“Orthodox community tangled in NYPD corruption scandal”

Also from today’s New York Post:

Orthodox community tangled in NYPD corruption scandal

NYPD officials acted like personal concierges to members of the Orthodox Jewish community — doing favors from providing free parking at weddings to letting wife beaters off the hook, sources told The Post.

“I don’t give a s–t, you’re giving him DAT [desk appearance ticket] and that’s it,” one high-ranking deputy inspector raged after learning that a member of a powerful Hasidic group had been arrested on charges of third-degree assault for attacking his wife, according to a source.

In that case, the charges were downgraded to a desk appearance ticket, allowing the man to avoid arraignment court and more serious penalties, the source said.

“I still remember that as clear as day,” the source said. “That’s against protocol.”

Shady dealings such as these are now at the center of a gifts-for-favors corruption scandal, in which two businessmen are suspected of giving out lavish presents to high-ranking officers.

Jeremy Reichberg, a prominent Borough Park figure, and Jona Rechnitz, a real-estate investor, were familiar faces around Brooklyn’s 72nd Precinct, where disgraced Deputy Inspector James Grant, who was placed on modified duty last week, would let them park in his private spot, according to sources.

Reichberg was even allowed to attend a roll call at the precinct, where he may have footed the bill for repairs, sources said.

Sources said Grant is hardly the only high-ranking officer who has been giving Orthodox community members special treatment.

Commanding officers often assign cops to Orthodox wedding receptions, including ones at the Rose Castle in Williamsburg and the Ateres Chaya Hall in Borough Park, according to sources.

“It’s ridiculous,” a police source said of the practice. “They’ll say you have to assign X amount of cops for this reason.”

One community member said that two blocks were closed off around Ateres Chaya in January, when Reichberg’s daughter got married there.

So far, five high-ranking officers have been modified or transferred as a result of the federal investigation.

NYPD/R&R Scandal Grows to 30,000 Ft.

From the New York Post, April 18, 2016

Top cops joined Mile High Club with hooker on private jet to Vegas

NYPD officials had sex with a prostitute dressed as a flight attendant during at least one trip on a private plane paid for by a businessman at the heart of a federal probe into police corruption, The Post has learned.

Police brass joined the “Mile High Club” with the woman after departing from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport en route to Las Vegas in 2014, sources said.

The call girl repeated her “Coffee, tea or me?” routine when the cops flew back from Vegas, sources said.

“It was first-class plus, with full service,” said a source close to the case.

“They weren’t on commercial airlines. The entertainment was quite good on board.”

Jona Rechnitz, who is under investigation in a suspected gifts-for-favors scheme, provided the high-priced transportation, the sources said.

It was unclear who paid for the prostitute’s services and how many trips took place.

But both Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, another subject of the joint FBI-NYPD probe, accompanied the cops during one getaway to Sin City, a source said.James Grant

Deputy Inspector James Grant and Detective Michael Milici were both identified by the sources as having been on board during at least one wild cross-country trip.

Grant, formerly commanding officer of the Upper East Side’s 19th Precinct, was stripped of his badge and transferred earlier this month, hours after The Post revealed that he was suspected of accepting cash and diamonds from Reichberg.

He was sent to the NYPD’s Medical Division in Queens.

Milici, a longtime community-affairs officer in Borough Park, Brooklyn, was also placed on modified duty after invoking the Fifth Amendment in front of a federal grand jury, sources have said.

He has been assigned to the Courthouse Division.

Lawyers for Grant and Milici each said they “deny the allegations” about their married clients. Rechnitz declined to comment.

Reichberg’s lawyer said, “Jeremy Reichberg is a good man who has helped many in his community. He has not committed any crime and does not deserve the constant false attacks to which he has been subjected in the press.”

Last week, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told The Post that the unfolding corruption scandal was the worst he had seen since the rampant, top-to-bottom bribery exposed by the Knapp Commission in the early 1970s.

In addition to the allegations involving top NYPD officials, sources have said that the feds are investigating Mayor de Blasio’s campaign finances and the actions of his former fund-raiser Ross Offinger.

Rechnitz was a top “bundler” of campaign contributions to de Blasio, and Reichberg hosted a fund-raiser for Hizzoner’s Campaign for One New York.

 

De Blasio Aid Warned About Shady Invesments

April 15, 2016

De Blasio aide warned about shady businessmen in NYPD probe

http://nypost.com/2016/04/15/de-blasio-aide-warned-about-shady-businessmen-in-nypd-probe/

““People in the Orthodox community told Avi they had questions about where his money comes from and said he’s not a community activist, he’s only out for himself,” one source said.”

PREET BHARARA IN ROCKLAND BUT WALKING DOWN RIVINGTON STREET

 

SUCH AND ALLURE, A WALK DOWN RIVINGTON STREET

LostMessiah, April 14, 2016

Preet Bharara has been busy and he’s likely going to be busier. Today was a good day for those of us who like to play “Clue” and actually find out who murdered the professor in the library with the candlestick. It has not been such a good day for Christopher St. Lawrence and his band of Rockland hoodlums. Nor, do we think, is it going to be a good year for Mayor de Blasio, Jona Rechnitz, Jeremy Reichberg, the Allure Group, Landau and so many other fabled Hassidic hoodwinkers. The game is just getting started.

Rivington House Roundup: US Attorney Preet Bharara Investigating Controversial Deed Lifing

TheBowerieBoogie

“US Attorney Preet Bharara – who helped bring Sheldon Silver to justice – is now investigating the deed lifting that allowed the $116 million sale of Rivington House. “Attorneys working for Bharara, who is also probing two of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign donors in an unrelated case, attended a recent meeting about the deed restriction change with staff from other investigating agencies.” [Politico]

To give you an idea of the depth of influence, the Allure Group tapped former Governor David Paterson as consultant. “Whenever Joel had a problem with the state, he’d say, ‘Let me call the governor,’” a source to the Post. A spokesperson noted that Paterson and Allure’s Jon Landau “never discussed” lobbying to secure a deed switch that resulted in the $116 million sale of the Rivington House, and that he hasn’t worked with the firm since 2014. [New York Post]

“This is about the most horrific, hypocritical tale of two cities imaginable in de Blasio’s New York. Again, a wired de Blasio ally is involved, and somehow the city not only lifted the deed restriction but valued the property so minimally that a $16 million payment allowed for its $116 million sale. That’s a nine-figure flip, courtesy of City Hall.” [Daily News]

“No one from the public spoke at the meeting, at which seven property transactions were heard by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. As the scandal has unfolded in recent weeks, those impacted by it say they were unaware the meeting took place, though it was advertised in the City Record, a daily publication of meeting notices, solicitations for contractors and salary changes.” [Capital New York]“

Ramapo Town Officials SEC Press Release

PRESS RELEASE

 

SEC: Town Officials in New York Hid Financial Troubles From Bond Investors

04/14/2016 11:00 AM EDT

 

“The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Ramapo, N.Y., its local development corporation, and four town officials who allegedly hid a deteriorating financial situation from their municipal bond investors.

The SEC alleges that Ramapo officials resorted to fraud to hide the strain in the town’s finances caused by the approximately $60 million cost to build a baseball stadium as well as the town’s declining sales and property tax revenues.  They cooked the books of the town’s primary operating fund to falsely depict positive balances between $1.4 million and $4.2 million during a six-year period when the town had actually accumulated balance deficits as high as nearly $14 million.  And because the stadium bonds issued by the Ramapo Local Development Corp. (RLDC) were guaranteed by the town, certain officials also masked an operating revenue shortfall at the RLDC and investors were unaware the town would likely need to subsidize those bond payments and further deplete its general fund.

According to the SEC’s complaint, inflated general fund balances were used in offering materials for 16 municipal bond offerings by Ramapo or the RLDC to investors, who consider the condition of a municipality’s general fund when making investment decisions.  After town supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence purposely misled a credit rating agency about the town’s general fund balance before certain bonds were rated, he told other town officials to refinance the short-term debt as fast as possible because “we’re going to all have to be magicians” to realize the purported financial results.

“Retail investors account for more than 75 percent of the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market, which is critical for our nation’s infrastructure and development,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, Director of the SEC Enforcement Division.  “We won’t stand for public officials and employees who resort to alleged accounting trickery to mislead investors who are investing in their financial futures as well as the future betterment of our communities.”

According to the SEC’s complaint:

• Christopher P. St. Lawrence, who served as RLDC’s president in addition to being town supervisor, masterminded the scheme to artificially inflate the balance of the general fund in financial statements for fiscal years 2009 to 2014.
• St. Lawrence and Aaron Troodler, a former RLDC executive director and assistant town attorney, concealed from investors that RLDC’s operating revenues were insufficient to cover debt service on bonds to finance the stadium.
• Town attorney Michael Klein helped conceal outstanding liabilities related to the baseball stadium and repeatedly misled the town’s auditors about the collection of a $3.08 million receivable recorded in the town’s general fund for the sale of a 13.7-acre parcel of land to the RLDC.  But because the title of the property was never transferred from the town to the RLDC, Klein also made misleading statements about the receivable’s source.
• Troodler helped conceal the fictitious sale and boost the account balance of the town’s general fund by approving RLDC financial statements reflecting a purchase of property that never actually occurred.  Troodler also signed offering documents that contained an additional fabricated receivable totaling $3.66 million for another transfer of land from the town to the RLDC.  The only land transferred from the town to the RLDC during the time of the purported transaction was property donated for the baseball stadium, which St. Lawrence and Troodler knew did not impose any payment obligation on the RLDC.
• The town’s deputy finance director Nathan Oberman participated in activities to inflate the town’s general fund by arranging $12.4 million in improper transfers from an ambulance fund to bolster the troubled general fund during a six-year period.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced criminal charges against St. Lawrence and Troodler.

“We allege that Ramapo’s senior-most officials concealed the true condition of the town’s declining finances to avoid further political fallout from the construction of the baseball stadium,” said LeeAnn Ghazil Gaunt, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Public Finance Abuse Unit, which was previously known as the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit.

The SEC’s complaint charges Ramapo, RLDC, St. Lawrence, Troodler, Klein, and Oberman with violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5.  St. Lawrence and Troodler also are charged with liability under Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act as controlling persons for the violations by the town and RLDC, and all four town officials are charged with aiding and abetting violations by the town and RLDC.  In addition to financial penalties, the SEC seeks a court order appointing an independent consultant for Ramapo and RLDC to recommend improvements for financial reporting and municipal securities disclosure policies and monitor the mandated implementation of those recommendations for a period of five years.  The SEC also seeks an order prohibiting the town officials from participating in future municipal bond offerings.

The SEC’s continuing investigation is being conducted by Daniel M. Loss and Celeste A. Chase of the New York office and Creighton L. Papier of the Public Finance Abuse Unit with assistance from Jonathan Wilcox, Louis Randazzo and Mark R. Zehner from the Public Finance Abuse Unit.  The SEC’s litigation will be led by Alexander M. Vasilescu and Mr. Loss.  The case is being supervised by Sanjay Wadhwa and Ms. Gaunt.  The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office in New York. “

Securities Fraud and Christopher St. Lawrence

 

Ramapo town supervisor, former chief of LDC, charged with securities fraud April 14, 2016

“NEW YORK – Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and N. Aaron Troodler, the former executive director of the Ramapo Local Development Corporation, were indicted with 22 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy in connection with municipal bonds issued by the town and by the Rockland LDC. The indictment was unsealed on Thursday. US Attorney Preet Bharara said his office has brought what is believed to be the first ever municipal bond-related criminal securities fraud charges against public officials. “As alleged, Christopher St. Lawrence and N. Aaron Troodler kicked truth and transparency to the curb, selling over $150 million of municipal bonds on fabricated financials,” Bharara said. “I doing so, they defrauded both the citizens of Ramapo and thousands of municipal bond investors around the country.” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez said the men “allegedly engaged in a complex securities fraud scheme so they could hide public funds being used for the construction of a stadium and other projects.” He said the activity allegedly continued even after they became aware of the town and the corporation tasked with development initiatives were subjects of a federal investigation.””   Read full article from midhudsonnews.

Ramapo’s Christopher St. Lawrence Indictment

LostMessiah, April 14, 2016

CSL INDICTMENT – FULL TEXT ON LINK BELOW

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – X

:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA :

: INDICTMENT

– v – :

:

CHRISTOPHER ST. LAWRENCE, and : 16 Cr. ______

N. AARON TROODLER, :

:

:

Defendants. :

:

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – X

COUNT ONE

(Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud)

The Grand Jury charges:

BACKGROUND

1. At all times relevant to this Indictment:

Relevant Entities

a. The Town of Ramapo (the “Town”) was an incorporated municipality in Rockland County, New York. It was governed by an elected Town Supervisor and an elected Town Board. The Town was authorized by state law to issue bonds to the public. As of August 2015, the Town had $128,150,000 in outstanding bonds, not including bonds for which the Town had guaranteed the payment of principal and interest.

 

Read-the-Christopher-St-Lawrence-Indictment