The Satmar and de-Blasio…. A Match Made of?

 

 

FBI grills de Blasio’s Satmar pals in fundraising probe

Federal investigators are questioning leaders in Williamsburg’s Hasidic community in their expanding inquiry into Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising practices, multiple sources told The Post.

Rabbi and political fund-raiser Moishe Indig was questioned by FBI agents on Wednesday. Indig referred them to his attorney but agents seized one of his cellphones, the sources said.

“They told him, ‘It’s all about Bill,’ and they want more information from him,” said one source close to Indig, a de Blasio ally.

“They have an interest in Moishe because they’re digging into de Blasio’s fund-raising tactics and they want to know what favors they [Hasidic community members] are getting back from the mayor,” the source added.

Indig did not return calls seeking comment.

Agents visited Rabbi David Niederman on Thursday, but Niederman referred them to his lawyers, two sources said. Niederman told The Post federal agents did not visit him.

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Federal authorities on Thursday arrested Williamsburg political operative Yitzchok “Isaac” Sofer on charges he lied about his income to obtain $30,000 in food stamps.

SEE ALSO

Satmar leader and de Blasio fund-raiser busted for food-stamp fraud

The FBI interviewed Sofer two weeks ago about mayoral fund-raising and influence peddling, but he refused to rat on his friends at City Hall, the sources said. The sources believe the FBI brought the food-stamp charge to squeeze information from him.

“They know Sofer is a progressive Hasidic Jew who is friendly with all these guys in the administration including [top de Blasio aides] Avi Fink and Emma Wolfe,” a City Hall source said. “People in the community come to him to fix their problems and he has amassed his influence.”

Indig, Niederman and Sofer are influential leaders in the Satmar community, one of the city’s largest Hasidic sects. De Blasio ­aggressively courted the Satmars in his 2013 mayoral campaign.

It was Indig who convinced leaders of the Satmars’ Aroni faction to shift their support from Christine Quinn to de Blasio two weeks before the contentious 2013 Democratic primary, sources said.

Sofer said at the time that de Blasio’s support for private religious schools was a main reason for the endorsement.

Sofer and Indig were the hosts of an Oct. 3, 2013, fund-raising event for de Blasio, according to the mayor’s campaign Web site.

Indig, who landed on de Blasio’s “Worst Landlords” list back when the mayor was public advocate, has attended at least two meetings at City Hall with Niederman and other religious leaders, according to the mayor’s official schedule.

But Indig has never registered as a lobbyist despite advocating on issues important to the Orthodox community, sources said.

“Developers go to Indig with issues with their properties, hoping to get permits expedited or rezonings approved by the city,” said one Williamsburg source. “People hire him privately to get things done.”

SEE ALSO

Grand juries convene over de Blasio fundraising probes

Sofer, 39, works in government relations for the Central United Talmudical Academy, which is tied to the Aroni faction. The yeshiva’s lobbyist, Capalino+Company, pressed Fink and other City Hall officials in early 2015 to open a universal-pre-K program at the site.

The FBI raided the academy’s offices in March, possibly as part of a probe into the use of federal school-lunch funds, reports said.

CUTA spokesman Michael Tobman called Sofer’s arrest a “personal matter having nothing to do with the larger community or its institutions.” Sofer did not return a message seeking comment.

 

To see the article in its entirety click here.

66th Precinct – What’s the Going Rate for a Corrupt Cop?

Lt. Michael Andreano Joins the Ranks of those Alleged to be in Bed with the Epidemic of Corruption within the Ultra Orthodox Community of Borough Park and Beyond…

 

NYPD lieutenant stripped of badge, gun over ties to bribery scheme

http://nypost.com/2016/10/24/nypd-lieutenant-stripped-of-badge-gun-over-ties-to-bribery-scheme/

A high-ranking Brooklyn cop has been stripped of his badge and gun over ties to a key figure in an alleged $1 million NYPD bribery scheme, The Post has learned.

Lt. Michael Andreano of the 66th Precinct in Boro Park was put on desk duty as part of the wide-ranging corruption probe that has already resulted in pending charges against three NYPD bosses, sources said.

Andreano is suspected of having improper dealings with Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, a leader of the Boro Park “Shomrim” patrol who in April was busted on bribery and conspiracy charges involving pistol permits, sources said.

“This guy was tight with Shaya and would go out of his way to accommodate him,” a source said.

Andreano served as a community-affairs sergeant in the 66th Precinct before getting promoted to lieutenant in 2015 and transferred to the 60 Precinct in West Brighton.

He was transferred back to the 66th after “a month or two,” sources said, and put in charge of Special Operations there.

Andreano’s return was announced at a Community Council meeting in September 2015, according to the KensingtonBK blog.

Lichtenstein was allegedly recorded offering a whistleblowing cop $6,000 a pop to “expedite” approval of pistol permits for members of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community.

During that conversation, Lichtenstein used a calculator to show that 150 permits would be worth $900,000, according to the feds.

He also allegedly bragged that he had already scored 150 permits for clients who paid him up to $18,000 each for the service but said he had lost his connection in the NYPD’s License Division.

Earlier this month, a prosecutor revealed there had been “continuous discussions” for Lichtenstein to strike a plea deal, and a judge gave both sides until Nov. 3 to come to terms or proceed with the case.

The cop who secretly recorded Lichtenstein, former License Division member David Ochetal, secretly pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities after admitting that he had accepted “lunch money” from Lichtenstein.

To read the article in its entirety click here.

Future Top Cop – In Bed with the Borough Park Corrupt – Community Board 12

Community Board 12, Yidel Perlstein… Bringing our Old Friends Back to the Forefront…

 

Community leader boasted about snagging favor from future top cop

http://nypost.com/2016/10/24/nypd-lieutenant-stripped-of-badge-gun-over-ties-to-bribery-scheme/

A Borough Park community leader bragged on a taped phone call how he pulled some strings to get future top cop James O’Neill to transfer a friendly lieutenant back to the neighborhood, The Post has learned.

Community Board 12 Chairman Yidel Perlstein wanted Michael Andreano returned to Borough Park’s 66th Precinct from the 60th in Brighton Beach, where the cop had been shipped following his promotion.

Perlstein, speaking in Yiddish, describes in the secretly recorded conversation how he approached NYPD Assistant Chief Steven Powers at a September 2015 breakfast meeting in Williamsburg and asked that Andreano be moved.

Perlstein claims that he offered Powers dinner at a local kosher steakhouse to grease the wheels for the personnel move, with Powers then talking to O’Neill, who was the NYPD’s chief of department at the time and happened to be at the meeting.

“I told Powers, ‘I will take you out to The Loft for supper,’ ” Perlstein says on the recording.

“So I told Powers, go over to O’Neill, to tell him to make an exception, to have Andreano back. So Powers and others went over to O’Neill and made the request to O’Neill and O’Neill said, ‘No problem, permission granted,’ with a big smile on his face.

“And [Andreano] was already the next day at work,” he adds.

The phone call was taped by a community activist who shared an excerpt with The Post. New York law permits people to secretly record conversations in which they take part.

Captains-union President Roy Richter said the commanding officer of the 66th put in a request to retain Andreano as soon as he was promoted — though he did not return until after the September meeting.

On Monday, The Post exclusively reported that Andreano had been stripped of his badge and gun over his ties to Alex “Shaya” Lichtenstein, a leader of Borough Park’s “Shomrim” safety patrol.

Lichtenstein was busted by the feds in April on charges he offered nearly $1 million in bribes to score pistol permits from the NYPD’s License Division for clients who paid him up to $18,000 a pop.

Andreano’s transfer back to the 66th was highly unusual, because protocol dictates that cops get moved following a promotion to avoid animosity from former colleagues and to prevent corruption, a high-ranking NYPD official said.

To read the NYPost article in its entirety click here.

Seabrook and the COBA Money…. Platinum’s $20M Creditors

 

Norman Seabrook Was Likely the Wrong Person to Trust with COBA Fund Money…

Hedge fund holding Norman Seabrook’s $20M investment is broke | New York Post

Hedge fund holding Norman Seabrook’s $20M investment is broke

Hedge fund holding Norman Seabrook’s $20M investment is broke | New York Post

The embattled hedge fund holding a $20 million investment from the city’s correction officers’ union has finally admitted that it’s broke.

The Platinum Partners’ Value Arbitrage fund filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in Manhattan bankruptcy court late Tuesday.

The filing represents the nail in the coffin for the $20 million the union invested in Platinum, under the leadership of its ex-President Norman Seabrook.

“Norman Seabrook severely impacted his members by making these frivolous investments that only benefited himself, and now the COBA is out $20 million dollars,” said Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association member William Valentin, who triggered a federal probe into Seabrook with a lawsuit over the risky investment.

“Smoke and mirrors seems to be the way of the COBA until the members get tired, and remove them,” he added.

Seabrook was arrested in June and charged with taking $60,000 in kickbacks in a black Ferragamo handbag in exchange for funneling Corrections Officers’ Benevolent Association money into the high-risk hedge fund.

Platinum founder Murray Huberfeld was also arrested and charged with bribing Seabrook to hand over COBA funds at a time when the NY hedge fund was desperate for cash.

Both Seabrook and Huberfeld have pleaded not guilty.

As The Post exclusively reported last month, Platinum’s flagship fund — which made up the bulk of its $1.3 billion in assets — had just $68,530 in cash at the end May, just before the arrests of Seabrook and Huberfeld.

It was aggressively borrowing money anyway, including from the family of Jared Kushner, the husband of Ivanka Trump.

On May 27, Kushner’s aunt and uncle loaned Platinum $10.5 million, documents obtained by The Post show.

In total, the firm owes over $365 million to investors and credits, according to documents from its Cayman Islands liquidator, which was supposed to be responsible for paying people back.

To read the article in its entirety click, here.

Famed J.P. Morgan Building at 23 Wall Street in Play – and Urinating Bosses…

23 Wall Street – Our Theories

We have written on the famed J.P. Morgan piece of property more times than perhaps any other Blog. We have written on the various Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg properties/investments/shady dealings. We have written about Chetrit and Bistricer, China Sonangol, Queensway, Angola. The story below from “The Real Deal” almost feels like something we could have written. But, of course, we didn’t.

The new buyer, as you will see below from the article on the bottom of the page, Jack Terzi, lacks certain social graces (or did in 2012). He apparently was an abusive boss who, according to reports in the NY Daily News from 2012, engaged in bizarre behavior. In the interest of full disclosure, his employees at his yogurt shops felt that he was “strictly business” and “humble.” Hard to tell.

We can say this:

It would not surprise us if nestled within the many companies listed on the Africa-Israel website with reference to the Israel Stock Exchange we were to find the new J.P. Morgan buyer’s name, his company or some financial/management synergy with Africa Israel and perhaps concurrently with China Sonangol. It will take a while to find and some might write this one off as a leap. We don’t think so.

It is a Buyer’s market not a Seller’s market in Manhattan right now (if the comment about the losses below by The Real Deal is any indication). China Sonangol/Africa-Israel/Sam Pa/ want out of New York but we doubt they would take a financial loss. We think that it will prove to be anything but a loss.

AFI Group The company is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. For more information, please press on the image below.

Subsidiaries:

Africa Israel Properties

Africa Israel Residences

Danya Cebus

Africa Israel Industries

Negev Ceramics

Dor Alon

Blue Square

 

 

Paydirt: The Compass unicorn, a more modest buyer pool, 23 Wall in play … & more

Billionaires hiding? We’ll take the millionaires: Compass’ valuation comes at a time when Manhattan’s high-end residential market is taking body blows. Developers finally seem willing to accept things aren’t where they were in 2014. They’re either offering fat discounts (Extell at One Manhattan Square, World Wide Group and Rose Associates at 252 East 57th Street), pushing sales back (JDS & PMG at 111 West 57th Street) or abandoning ship (Witkoff at Park Lane, Chetrit & Bistricer at the Sony Building).  “The next two years will be the year of the deal,” PMG’s Kevin Maloney told Bloomberg.

Developers who set their sights a little more main street have been faring better: Condos priced between $500,000 and $999,000 have sold five times as fast as their $10 million-and-up counterparts, according to a Miller Samuel analysis of a decade of residential sales.

You don’t know Jack: JTRE’s Jack Terzi is in contract to buy 23 Wall Street, a landmarked property that was once the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co. – it was dubbed the “House of Morgan” — but of late has been a pox on Lower Manhattan. The long-vacant building is owned by the shadowy China Sonangol, a joint venture between Sam Pa’s Queensway Group and the nation of Angola — go figure. Sources told the New York Post that Terzi will be buying the property at a discount to the $150 million Sonangol paid for it in 2008. That’s hard to fathom, except for the fact that Pa is under investigation for allegations of financial crimes, according to the FT.

Terzi, who grew up in Gravesend and cut his teeth at Hidrock Realty, has made a number of splashy acquisitions of late, including a number of $20 million-plus buys in Midtown East. But this deal, if he does close on it, elevates him to a different level — giving him control of more than 130,000 square feet in the heart of Lower Manhattan.

 

 

THE NEW YORK POST:

http://nypost.com/2016/08/30/long-vacant-wall-street-landmark-sold-to-retail-developer/

 

For a tall tale about how China Sonangol may or may not have come to its original purchase through individuals mixed up in the NYPD scandals, read The Post’s Steve Cuozzo’s story from July 4.

The 160,000 square feet stretches from the landmarked 23 Wall St. where banker Morgan once had his private offices, around the sloped corner to portions of the base floors of 33 Wall and 15 Broad St.

The stone fortress has been touted as a retail play for years, but it’s stood mostly dark — due to absentee ownership and landmark-related restrictions.

Prospective deals to lease it to Brooks Brothers and a multi-media event company fell through but Hermes has been a tenant since 2007.

The upper stories of 15 Broad next door were converted into apartments.

JACK TERZI – NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ex-worker-suing-real-estate-boss-jack-terzi-5-million-abuse-fines-urinating-article-1.1134148

 

Ex-worker suing real estate boss, Jack Terzi, for $5 million for abuse, fines, and urinating

A foul-mouthed boss from hell unzipped more than his lip in torturing his young assistant.

Brash real estate broker Jack Terzi urinated on the underling’s clothes during a three-year reign of terror in their Manhattan office, according to a astonishing new lawsuit.

The allegedly abusive broker was accused by ex-employee Albert Sultan of abuse that included cutting four-letter insults, sharp flying objects and bizarre fines.

Sultan, hired shortly after Terzi launched his company in 2009, “became emotionally distraught, was humiliated and embarrassed … by the systematic and continuous unlawful harassment,” charged the 15-page suit filed Wednesday.

Court papers contain a cruel recital of Terzi’s perverse management style, including the time he “urinated on a garment” belonging to Sultan as others watched.

Terzi was accused of throwing a shoe and a pair of scissors at his young assistant, hurling insults like “f—— idiot” and “piece of s—“ — and repeatedly “sneezing in (Sultan’s) face in a contemptuous fashion.”

Terzi, in a countersuit, charged Sultan was a conniving backstabber who launched his own business with confidential information stolen from Jack Terzi Real Estate.

Sultan, of Eatontown, N.J., declined further discussion about his ex-boss.

 

 

Platinum Partners – The Money is No Doubt Hidden – Start Digging…

 

THE NEW YORK POST:

Embattled hedge fund tied to prison guard union under new management

By Kaja Whitehouse

September 1, 2016 | 10:52pm

 

Murray Huberfeld, founder of Platinum Partners Photo: Reuters

More On:

platinum partners

Hedge fund linked to prison guards’ union goes to ‘liquidators’

Hedge fund linked to kickback scandal loses a client

Hedge fund tied to kickback probe used ‘checkered’ valuation firm

Feds probing union scandal fund as a Ponzi scheme

Troubled hedge fund Platinum Partners — which is holding $20 million in pension money for the city’s prison-guards union — is officially under new management, The Post has learned.

A Cayman Islands judge has ordered that liquidation firm RHSW Caribbean take control of Platinum’s flagship fund amid concerns about its ability to repay investors, according to a letter to investors obtained by The Post.

The new managers said they plan to meet with Platinum’s investors, including the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, on Sept. 28.

Ex-COBA president Norman Seabrook invested members’ pension money in Platinum, as well as the union’s operational funds.

Investors have been clamoring for answers following the June arrest of Platinum co-founder Murray Huberfeld, who was charged with paying bribes to get his hands on COBA’s money from Seabrook, who has also been charged in the alleged scheme.

In July, Platinum’s New York ­offices were raided by the FBI.

TO READ THE ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY CLICK HERE.

Sheldon Silver – FREEDOM FOR ANOTHER YEAR…

 

Silver, Like Skelos, Can Remain Free While Appealing Graft Conviction

In a search on the federal Bureau of Prisons website, the names of two familiar New Yorkers — Sheldon Silver and Dean G. Skelos — now appear.

Both were once powerful state lawmakers. Then they were convicted on corruption charges. Now they are listed with prisoner registration numbers: Mr. Silver is 71915-054; Mr. Skelos is 72196-054.

But for each man’s entry, the federal website also adds: “Not in B.O.P. custody.” And based on a court ruling on Thursday, neither man is now required to report to the authorities anytime soon as the convictions are appealed, a process that could take more than a year.

Ever since they were found guilty last year in separate trials, Mr. Silver, 72, a Manhattan Democrat who was speaker of the State Assembly, and Mr. Skelos, 68, a Long Island Republican who served as the State Senate majority leader, have moved aggressively to stave off the day that they had to begin serving their prison sentences and pay the imposed fines.

In seeking bail pending appeal, they argued that a Supreme Court decision in June that overturned the corruption conviction of former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a Republican, had changed the law in a way that increased their chances of winning reversals.

In the ruling issued on Thursday, Judge Valerie E. Caproni of Federal District Court in Manhattan, who presided in Mr. Silver’s trial, granted his request to remain free on bail while he appeals his case. He faces a 12-year sentence for his convictions on charges of honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering.

Judge Caproni’s ruling comes three weeks after another judge, Kimba M. Wood, agreed to continue bail for Mr. Skelos and his son, Adam, 34, who was convicted along with his father, both on bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges.

Prosecutors had charged that Mr. Silver had obtained nearly $4 million in illicit payments and bribes in return for official actions that benefited a prominent cancer researcher at Columbia University and two real estate developers.

Judge Caproni, in her opinion, made it clear she believed that Mr. Silver had engaged in such conduct. “There is no question that Silver took a number of official acts — most obviously passing legislation and approving state grants and tax-exempt financing — as part of a quid pro quo” in two schemes, she wrote.

But, citing the recent McDonnell decision, she added that there was a “substantial question” whether the court’s instructions to the jury, which defined official action, were in error, and if so, whether that error was harmless.

Mr. Skelos was convicted with his son in December. Prosecutors showed that they had used the senator’s position to pressure various firms to provide the son with consulting work and other benefits. The elder Mr. Skelos faces a five-year sentence and his son received a term of six and a half years.

Judge Wood, in a brief order on Aug. 4 continuing their bail, said they had shown that their appeals presented “a substantial question regarding whether this court’s jury instructions were erroneous” in light of the McDonnell case.

The rulings come more than eight months after the three men were resoundingly convicted in two trials that unveiled a seamy culture of illicit payments and influence peddling in Albany.

The office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment on the ruling on Thursday. Mr. Silver’s lawyers, Joel Cohen and Steven F. Molo, said in a statement: “We are grateful that the trial judge agreed there is now a substantial legal question about the conviction. We look forward to vigorously pursuing Mr. Silver’s appeal.”

The ruling drew varied reactions in the legal community, where the men’s efforts to obtain bail were being watched with interest by lawyers with no involvement in the cases. Jennifer G. Rodgers, the executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity at Columbia Law School and a former federal prosecutor, said she believed that all three men would eventually lose their appeals.

“The problem from the public’s perspective,” she said, “is that, whether or not the judges’ bail decisions were technically legally correct, leaving Silver and Skelos free feeds into the notion that these corrupt officials continue to succeed in working the system to their advantage.”
But Gerald B. Lefcourt, a veteran defense lawyer who has represented clients in corruption cases, said that the McDonnell decision might indeed offer a strong basis for appeal and that fairness dictated continuing bail for Mr. Silver and the Skeloses.

“They shouldn’t have to serve time when they may never have to,” he said. “I have no love for these men, but I do care about the system.”

To obtain bail pending appeal, a defendant must show an appeal raises a “substantial question of law or fact” that is likely to result in a conviction’s reversal.

That is why the McDonnell decision has been at the center of the current debate. In it, the Supreme Court appeared to narrow the definition of the kind of conduct or “official acts” that may serve as the basis for a corruption prosecution. The court said such conduct had to involve formal and concrete government actions or decisions, not just the setting up of meetings or making phone calls.

The Silver and Skelos defense lawyers have argued that the judges in their clients’ cases instructed the juries more broadly about what constituted an official act than may now be allowed under the McDonnell decision. As a result, they say, there is no way to tell whether the juries, in convicting the men, “improperly relied on acts that are not ‘official’ under McDonnell,” as Mr. Silver’s lawyer wrote in a court filing.

Federal prosecutors had strongly opposed the bail requests. In a recent filing in Mr. Silver’s case, Mr. Bharara’s office argued that the actions for which he was convicted fit squarely within the narrower McDonnell definition.

“McDonnell will not save Silver on appeal, nor should it entitle him to bail pending appeal,” the prosecutors said. And even if the jury instructions were erroneous in light of the McDonnell case, they said, “the error clearly would be harmless.” There was no chance, they said, that the jury’s verdict could have been based on acts that fell short of the McDonnell standard.

“The proof was overwhelming,” Mr. Bharara’s office wrote, “that in exchange for millions in personal payouts, Silver took or agreed to take actions that by any definition were ‘official’ — including securing state funding and favorable state legislation.”

To read the New York Times article in its entirety click here.

For Further Reading:

Sheldon Silver avoids jail for at least another year

Disgraced ex-Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver caught the break of a lifetime Thursday …

Sheldon Silver’s prison surrender date pushed back by judge

Sheldon Silver remains free on appeal