David Greenfield – a Political Whore Who’s Vertical Not Horizontal…

Councilman David Greenfield and the influence he wields to the benefit of New York’s District 44.

As chairman of the powerful Committee on Land Use, Greenfield will have a large say in the implementation of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious plan to build 200,000 affordable housing units in the five boroughs.

“The Land Use Committee has always been an important committee, but with the mayor’s affordable housing plan coming, the committee will be much more important,” Greenfield told the Brooklyn Eagle in a recent interview in a kosher pizzeria across the street from his office.

The mayor’s plan calls for the rezoning of several neighborhoods in order to accommodate the new construction. That’s where Greenfield’s committee comes in. No rezoning plan will pass without the Land Use Committee’s approval.

East New York is the first neighborhood that will be rezoned.

The Brooklyn Eagle: In Public Service: Greenfield Committee at Center of housing debate

In 2014, Greenfield was quoted as saying, ““Borough Park is suffering from a housing crisis. We need to try every possible avenue to build more housing,” explained Councilman David Greenfield. “The reality is that Borough Park is full. The solution is to expand Borough Park’s natural borders, and that is exactly what this plan will do.”

– See more at: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/268118/greenfield-supports-bold-plan-to-build-housing-over-borough-park-rail-yards.html#sthash.o54yAWZP.dpuf.

Please remember, District 44 recently voted in money to be used to 3 of 4 projects which aid in ultra-Orthodox members of the community, the fourth being the paving of streets, a no-brainer.

 

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Council Members
District 44
District Map
Participatory Budgeting
Contact Council Member Greenfield
Contact Information
District Office Address
4424 16th Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11204
District Office Phone
718-853-2704
District Office Fax
718-853-3858
Legislative Office Address
250 Broadway 17th Floor New York, NY 10007
Legislative Office Phone
718-853-2704
Legislative Office Fax
718-853-3858
Email
David G. Greenfield
David G. Greenfield
DAVID G. GREENFIELD
District 44 – Council Member – Democrat
Chair – Committee on Land Use
Entered City Council: 03/25/10
Represents: Borough Park, Midwood and Bensonhurst
Background Information

David G. Greenfield was elected to the New York City Council in a special election on March 23, 2010 and overwhelmingly reelected in November 2010 and November 2013 In all three races, he won a majority of votes in each neighborhood of the 44th council district including Midwood, Borough Park and Bensonhurst.

David chairs the Council’s influential Committee on Land Use which oversees the Department of City Planning, the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. As part of its portfolio, the committee reviews and must approve all applications for zoning changes across New York’s five boroughs. As Land Use chair, David oversaw the rezoning of the Domino Sugar factory in Brooklyn, Astoria Cove in Queens and One Vanderbilt in Manhattan — a historic deal which included $230 million in transportation improvements by the developer to Grand Central Terminal. David also serves as a member of the Speaker’s leadership team and the Council’s budget negotiating team, which is responsible for negotiating New York City’s $78.5 billion budget with the Mayor’s office.

David is an experienced attorney, education advocate and land use expert, who has long devoted himself to making New York City safer and more affordable while improving its quality of life. In 2012, Greenfield’s law ended the city’s frustrating practice of placing one million impossible-to-remove neon stickers on car windows each year to enforce alternate side parking regulations. In 2013, Greenfield passed a law allowing for prepayment of muni-meters and turning off muni-meters when parking rules are not in effect or when a meter runs out of receipt paper. In 2014, Greenfield led the fight for Vision Zero and street safety by legislating new neighborhood slow zones and authoring the law that lowered the speed limit to 25 miles per hour on local streets, significantly reducing pedestrian deaths in New York City. Meanwhile, in the city’s annual budget process, David is a tireless advocate for senior servies and education funding and has secured nearly $28 million to renovate every single park in his district. In 2015, Greenfield’s NYC Cleanup initiative was the most popular Council initiative, providing $5.3 million to all 51 council districts to clean local sidewalks and streets.

David is widely known for his honesty and integrity. His reputation for “telling it like it is” has made his perspective sought after by news media around the world. Even before he was elected, David was featured as a political analyst on diverse news outlets including Fox News and the New York Times. He is frequently quoted in national and international newspapers and is a regular political analyst on American, Israeli and Russian radio. David hosts his own popular weekly radio show on 620AM every Thursday night at 7pm.

Before his election, David was Executive Vice President of the Sephardic Community Federation, the umbrella government relations and public policy organization of the Sephardic Jewish community, where he worked closely with public officials at every level of government to improve the lives of all New Yorkers. He was also the founding Director and Counsel of TEACH NYS, advocating on behalf of parents of New York State’s 500,000 Catholic, Jewish, and independent school-children. David’s successful strategy led to legislation that provides for $600 million in tax credits for parents of all school-age children. David was a member of the Mayor’s Non-Public School Standing Committee, where he spearheaded a three-year campaign that culminated in free tutoring services, valued at tens of millions of dollars each year, for thousands of New York City students.

Prior to his work at the Sephardic Community Federation and TEACH NYS, David served as Deputy Director of Finance to Senator Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign, Chief of Staff to NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind and a corporate lawyer at Rosenman & Colin LLP. David is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC and Touro College in New York City, where he graduated summa cum laude and was valedictorian.

David is a proud lifelong resident of Brooklyn where he happily lives with his wife and three small children.

The Street’s Take – A Platinum Investigation

Platinum Partners Hedge Fund Investigation Reportedly Widens

Platinum Partners is shutting down its $1.7 billion hedge fund after kickback allegations involving a longtime associate. Now the firm itself is reportedly under investigation.

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13650783/1/platinum-partners-hedge-fund-investigation-reportedly-widens.html

The Platinum Partners saga may have further twists in store.

The New York-based hedge fund has begun liquidating its funds, after the firm’s longtime associate Murray Huberfeld was accused last month of arranging for a $60,000 kickback to be delivered — in a Salvatore Ferragamo bag — to a correctional officers’ union official in exchange for directing the union’s retirement fund investments to Platinum.

 Now, Platinum and its chief investment officer, Mark Nordlicht, may face scrutiny as the probe widens, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Platinum’s woes began with the June 8 announcement of bribery charges against Huberfeld and Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City Correction Officers Benevolent Association.

Prosecutors say that Huberfeld, through an intermediary, arranged for the delivery of the kickback to Seabrook after the union official directed $20 million in union investments into the Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund. Huberfeld then arranged for the hedge fund to reimburse the intermediary for the kickback using a fraudulent invoice for the purchase of New York Knicks basketball tickets, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Both Seabrook and Huberfeld pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday.

 The fund itself had not been implicated in the criminal case against Huberfeld, whom prosecutors describe as a co-founder and manager at Platinum, claiming he was not listed on the firm’s registration documents to avoid scrutiny. Huberfeld has been previously fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Federal agents raided Platinum’s office in late June, after the charges were announced, as part of an investigation that’s reportedly separate from the bribery case. And there are other rumblings of wider fallout.

Platinum Partners Under Investigation… It’s About Time…

 

Fraud Probe Ricochets Through Platinum Partners, a Hedge Fund With Ties to Jewish Community

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fraud-investigation-ricochets-through-hedge-fund-known-for-ties-to-jewish-community-1469439181

For his son’s bar mitzvah in 2008, hedge-fund manager Murray Huberfeld chartered a JetBlue plane and invited hundreds to an oceanfront party in Palm Beach, Fla. An Orthodox pop star known as the “Jewish Elvis” entertained the guests, who Mr. Huberfeld says included investors in his fund. Intimate ties and fundraising inside a close-knit world of observant Jewish businesspeople in New York, Florida and Israel are central to the $1.25 billion hedge-fund firm Mr. Huberfeld has helped lead, Platinum Partners. Now those ties are being tested as two sets of federal prosecutors as well as securities regulators delve into Platinum’s operations. In early June, Mr. Huberfeld was arrested in connection with an alleged scheme to bribe a union leader to funnel $20 million to Platinum. Later in June, federal agents raided Platinum’s New York offices. An issue for investigators now, according to those familiar with their probe, isn’t just alleged bribery but the integrity of Platinum itself: It is also a fraud investigation. Platinum has recorded some of the most impressive numbers in the hedge-fund world, double-digit average annual returns for over a decade. Beginning around 2012, however, with some investors wanting their money back, Platinum began borrowing heavily. According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the firm, Platinum borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars, some of it at double-digit interest rates. In one instance, it paid interest to a lender part-owned by family-member trusts of Mr. Huberfeld and Mark Nordlicht, Platinum’s founder and chief investment officer. In June, Platinum suspended redemptions from its flagship fund and stopped giving performance updates. It moved to liquidate the fund and discussed plans to repay investors but didn’t commit to giving to them cash matching the full investment gains the firm has reported. Last week, Platinum said it would also liquidate the rest of the firm. Investigators now are looking into whether, before the suspension, Platinum had been paying some reported investment gains to exiting investors with money from incoming ones, according to people familiar with the probe. They also are scrutinizing the firm’s service providers, including auditors who certified its figures. Platinum has invested in exotic assets that can be hard to value, such as loans to struggling companies and annuities linked to ill patients’ lives. Among questions investigators seek to answer is whether Platinum misstated values of some holdings, the people familiar with the probe said. Platinum spokesman Montieth Illingworth defended the firm’s auditing and valuation methods and said it stands behind its performance record. On specific investigative points, he said, “It is incorrect to imply that past payouts to investors were specifically made with new allocations.” He also said money wasn’t borrowed to meet redemptions. “Past redemptions were paid out of cash gains from the positions we invested in,” Mr. Illingworth said. Platinum said it expects to begin repaying investors in 2017. A person close to the firm said it hopes eventually to pay back all $1.25 billion, or more, with further investment gains. Under investigation in addition to the firm is Mr. Nordlicht, said people familiar with the probe. The spokesman said they are cooperating with investigations. No one other than Mr. Huberfeld has been accused of wrongdoing. To read the article in its entirety click here.

Preet Bharara Comes to Westchester to get more R&R?

Preet Bharara expands corruption probe to Westchester

http://nypost.com/2016/07/25/preet-bharara-expands-corruption-probe-to-westchester/

US Attorney Preet Bharara’s corruption probe into the dealings of two shady businessmen and donors to Mayor de Blasio has expanded to Westchester County, The Post has learned.

Bharara has subpoenaed the offices of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino about dealings with de Blasio financial backers Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, who have been linked to recent city pay-to-play scandals.

FBI agents also recently quizzed politically wired cabby advocate Fernando Mateo, who introduced Rechnitz and Reichberg to Astorino, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.

Reichberg, a Brooklyn resident who had no known previous ties to Westchester County, was named a volunteer county police chaplain in June 2013.

A few days later, entities tied to his pal Rechnitz donated $25,000 to Astorino’s re-election campaign.

Preet Bharara

During a recent visit to Mateo’s Irvington home, the FBI grilled him about the businessmen’s ties to Astorino as well as de Blasio, according to a source familiar with the interrogation.

“The FBI agents wanted to know everything they could about the Astorino relationships with Rechnitz and Reichberg,” the source said.

Mateo, a Latino civil leader, supported Astorino’s re-election in 2013 and was appointed to the Westchester County Police Advisory Board.

Mateo also is in hot water after admitting to The Post that he secretly bundled campaign money to the de Blasio campaign through an unemployed Brooklyn woman.

Mateo declined to comment on the probe.

Astorino confirmed his office has been blitzed with subpoenas from Bharara’s office.

“Yes. Informational subpoenas were issued to the county executive, the county police, and the county itself, which is no surprise given the need to get all available background
in an investigation involving so many city figures,” said Astorino spokesman Bill O’Reilly.

“Everything requested was turned over in a timely manner, and we’re happy to be helpful in any way going forward.”

Astorino claims he has done nothing wrong.

But the fact that Bharara’s probers are snooping around Westchester is not welcome news to the pol.

Astorino was the Republican Party’s nominee for governor in 2014, losing to the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Cuomo. He is considering running for governor again in 2018.

Reichberg was indicted in an NYPD scandal, in which he allegedly provided cops cash, free trips and even a prostitute for a Super Bowl bash.

Rechnitz has become a government cooperator in the case that has ensnared and disgraced a growing number of top-ranking cops in what has become the worst corruption scandal to hit the department in decades. Four officers have already been charged.

To read the complete article click here.

 

Playing Taps… in Yiddish? In Spanish?

 

 

Ex-head of corrections union pleads not guilty to corruption charges

http://nypost.com/2016/07/22/ex-head-of-corrections-union-pleads-not-guilty-to-corruption-charges/

Norman Seabrook, the troubled ex-head of the NYC correction officers’ union, pleaded not guilty Friday to an alleged bribery scheme even as the government announced it has collected wiretaps in the corruption case in three languages: English, Spanish and even Yiddish.

“Absolutely not guilty, sir,” Seabrook told Manhattan federal Judge Andrew Carter. Seabrook’s alleged co-conspirator, hedge fund manager Murray Huberfeld, also pleaded not guilty Friday.

Seabrook, former president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, was arrested in June, along with Huberfeld, for allegedly directing union money to Huberfeld’s hedge fund, Platinum Partners, in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Norman Seabrook, former head of COBA.Photo: Brigitte Stelzer/New York Post

The men were indicted on two counts and face a maximum of 40 years in prison.

“We will be vindicated. God is good God,” a swaggering Seabrook told a throng of reporters and other spectators outside the Manhattan federal courthouse.

Minutes earlier, prosecutor Russell Capone told Carter that the government has collected wiretaps from four cellphones in English, Yiddish and Spanish — as well as thousands of emails from Seabrook, Huberfeld and other co-conspirators.

The government tapped the phones of Orthodox Jewish businessman Jeremy Reichberg and Spanish-speaking former restaurant owner Hamlet Peralta, both of whom were associates of Seabrook’s, sources said. The government also tapped the phone of Reichberg’s former pal, real estate investor Jona Rechnitz, who began cooperating with the government in multiple corruption probes this past spring, sources said.

To read the entire article click here.

Seabrook and Platinum and COBA and Kickbacks, FRAUD and Rechnitz and….

 

PLATINUM PARTNERS AND ITS FAMILY PRINCIPALS GETTING WEALTHY BY DIVERTING ASSETS- THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING FRAUD AND THE FINANCES INVOLVED…

Lost Messiah, July 21, 2016

Platinum Partners is in the process of liquidating one of its funds. We maintain that the company is insolvent and is in the process of bilking investors out of millions, an opinion based upon months of research. We maintain that hundreds of people have lost money – lifetime investments – in schemes like Black Elk and others. We maintain that the NYC scandal runs far deeper than event the most seasoned investigators imagine. We believe that the key to it all rests in understanding Fraud from its basest atomic elements – like the periodic table. Below you will find the New York Post Atricle referencing the liquidation. We begin, however, as follows:

Dear Bart M. Schwarts: 

You will need to do your research before you begin “overseeing a total investigtion” and verifying assets. They are not where you think they are. The numbers will likely look clean on the face. The men involved in Platinum Partners are not stupid now, nor were they in the past. Rather, they are savvy business men, players in a market where everything goes, able to justify their wealth because it was manna from heaven – mainly within the Chabad community. These men are not simply charitable philanthropists but rabidly aggressive opportunists. The money is going to be where you least expect to find it. 

Be mindful of the FRAUD TRIANGLE: 

 

Dear Readership:

There remains a story to be told about Platinum Partners, Black Elk, Oil Wells, Diamond Mines, “Event Driven Investments,” and more. It is long and detailed and has been promised to you. It will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, we can illustrate simply by following the money, the assets and the investments: Platinum Partners has assets which have been undoubtedly distributed to the principals: Murray Huberfeld, Mark Nordlicht, David Bodner, the trusts of both the Bodner family and the Huberfeld family, the wives of each of these men who are sisters, and many other parties.

There were a lot of victims of Platinum Partners.

Reichberg – Family Hiding Evidence and Lawyer Arguing Narrow Definition of Corruption…

 

Family of Businessmen in NYPD Probe Allegedly Tried to Hide Evidence

NEW YORK POST:

The government has collected a trove of evidence in their corruption case against two NYPD officers and their businessman pal, Jeremy Reichberg — including a box of electronic devices and business cards that one of Reichberg’s relatives tried to hide from the FBI, prosecutors said.

The day Reichberg was arrested, “one of Mr. Reichberg’s family members attempted to leave the house with a number of electronic devices,” Assistant US Attorney Martin Bell said at a hearing Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

The devices included thumb-drives, “seven or so smartphones,” and a stash of CDs and DVDs — all of which are now in the hands of the FBI, Bell told Judge Gregory Woods.

The family member, who was not identified, also attempted to run away with “paper evidence,” including Reichberg’s stash of business cards listing his NYPD and political contacts, Bell said.

Reichberg’s attorney Susan Necheles said she “heard this story” before but declined to elaborate. Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s office also declined further comment.

Reichberg was arrested in June along with cops Michael Harrington and James Grant, who allegedly doled out official favors, including police escorts and ticket fixing, to Reichberg and his real-estate investor pal Jona Rechnitz. In exchange, the businessmen peppered the officers with gifts, including trips to Las Vegas and Chicago, video games for Grant’s kids and other perks, prosecutors have said.

Bell said the government’s evidence includes months of wiretaps from Reichberg’s phone as well as the phone of a “co-conspirator,” who has been identified as Rechnitz. The founder of real-estate investor firm JSR Capital was not indicted with his former pals because he is cooperating with the government against them.

The FBI also obtained emails from the defendants via search warrants, Bell said.

A hearing was set for October 27th to allow the defendant’s lawyers to raise objections to the evidence and the case.

Necheles told the judge she expects “substantial and significant motions” poking holes in the government’s case — thanks to the US Supreme Court.

“The state of the law is totally in flux,” Necheles said, pointing to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling exonerating former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell of corruption.