In our view, Inspector Ameri’s death is questionable and the reports of suicide difficult to swallow. While he was allegedly tied to Lichtenstein and the guns dealing, his name did not come up in our research nearly as often as Milici’s name, which is interwoven throughout the reports of corruption, sex, money, diamonds and favors. Maybe we just haven’t gotten there yet. If we had to bet the farm, we would think that Ameri’s death was not a suicide at all and with the power of the Shomrim and the connections to high ranking officials in the NYPD, it is not hard to imagine that someone could have gained access to him and wanted his silence more than they respected his friendship. Our guess…

“A few months before killing himself, Ameri cut ties with one such pretend police officer, Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, the New York Post reported. Last month, Lichtenstein was arrested and charged with offering thousands of dollars in cash bribes to cops in the department’s gun licensing bureau in exchange for very tough to obtain in New York City gun permits.

Lichtenstein reportedly bragged that he had procured them for 150 friends and associates, charging $18,000 a pop and paying a third of that to his police connections. According to prosecutors, the scheme had enabled a man with a prior criminal history that included four domestic violence complaints and “a threat against someone’s life” to obtain a gun.” The Daily Beast

We believe that there is more here than meets the eye, not always obvious. The nexus between the Shomrim and the corruption and the NYPD extends, in our view, to diamonds through Reichberg and his connections to the diamond industry and Lev Leviev, the nursing home businesses through Greenfield and others who are responsible for permits and zoning, shady investing through Platinum Partners and its event driven investment portfolios and other investment deals, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its “sensitivity training program” which when it comes to NYPD is only a front for legitimate interactions and financial exchanges. We also believe that the Shomrim, its players and connections are able to channel and legitimize their own organized crime syndicate through hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions all secretly hidden in plain sight and tied up in pretty LLC packages. This is only speculation, though nothing new.

“That comports with the speculation of one retired NYPD official: “the simple way to connect dots is that guys like [former Chief of Department] Joe Esposito and [former NYPD Traffic Chief] Mike Scagnelli were, at one time, commanders in the 66th precinct. With such longstanding roots in the community, these uniformed guys and the machers stayed close as they rose up the ranks. With [Esposito] as the longest serving chief of the department, the [Hasidim] were in a wonderful position for over 12 years to exercise immense influence over many promotions.”

The former official continued, “(Chief of Transit) Joe Fox himself was a remarkable beneficiary of these discretionary promotions. Everyone loved Fox, and he was the longest serving Borough Commander of Brooklyn South by far. In the 1990s, he achieved three discretionary promotions in 3 years… all while the commander of the 71st precinct [which includes Crown Heights]. From captain to chief in three years, it doesn’t get any better than that.” The Daily Beast

For the entire article, which we have woven with our post, please see:

The Daily Beast

Meet the Shomrim—The Hasidic Volunteer ‘Cops’ Who Answer To Nobody

New York pols from Mayor de Blasio down have supported the groups, even as accounts of their rough conduct pile up.

R&R NYPD Body Count – 9 Officers Stripped and 1 Dead

 

What Would Cause A NYPD Inspector to Take His Life After Being Questioned in the Massive NYPD Corruption Probe?

May 13, 2016

Since early March high ranking officials within the New York Police Department have been questioned in connection to what appears to be a pay-to-play game of scandal, corruption, political favors and mile-high sexual interludes paid for and directed by Jeremy Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz.

One man, Hamlet Peralta, has been indicted in connection to a Ponzi Scheme, also involving the same two men who allege to have been victimized by Peralta’s scheme. Another investor was NYPD’s Norman Seabrook who invested millions from the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association’s pension funds, apparently on the advise of Rechnitz.

Another man, Shaya Lichtenstein, has been indicted on charges of arms dealing and bribery apparently in coordination with the New York Police Department officials in Boro Park.

Detective Michael Milici was placed on modified duty last month after invoking his Fifth Amendment rights before a grand jury. Milici was part of Boro Park’s 66th Precinct and is allegedly going to be charged but no further details are available.

In sum, as of earlier this month, the count was 9 high ranking police officers who had been stripped of their badges or demoted to other positions within the New York Police Department.

Today, however, an NYPD inspector tragically took his own life after being questioned. One can only speculate why.

 

High-ranking NYPD cop kills himself at Long Island golf course after being questioned in massive corruption probe 

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/high-ranking-nypd-kills-long-island-golf-article-1.2636360

Zoning For Quality and Affordability Proposal is Disingenuous – the Deitsch Cases

ZQA – HONORABLE INTENTIONS GONE AWRY, ENABLING PREDATORY BUILDING FLIPS

A Letter to LM May 9, 2016

The purported implementation of Senior Housing…Assisted Living Facilities…Independent Residences as a benefit from the Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposal is disingenuous.

Take the example of the March 2014 Prospect Park Residence in Park Slope from which 123 elders who had been promised to be able to “age in place” were evicted with 90 days notice. What needs to be understood is that this owner, Haysha Deitsch, a real estate developer-who masqueraded as a senior residence operator, applied for certification to the New York State agency-the Dept of Health for Licensure. He did so in order to skirt New York City tenancy protections for the residents. He, under the imprimatur of the State, was able dispose of all his “tenants” en masse claiming “business reversals”.

In reality, he bought the building for $40,000,000 and sold it for $76,500,000, all blessed by the DOH permitted it. It took 90 days to allow predatory real estate greed to churn the property and the City of New York could do nothing. The State allowed it. Basically the strategy of: Buy/develop a building, advertise it as senior housing, get a DOH license as an Assisted Living Facility; sell it; and dump the frightened residents is a scheme that has been ubiquitous.

There is presently a Bill: A06390/S02472 which is in limbo in Albany to require a minimum one year notification for closure. Until or if that is ratified, the template for bait and switch is baked into the enabling of developers. The complicity by New York City agencies to encourage amoral business ethics at the expense of the vulnerable requires a serious review and certainly more comprehensive investigation of the fallout.

The ZQA may have honorable intentions but while it attempts to fix the shortage of senior dwellings, it will do more harm than good.

 

Additional Sources:

Haysha Deutsch –

The Real Deal, February 17, 2016

Haysha Deitsch moves forward on 11-story luxury condo

Developer Haysha Deitsch, best known for his many attempts to evict disabled senior citizens, is moving forward with plans for an 11-story, 16-unit luxury residential building in Park Slope, filing demolition permits this week.

If approved, two auto body repair shops at 243 and 245 Fourth Avenue will be torn down and replaced with a 118-foot condominium building near President Street and will feature a pet spa, private roof deck and a children’s playroom. Karl Fischer, the architect behind Naftali Group’s luxury rental building at 267 Sixth Street, will design the building.

The high-end building will join the residential and retail boom along Fourth Avenue — dubbed the “Canyon of Mediocrity” — in Park Slope.

Deitsch is still mired in litigation over 1 Prospect Park West, a 130-room senior assisted living facility that he bought for $40 million in 2006, and has been trying to sell for $76.5 million since last year, DNAinfo reported. The seven tenants that remain at the facility took Deitsch to court. Last summer a Brooklyn judge ruled the landlord couldn’t evict them amid the court battle.

The delayed shutdown of the facility stalled the deal between Deitsch and Sugar Hill Capital Partners. The real estate investment firm also sued Deitsch over the property.

---

The Brooklyn news/Park Slope March 15, 2016

Owner of notorious old folks home sues families of residents he tried to evict

 

Reader Feedback:

Charles from Bklyn says:

This landlord should have done the right thing and met his responsibilities with the elderly home. He should have waited the ten years for the clients to pass with dignity and then sold the property. Greed overcame his good judgment and legally required duty. So instead of a praise and a place in heaven, he has a bad reputation and a place in hell. No sympathy.

March 15, 9:32 am

What Next? from Park Slope says:

Maybe Deitsch should also sue Brad Lander, Judge Saitta, the former rabbi of Beth Elohim and the other public officials and citizens who have revealed his indifference to the sanctity of human life when it interfered with his immoral scheme for profit?

Deutsch should have thought about his reputation BEFORE he bought the facility ten years ago ONLY for the purpose of evicting its residents for profit
despite the predictable death and suffering that his plan would cause.

March 15, 12:48 pm

freddy from slope says:

Or Deitsch could have run it at a loss until the tenants either left of their own free will or passed away and still made millions as he shrunk it down to fewer floors. 

But, no, he had to keep every dime of profit theoretically possible.

a__hole

March 15, 1:58 pm

Watching Our Own Flint, Mich from New York…all of it says:

The Dept of Health abets predatory for-profit nursing homes and assisted living residences. 

Also complicit: 

Attorney General Schneiderman who should have prosecuted Deitsch/PPR for constructive fraud and deceptive practices…why didn’t he?

The State Inspector General who merely referred the complaints to who else? The Dept of Health!

Those State Assembly Members who do not fight the nursing home and assisted living residence owners’ lobby: Leading Age by NOT writing authentic Bills and regulations to protect the vulnerable aging-your loved ones and mine…wonder why…?

Brooklyn…New York City…New York State -wake up. Growing old in New York & failing to find safe haven is the path to state sponsored abuse of the disabled elderly. 

Our state government is complicit and harmful to your health.

March 15, 2:41 pm

VLM from Park Slope says:

“He perished because he was sad — he died of a broken heart.”

Is that, like, an official cause of death you can have listed on a death certificate? 

This story is filled with terrible people on both sides.

March 15, 3:33 pm

Jesse from Prospect Heights says:

To VLM,

A few weeks after the eviction announcement made by facility, one of the youngest and least sick residents passed away suddenly in his apartment.
Check the record.

You might also learn something if you had the opportunity to communicate with family members whose loved ones died or declined rapidly very soon after being dislocated from their homes.
Check statistics of consequences after even temporary dislocations of patients after Hurricane Sandy.

You obviously have not had much experience with extremely elderly, disabled or vulnerable human beings.

March 15, 4:39 pm

Tale of 2 cities that we all get old and nobody from Park Slope says:

Deblasio knew about this for years when he was a council member. He did nothing. Residents reached out to him when he was public advocate – He did nothing. His Chief of Staff & BDB should be publicly shamed for not looking out for the seniors in this building. Deblasio’s nose is getting longer and longer when it comes to advocating for New Yorkers and seniors.

March 15, 10:33 pm

B from Park Slope says:

I’ve lived next door to this facility for the last 6 years. The operator of this facility has been a terrible neighbor and it seems a terrible caretaker to the residents of the home. Since the efforts to evict the tenants the building has fallen into even greater disrepair. They had pipes burst over the winter probably from turn off heat to parts of the building, I can see the collapsed ceilings and rubbish all over a couple of apartments who’s windows are opposite mine. There are rats and I’ve heard rumors of squatters living in the building.

Now things have taken a turn for the strange, last night there was a loud rock band playing in the building until after 12:30AM. Yes, a rock band playing in a home for frail elderly people! 

I’ve reached out to the police as well as Brad Lander. These older people shouldn’t be subjected to this kind of mistreatment and harassment. If I hear it again I’m going to march right over there and demand they put a stop to it.

March 17, 10:49 am

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The real Deal, March 14, 2016

Haysha Deitsch sues nursing home tenants’ children for $50M

Developer Haysha Deitsch is employing another tactic to finally evict the remaining elderly tenants from his Park Slope property: suing their children for $50 million.

In 2006, Deitsch bought the 130-room senior assisted living facility at 1 Prospect Park West for $40 million. He then made the controversial move to evict around 100 seniors. The remaining tenants took Dietsch to court.

Now, the Brooklyn landlord is claiming those tenants’ children are blocking his plans to evict their parents and ultimately sell the property, the New York Post reported.

“It’s just absurd. I really do feel harassed, and I think that’s the purpose of this,” defendant Joyce Singer, whose 91-year-old mother has lived there since 2010, told the Post. “This is just totally crazy. The only thing we care about is the well-being of our parents.”

Last summer, a Brooklyn judge ruled Deitsch could not evict the remaining tenantsamid ongoing litigation. Deitsch has been trying to sell the property for $76.5 million since last year and the delayed shutdown stalled a deal with Sugar Hill Capital Partners. Sugar Hill, a real estate investment firm, also sued Deitsch over the property.

The facility, called Prospect Park Residence, was hit with a class action lawsuit in 2012 alleging it was operating as an unlicensed assisted living facility, according to reports.

It is currently in the hands of a temporary receiver after Deitsch did not comply with court orders to provide hot water and heat, the Post reported. [NYP] — Dusica Sue Malesevic

Eisner, Mortgage Fraud, Cuomo and Marijuana

ABRAHAM EISNER AND THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA BUSINESS… Let’s forget about his Mortgage Fraud Cases

Cuomo’s backer, Abraham Eisner, is no center to controversy. In 2012 he singed off on a settlement for $3.5Million after “federal prosecutors alleged that the company had charged higher interest rates and fees on mortgages to minority borrowers than whites with similar profiles. The company denied discrimination.”

Rational minds would think that Governor Cuomo would want to keep his distance from a person with that background. Quite the opposite. Eisner and Cuomo seem to have gravitated toward one another and an Eisner contribution to Cuomo may buy him more than a few “dime bags.”

Eisner wants into the medical marijuana business. It would appear that Governor Cuomo is in for helping him to do just that.

Cuomo liaison quietly pushes marijuana bid

Cuomo backer says he is confident he will win state license

timesunion: http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Cuomo-liaison-quietly-pushes-marijuana-bid-6372896.php

…Now, on the heels of the legal setback, Eisner has entered the state’s blossoming medical marijuana business, emails show.

The state is expected in the coming days to issue five licenses among 43 total applicants. Eisner has been working on behalf of a company formed in March, New York Medical Growers, that is registered to the law firm of a Brooklyn attorney, Joseph Klein.

It’s not entirely clear what Eisner’s role is in the company. Eisner hung up whenreached by the Times Union on his cell phone. Klein referred questions to an Albany lobbying firm working for the company, Hill and Gosdeck, which did not return request for comment.

Despite Eisner’s legal troubles, Cuomo and Eisner remain on good terms. Eisner toured Israel with Cuomo on his solidarity trip to the country in August. And the New York Times described Eisner last year as Cuomo’s “unofficial consultant” to the Jewish community. Eisner gave Cuomo a $10,000 campaign contribution last November, campaign finance records show.

During Cuomo’s 2010 campaign for governor, The Jewish Daily Forward profiled Eisner’s relationship with Cuomo, and noted that the “ultra-Orthodox fixer appears to have accompanied New York gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo on all four of his early October visits to Brooklyn’s Hasidic rebbes.”

A spokesman for the state Department of Health did not return a request for comment concerning whether Eisner had been in touch with the department about the bidding.

Emails provided to the Times Union show Eisner, on behalf of New York Medical Growers, has in recent days been courting an Israeli marijuana supplier called Tikun Olam Medical Cannabis, the largest producer of medical marijuana in a country on the forefront of the world’s cannabis industry. Having such a supplier could be a major  bonus in the competition for the five licenses.

Eisner has been in frequent contact over email with Tikun Olam despite the fact that the company has publicly announced that it has an exclusive agreement to supply a rival bidder, Compassionate Care Center of New York.

Tikun Olam’s CEO, Aharon Lutzky, told the Times Union that Eisner had approached the company about working as the supplier to New York Medical Growers, but the Israeli supplier was already exclusively working with Compassionate Care Center, a biopharmaceutical company.

Still, Eisner has continued contacting Lutzky, subsequently helping set up a meeting for Tikun Olam with a top Israeli official, emails show.

Eisner said in a June 21 email to Lutzky that “after we get” our marijuana license in New York, he looked forward to touring Tikun Olam’s facility in Israel with “other members of our team.”

Lutzky, however, told the Times Union the exclusive agreement with Compassionate Care Center would remain intact regardless of the outcome of New York’s bidding process.

All of the 43 bidders had to submit a $10,000 nonrefundable application fee, and a $200,000 registration fee that will be returned to those that don’t end up winning. Medical marijuana is expected to become available in January.

 

 

 

TAJ PATTERSON -Were Cops Providing Favors By Closing Case?

TAJ PATTERSON, COPS PREMATURELY CLOSED CASE, WILL HE FINALLY GET JUSTICE?

 

Taj Patterson is a member of LM’s Wall of Courage. He endured abuse at the hands of a group of Hassidic men. Many who knew of the story believed at the time that the cops were “paid” to drop the charges. Apparently Zahra Patterson, who has been indefatigable in her efforts to bring Taj justice, knew the same thing. Perhaps he will get justice yet…

The New York Daily News is reporting:

EXCLUSIVE: NYPD nearly ended probe into vicious assault of gay black man because cops prematurely closed the case

Patterson suffered savage injuries — a broken eye socket and a torn retina that has left him permanently blind in one eye.

Investigators knew the license plate number of one of the assailants and even had four witness statements, according to records obtained by The News.

But within 24 hours, cops in the 90th Precinct classified the attack as a misdemeanor and inexplicably marked the complaint “final, no arrests, CLOSED,” records show.

It was only after the dogged efforts of the victim’s mother that the case was reopened and five men subsequently arrested.

The new details about the investigation emerged as the NYPD is facing a federal corruption probe focused in part on a member of the Borough Park Shomrim, the Jewish volunteer patrol, accused of bribing cops with cash and other gifts.

“The Patterson case demonstrates a disturbing disparity in access to justice between Taj Patterson’s community and the Orthodox community, which flows directly from the NYPD’s high-ranking collusion with the vigilante Shomrim patrols,” said Patterson’s lawyer, Andrew Stoll.

CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST ORTHODOX JEWISH MAN ACCUSED IN WILLIAMSBURG GANG ASSAULT OF GAY BLACK MAN

Patterson told The News he was shocked that cops initially closed the investigation.

“I think they saw this black kid . . . and they might have seen the Jewish guys and thought he must have done something wrong because the Jewish guys wouldn’t do anything wrong,” Patterson said.

The NYPD didn’t answer specific questions posed by The News. Instead, a police spokesman issued a general statement.

“The hate crime task force investigated this incident and effected several arrests during the course of the investigation,” the statement read.

Patterson, a fashion student at New York City College of Technology, was walking to his Fort Greene home after a night of partying when he was ambushed.

Among the witnesses who came to Patterson’s aid was a 58-year-old MTA bus driver.

“That wasn’t a misdemeanor,” the driver said.

“They were actually stomping and kicking him,” added the witness, who asked to remain anonymous. “One of his eyes was closed and so swollen. He was saying, ‘My eye. I can’t see.’ ”

In the days after the attack, Patterson and his mother, Zahra, searched for information about the police investigation. They went to two police stations before they were directed to the 90th precinct stationhouse where the Pattersons were given a copy of the police report and told the investigation was closed.

GAY MAN BEATEN BY 5 HASIDIC MEN IN BROOKLYN FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST THEM AND SHOMRIM SECURITY PATROL

The report inexplicably stated there was only one attacker and noted that Patterson was “highly intoxicated, uncooperative and incoherent.”

The Pattersons were stunned. Taj had been beaten into unconsciousness. How could he possibly provide details to the police immediately afterward?

“You can’t just close the case and leave him half-dead and blind on the street,” said Zahra Patterson, 54. “You can’t do that.”

Zahra reached out to a friend with media contacts. News stories followed. Investigators showed up at Patterson’s house a few days later.

The five suspects — Abraham Winkler, 39; Aharon Hollender, 28; Mayer Herskovic, 21; Joseph Fried, 25, and Pinchas Braver, 19 — were indicted in April 2014 on felony gang assault charges after a probe by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

Charges have been dismissed against Fried and Hollender. The others are expected to appear in court in 10 days.

“If his mom wasn’t as persistent as she was, this would have gone absolutely nowhere,” said another Patterson lawyer, Amy Robinson.

 

For the article in its entirety click here.

de Blasio “confident” “legally” “ethically” “disclosure”???

“I’m confident of the fact that we handled everything legally and ethically, that we did the things I wish more people would do in public service—we sought guidance from an ethics board, we followed that guidance and disclosed everything we did,”…

Mayor de Blasio, May 2016

Whose “Guidance” Did He Seek???

The Observor – for full coverage click here.

As Investigations Swirl, Bill de Blasio Sticks to His Talking Points

“Some of those words seemed to come up over and over: “confident,” “legally,” “ethically,” “disclosure.” Mr. de Blasio endeavored to look non-nonplussed by the fact that investigations into his administration and campaigns are stacking up so quickly it will soon be impossible to count them on a single hand.

There’s the investigation into his State Senate fundraising—subject of a leaked state Board of Elections memo and several subpoenas. There’s the investigation into corruption at the NYPD, where officers accepted gifts from two business who also donated handsomely to Mr. de Blasio. Then there’s the look into Rivington House, a former AIDS hospice where the city lifted a deed restriction that will ultimately allow for the development of lucrative condos at the site, where developers were at times represented by a lobbyist tight with Mr. de Blasio. And there’s also inquiries into Mr. de Blasio’s non-profit, the Campaign For One New York, and whether donors got favors from City Hall.

In response to every one of these inquiries, Mr. de Blasio has argued he’s followed the law and the advice of his attorneys—and, in soliciting donations to State Senate candidates or using a non-profit to collect hefty donations for his priorities, that he’s doing things other politicians do but is, for some reason, being singled out.

“I don’t conjecture. I can say, I think there should be a fair standard. I think there should be a consistent and fair standard,” Mr. de Blasio said. “We’re convinced that things were done legally and appropriately, and I think it’s a very important fact when someone discloses voluntarily. It suggests comfort that they have that they’re doing things the right way.”

Mr. de Blasio’s campaign has indeed voluntarily disclosed the donors to his non-profit, something that is not required by law and that others have not chosen to do. But whether it was appropriate to accept the donations—which came from unions who have contracts with the city, real estate firms with interests in re-zonings and others matters, activists calling for a horse carriage ban and others—has been questioned.

Last night, NY1 reported on a letter from the Conflicts of Interest Board advising Mr. de Blasio not to solicit any donations from entities that have matters “pending or about to be pending” before the city. But in a story last year, Politico New York reported that 62 percent of donors had business or labor contracts before the city, or were trying to get a project approved—including the union DC37, which was negotiating a contract, and a manufacturer of scented garbage bags who eventually got a contract to provide them to the city.

Mr. de Blasio would not offer an explanation of how accepting donations from those people squared with COIB’s advice, other than to say everything was reviewed by his attorneys.

“This is a very important thing to get the definitions right on, which is why we went to the Conflicts of Interest Board, got a definition on it, and then had lawyers determine how to follow that definition,” Mr. de Blasio said.

The mayor repeatedly referred to how frequently he spoke with lawyers about donors and the fundraising issues now under the microscope—which of course, to some, might raise the question of whether he or his team suspected they were running up against the law. (When a reporter posited that the legal advice the mayor had gotten may have been up against the line, which would seem to be a given since it’s led to formal criminal inquiries, Mr. de Blasio accused him “editorializing.”)

The mayor has argued that there are problems in the laws governing campaign finance—but said that even if he doesn’t like the current rules and thinks the laws should be change, he will play by them as long as his enemies are. So, while he’s decried the role of money in politics and called for publicly funded campaigns and the overturning of Citizens United, he’s solicited large donations to county committees that are then passed on Senate candidates, who would not legally be able to accept those donations directly. And he set up his non-profit to take larger donations than he could accept to his re-election account, though he repeatedly singled himself out for praise for taking the extra step of disclosing those donors.

That argument—that the conduct might be ugly but it isn’t against the law, and everybody else does it—might sound familiar: it was what former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s lawyers said when U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara indicted him on accepting kickbacks disguised as outside income. (It is not illegal to earn outside income while serving in the State Legislature; many pols do.) Mr. Silver was convicted and was sentenced to 12 years in prison today.

Did Mr. de Blasio think Mr. Silver was unfairly targeted?

“I don’t know the details of the case,” Mr. de Blasio said of the trial, which consumed the city’s press corps for weeks and was closely watched by politicians and lawyers. “I think it’s a tragedy what happened, I think it’s exceedingly sad, but again I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know the detail of the case. I think it’s clear something was done wrong.”

But does the mayor worry that his argument might remind some New Yorkers of Silver’s defense?

“No. I think these are entirely different matters,” he told the Observer. “And first of all, to the credit of everyone involved in this discourse, no one’s talking about anyone lining their pockets—which unfortunately has happened in way too many instances. The thing we’re talking about is what we were trying to achieve working with outside colleagues, things like pre-k for all, affordable housing programs, a Democratic State Senate that we thought would better serve the people of New York State and New York City. So I think that’s apples and oranges to begin with.””

Shalom Lamm, a law firm, the Satmar’s Votes and Profit

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST OR A MARRIAGE OF INTERESTS: SHALOM LAMM, MAYOR CUOMO, SATMAR HASIDICS AND OSTERMAN & HANNA LLP

LostMessiah, April 30, 2016

Hat Tip: Manamaking Town Crier, Facebook

Sometimes the story of people and their activities, whether shady or otherwise, does not come from a series of events but rather from a seemingly coincidental use of shared businesses or services, shared institutions of higher education and corresponding persons of interest. It is our view that Shalom Lamm’s engagement of the Osterman & Hanna LLP law firm in his quest to take over Sullivan County’s Bloomingburg and surrounding villages was strategically planned. We believe that the decision to engage the same firm  now reported to have been hired by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s former top aide Joseph Percoco, is simply a way to buffer the governor. On the one hand, the Satmar community would be beholden to Cuomo and on the other hand, Cuomo could claim no knowledge of Lamm’s activities. Acting as the buffer zone, as well as community activists in pushing forward the agenda of the Satmar Community stood Terresa Bakner partner at Osterman.

According to reports, partner Terresa Bakner, has been instrumental in trying to push forward Lamm’s plans, advocating for its acceptance, speaking in front of townspeople to explain the process (of losing their identity). It is noted that Cuomo at different points in the history of Lamm and his Sullivan County takeover has also advocated for the dissolution of Bloomingburg, which arguably is to the ultimate benefit of Lamm.

Failed Messiah reported on the activities of Shalom Lamm as early as 2013, if not earlier. Failed Messiah described Lamm’s plans to build what was initially billed as a small development but actually intended, from its very inception, to be a new home of a Satmar community, with room to expand and increase. It was contemplated to be nearly 4 times the size of what the ‘informed public” were told; a plan created, drafted and proposed under cover of secrets, made “pretty and believable.”