The Brothers Stark, an Investigation, Plagued with Inconsistencies and Kendall Felix Denied Parol – [OPINION]

UPDATED OPINION: 13:48, 17:35

There was Something Wrong with the Whole Menachem Stark Murder Story… from Day One

In 2014 Menachem Stark, a member of the tightly knit and wholly insular Satmar community was murdered. Stark was a wealthy landlord and alleged slumlord who was kidnapped, suffocated and then brutally burned. At the time of his disappearance and the subsequent finding of his body miles away in January of 2014, news articles reported that he was a “mixed” bag when it came to what people thought of him. In some articles he was referred to as “notorious” in others “affable.”  He had tenants complaining of atrocious living conditions and unreasonable rent demands with little recourse absent expensive litigation. In stark contrast, there were tenants who referred to him as kind and reasonable.

Those within his inner circle sometimes referred to him as a “mensche.” One of the articles that came out at the time of his death, on January 11, 2014, gave a fairly well rounded picture of Menachem Stark, a/k/a Max, while the police were still trying to compile a clearer picture of his death.

Brooklyn landlord murder: police find new clue

What seems to be a common thread in all of the news stories at the time was that apparently, he was very loyal to those he trusted and very generous with employees who he felt protected his interests. In a lot of ways he was a paradox to those of us following the stories. At least one of the men accused of having killed him was one of the people who commented on his loyalty as a boss, his menchekeit. Seems odd that such an employee would then kill his boss over $25,000.00, a figure offered in some of the initial stories.

At the time Menachem Stark was murdered, he had a wide assortment of business partners, with many of his businesses shared by a single or a few different groups of partners. The properties he held were worth tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars. At least some of those properties contained clauses in their LLC Agreements that gave the rights to the property in the event of the death of any of the “unit holders” to the other holders. In other words, when he died, at least some of his properties passed directly to his partners. Others had been the source of litigation including “lis pendens” proceedings, which were notices of dispute of ownership, as reported in articles from 2014.

2000 Pages, a Political Power Broker,$26M in Faulty Rent Assumptions and de Blasio

City overvalued Podolsky portfolio by $26M, uncovered docs show

The city’s $173 million purchase of 21 buildings from the Podolsky brothers has attracted scrutiny because of the sellers’ past, their political connections and the price tag itself. A late Monday document dump is poking even more holes in the official version of events.

According to 2,000 pages of documents subpoenaed by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Hall overvalued the buildings by $26 million using faulty rent assumptions, the New York Post reported.

The city’s $173 million purchase of 21 buildings from the Podolsky brothers has attracted scrutiny because of the sellers’ past, their political connections and the price tag itself. A late Monday document dump is poking even more holes in the official version of events.

According to 2,000 pages of documents subpoenaed by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Hall overvalued the buildings by $26 million using faulty rent assumptions, the New York Post reported.

To continue reading click here.

DeBlasio’s Record Shows Anything But a Crackdown

Hillside House at 87-40 165th Street in Jamaica, NY. Dennis A. Clark

Notorious Queens landlord has paid a fraction of $4M in fines

If Mayor de Blasio wants to make good on his vow to protect New Yorkers from slumlords, he can start at this Queens hellhole.

City inspectors have slapped 87-40 165th St. and its landlord, Eric Silverstein, with more than 1,000 violations worth nearly $4  million in fines since de Blasio took office in 2014, but have only moved to collect $138,600 from him, public records show.

“Once those violations are recorded, there is a disconnect on following up,” said Nelson Yeung, a lawyer representing tenants in a suit against Silverstein. “There’s no one to make sure these violations are fixed.”

With the city’s light touch giving Silverstein — No. 1 on the public advocate’s 2018 list of the city’s worst private landlords — little incentive to make repairs, tenants say they continue to languish among vermin infestations, leaky windows and rampant mold.

“I’m ashamed to have people over,” said Stella, a nurse and fifth-floor resident who requested that her last name be withheld.

Among the squalid living conditions Stella has to endure in the six-story, 118-unit Jamaica building are a nagging roach problem, leaks in the kitchen and a broken mailbox that forces her to pick up her mail at the post office.

“The city should hold people accountable,” said Stella — and de Blasio claims to agree.

“We’ll fine the landlords. We’ll penalize the landlords,” Hizzoner pledged in his State of the City address last week. “But if the fines and the penalties don’t cut it, we will seize their buildings.”

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development has had no trouble finding problems, hitting the building with 1,104 violations since 2014, records show. But only 797 of the violations have been remediated as of Thursday, as the department has dragged its feet on hauling Silverstein into court.

Even the $138,600 that has been levied isn’t technically part of the fines, but a fee for the building’s compulsory enrollment in the Alternative Enforcement Program, records show.

The department has insisted that it is “aggressively using every available tool to . . . secure needed relief for residents.”

City Hall agreed, saying, “This administration is committed to using every tool available — and creating new ones — to protect tenants across the city.”

But Hizzoner’s record shows anything but a crackdown.

A recent New York Times investigation found that the department went easy on Manhattan slumlords, settling two-thirds of the 126 cases it brought for just a fraction of the penalties it could have collected.

And a front-page Post story earlier this month revealed a similar pattern of neglect at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field Apartments.

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deBlasio, What About “Substantially Similar” Education?

 

NYC mayor denies he’s been soft on ultra-Orthodox schools

New York mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back against criticisms that he has been soft on ultra-Orthodox schools that have illegally declined to offer their students secular studies.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, de Blasio said that city officials had “engaged in a dialogue with a number of schools” that was “very productive.” Likely responding to recent harsh editorials in New York’s tabloid press, the mayor asserted that the media was looking for “instant gratification.”

The city launched a probe into its yeshiva system in 2015 following a complaint by the Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED) activist group. The group asserted that 39 Orthodox institutions were failing to meet standards set by state law requiring private schools to offer a curriculum “substantially equivalent” to that of the public system.

Last week, after three years of work, New York City schools chancellor Richard A. Carranza issued a report stating that 15 out of the 30 yeshivas under investigation did not allow inspectors to enter even though the Department of Education “has made repeated attempts to gain access to the schools.”

In response, YAFFED founder Naftuli Moster told the New York Times that it was “disappointing, but not surprising.”

“Reading between the lines, it’s hard not to conclude there is both a lack of secular instruction going on in these schools and that these schools believe they are above the law,” said Moster.

In a scathing editorial late last month, the New York Post accused de Blasio of running a “phony probe.”

“Students leave the schools deprived of the basic skills they’ll need in a secular world,” read an editorial. “If City Hall truly wanted to make sure these kids are getting a proper education, it would’ve finished the probe long ago. Alas, Hizzoner’s more interested in pleasing the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox community, which resists scrutiny of its yeshivas and asserts its religious-freedom rights.”

The New York Daily News ran a similar editorial this month in which it it described the investigation as a “shonda” — Yiddish for scandal.

“There’s two sides to every story,” de Blasio told reporters. “We have 15 schools where we went in, a lot of work was done, clearly there was room for improvement but I have to be straightforward and say there’s room for improvement in a lot of traditional schools, too.”

To read the article in its entirety click here.

Half of Borough Park has Moved to Rockland or Lakewood-FOR THIS ELECTION!

EITHER THAT OR YOUR RUNNING OF NYC REFLECTS MONUMENTAL INCOMPETENCE!

LostMessiah, April 20, 2016

Rockland County residents have been claiming foul regarding voting and rolls’ numbers for years. They have reported “busloads full of people” being carted to Rockland from communities like Borough Park, mere hours before the polls close. Whispers within the ultra-Orthodox community claim that the community leaders have voting down to a science and have made manipulating the voting registries an art form. Members of the non-Orthodox community in both Rockland and Orange counties have claimed  foul and duplicate voting, both in Brooklyn and in Rockland County, allegedly made easy by a lack of identification required to cast a vote, the ability to be “inactive” and the failure of the City of New York to update its voter registration roles.

We have been told by numerous sources, that the ease with which voters can cast votes both in Brooklyn and in Rockland and Orange Counties is further solidified by the closeness of names, family names, spelling, addresses, etc. etc. One poll watcher told us, however lacking in eloquence the statement may have been, “They all look the same. They could tell us they are Joe Shmo and we would not know the difference. We need to check the signatures and if they look the same, we do not have any reason to prevent someone from voting.”

Mayor de Blasio’s comment: “I admit that Brooklyn has had a lot of transient population – that’s obvious. Lot of people moving in, lot of people moving out. That might account for some of it. But I’m confused since so many people have moved in, that the number would move that much in the negative direction.”  supports the position in both directions, into and out of Brooklyn. With a transient population it is hard to keep track. Without a legal and impervious system of checking identification, “confusion” creates holes which simply opens the door for voting fraud.

We wonder whether the next time Dov Hikind is up for re-election if those same roles will increase, rather than decrease. See additional comment below in red.

 

WNYC News Reports:

April 19, 2016

De Blasio Demands Explanation, as Decline in Registered Brooklyn Democrats Doubles

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.”

Show Me The…$$$$$ and in return?

 

 

Mayor di Blasio, Mr. Banks, how many backs did you scratch?…

LostMessiah, April 11, 2016

While Mayor de Blasio has told Chuck Todd of Meet the Press that he did not know an investigation was occurring around him [monumental incompetence if true]; and while he has today announced that he barely knew Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg [nothing further from the truth], the Daily News is reporting that there were “big bucks” changing hands. We are guessing those bucks do not include diamonds and other “perks” of the job. We are further guessing that those big bucks went from the bottom of the food chain to the top and we are just waiting to see how exactly Governor Cuomo fits in. 

 

 

The New York Daily News, April 11, 2016

Ex-NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks was paid big bucks by businessman being investigated by feds 

Former NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks was paid between $250,000 and $500,000 by a businessman at the center of the federal investigation now ensnaring police headquarters and City Hall, records show.

In his financial disclosure forms filed with the city, Banks says he earned the money from unspecified investments in JRS Capital, Inc.

The firm is owned by Jona Rechnitz, one of two businessmen with ties to the hasidic Jewish community who are believed to have given gifts to him and other police officials.

In addition to the JRS Capital Income, Banks earned another $250,000 to $499,999 from BBYZ Promotions, which is income from tutoring cops on the promotions exam. The firm was called Fast Track.”

For the full article click, here.

 

*** BREAKING ***

 

The New York Business Journal, April 11, 2016

Report: Ex-NYPD chief got $500,000 from developer

More information has surfaced regarding a corruption probe into the New York Police Department, centering on Philip Banks and the owner of a Manhattan real estate firm.

Banks, the former NYPD Chief of Department, received up to $500,000 from Jona Rechnitz, who heads up JSR Capital, according to a report today in DNAinfo. The firm apparently made an “investments” payout to Banks in 2014 — just before the would-be First Deputy Commissioner chose to leave the department under odd circumstances.

At the time, Banks was serving as the highest-ranking uniformed officer in charge of the NYPD’s daily operations. But a series of money transfers, according to DNAinfo, propelled an investigation forward on the grounds that it was a ” pay-for-favors scandal.”

Banks reported the money he received on his “exit” financial disclosure form filed with the city’s Conflict of Interest Board (COIB) on Nov. 30, 2014. On the form is his $200,000-a-year NYPD salary and a disclosed “income” from JSR Capital. He also reported making an additional “$250,000 to $500,000” another year while working for a tutorial company that coached police officers taking advancement exams.

Banks’ attorney Ben Brafman has said Banks did not retire because because of a criminal investigation, maintaining that all of the money he received was lawful income.

Here’s a list of who’s involved in the investigation:

• Rechnitz, who owns several high-value Manhattan properties.
• Jeremy Reichberg, a business associate of Rechnitz; both are large donors to Mayor Bill de Blasio and are on the mayor’s “Inauguration Committee.”
• Norman Seabrook, head of the correction officers union and an early de Blasio supporter, who went on numerous trips (Dominican Republic and Israel) with Banks, Rechnitz and Reichberg in 2014.

DNAinfo reports the the FBI got “a vague corruption tip” involving Banks in 2014 because of a “strange pattern” of money transfers that may have been structured to avoid triggering $10,000 thresholds that would require disclosure.

The FBI later determined that the transfers stemmed from rental properties Banks owned and that it was not a federal crime

To read full article click, here.