SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

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While Carl Kruger has requested to be locked up in Otisville, a prison serving kosher meals and known as a haven for white collar criminals, the bag man responsible for funneling nearly $200,000 to the pol is getting his sentence slashed on account of his obesity.

Solomon Kalish was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday, half the standard for his deeds. The judge said his weight-related health problems was the deciding factor.

“I’m very mindful of Mr. Kalish’s health problems, and that in and of itself warrants a non-guidelines sentence,” said Judge Jed Rakoff, according to the New York Post.

Kalish, 62, weighs 270 pounds and suffers from diabetes and coronary-artery disease. He had open-heart surgery last year.

Kalish’s role in the bribery scheme that led to the conviction of Kruger, hospital execs, and a prominent lobbyist among others was that of the bag man. He brought $197,000 from the hospital execs to Kruger in exchange for favorable deals with Albany and a job for Kalish’s son in Kruger’s office.

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A lawsuit brought by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade against the city for its plan to create a new class of “outerborough” taxicabs was amended on Friday, adding City Councilman Lew Fidler as a plaintiff in the case.

The trade association, which represents the owners of nearly 4,000 taxicabs, has also requested a preliminary injunction to prevent the city from issuing the new medallions before the court decides on whether or not the plan – known as the HAIL Law – is unconstitutional and in violation of the city’s agreement with existing medallion owners.

“I have been against the plan to provide outer borough taxi service from the start, as it is a ‘solution in search of a problem,” Fidler states in his affidavit. “In my 10 years as a City Council member, I have never gotten a call asking me why a citizen can’t hail a cab on the streets of Marine Park.”

The affidavit goes on: “I am a Plaintiff in this action, however, not merely because the HAIL Law is a bad policy, but because the HAIL Law is unconstitutional. The HAIL Law violates New York City’s right to Home Rule. Most fundamentally, it interferes with the City of New York’s right to regulate taxicabs and liveries and the City Council’s right to decide when to issue new medallions. Instead, the State Legislature has set regulations for livery cabs and has transferred the right to issue new taxicab medallions to the Mayor.”

According to a press release from the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, their legal challenge rests on the following arguments:

• The bypassing of the “home rule message” that has been provided by the New York City Council for every other taxi medallion bill but was ignored for reasons of political expediency.
• Further relinquishment of traditional and constitutionally protected City Council powers to the Mayor with regard to the issuance and regulation of medallions.
• The violation of the “exclusive privileges and immunities” clause which is meant to, among other things, prevent one exclusive group of people from unfairly benefiting financially from a City issued asset – in this case livery hail permits.

Former State Senator Carl Kruger was sentenced to seven years behind bars for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. His “intimate associate,” Michael Turano of Mill Basin, who benefited from the bribes and helped launder the money through shell companies under his control, was sentenced to two years.

Below is the press release from the District Attorney’s office:

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that New York State Senator CARL KRUGER was sentenced today to seven years in prison for engaging in bribery schemes in which he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for taking official actions. As part of the schemes, the corrupt payments intended for KRUGER were directed to bank accounts controlled by MICHAEL TURANO, a Manhattan-based gynecologist, who was sentenced today to two years in prison for his role in the schemes. KRUGER and TURANO were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “Today’s sentencing of Carl Kruger and Michael Turano takes us one step closer to closing this sorry chapter in the continuing story of public corruption in New York State and City government. And the moral is that when elected officials violate their oaths of office and betray their constituents by putting personal interests and enrichment above their duty as public servants, they will be brought to justice.”

According to the Indictment, other documents filed in the case, and statements made during plea proceedings,

From 1994 to 2011, KRUGER served as a member of the New York State Senate, representing Bergen Beach, Flatlands, Mill Basin and other Brooklyn communities in the 27th Senate District. From 2009 to the beginning of 2011, he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. KRUGER had a close relationship with TURANO and was effectively a member of his family.

From 2007 through March 2011, lobbyist Richard Lipsky directed approximately $260,000 of his lobbying fees to Olympian Strategic Development Corporation and Bassett Brokerage, two entities controlled by TURANO. In exchange for the payments made to Olympian and Bassett, KRUGER undertook official action to benefit Lipsky and his lobbying clients. Further, from 2007 through March 2011, healthcare consultant Solomon Kalish directed approximately $197,000 to Olympian that had been paid to Adex by third parties, including Robert Aquino, the Chief Executive Officer of Parkway Hospital in Queens, New York, through his marketing/consulting firm, Adex Management, Inc. Aquino caused the hospital to make $60,000 in payments to Adex. In exchange for the payments made to Adex, KRUGER undertook official action to benefit Kalish, Adex, and the third parties paying Adex.

At his plea proceeding, KRUGER admitted that from 2007 through March 2011, he agreed to undertake action, in connection with his official position as a member of the New York State Senate, to benefit Lipsky, Kalish, Aquino, and TURANO, in exchange for payments that he directed to Olympian, Bassett, Adex, and the individuals who had an interest in those entities.

TURANO admitted that from late 2007 through February 2011, his consulting business received payments from Lipsky, Kalish, Aquino and associated entities knowing that the money was paid, in part, in exchange for KRUGER taking acts in his official capacity as a member of the New York Senate to benefit those individuals and entities.

In addition to their prison terms, KRUGER, 62, of Brooklyn, New York, and TURANO, 50, of Brooklyn, New York, were each sentenced by Judge Rakoff to two years of supervised release, and each ordered to forfeit $223,534.

KRUGER and TURANO were initially charged on March 10, 2011, along with six others, including Lipsky, Kalish, Aquino, David Rosen, the former CEO of MediSys Health Network, real estate developer Aaron Malinsky, and New York State Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr.

Rosen, 64, of Harrison, New York, was convicted at a bench trial on September 12, 2011 for his involvement in schemes to bribe KRUGER, former New York State Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, and Boyland. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 7, 2012 at 3:30 p.m.

Aquino, 55, of Glen Head, New York, pled guilty on January 3, 2012 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1, 2012 at 4:00 p.m.

Lipsky, 65, of New York, New York, pled guilty on January 4, 2012 and is awaiting sentencing.

Kalish, 61, of Rockville Centre, New York, pled guilty on January 18, 2012 and is scheduled to sentenced on May 22, 2012 at 4:00 p.m.

Boyland, 41, of Brooklyn, New York, was acquitted by a jury on November 10, 2011.

The Government entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with Malinsky, 63, of New York, New York, on November 22, 2011.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Source: mikealex/Flickr

The city’s plan to roll out a new class of taxi to serve neighborhoods in Brooklyn, northern Manhattan and other areas poorly served by yellow cabs, is now heading to court, courtesy of a lawsuit filed by a lobbying group representing the largest yellow medallion taxi fleets.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in New York State Supreme Court by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, claims that the outerborough street hail livery plan, passed into law by Albany legislators in Feburary, violates the rights of medallion owners who paid for exclusive rights to pick up street hails in New York City.

The proposal would create a new class of taxi medallion for up to 18,000 livery drivers, giving them the right to pick up street hails in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and northern Manhattan – areas previously underserved by yellow cabs that clog the city’s financial and tourist areas. It also permits the city to issue 2,000 new yellow taxi medallions.

The privileges for livery cabs will unfairly reward a culture of bad behavior from livery cabbies who “poach” street hails from yellow cabs, the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade claims, and will hurt the livelihood of yellow cab owners who will now have to compete with the new livery class as well as 2,000 new yellow cabs.

“The street hail livery rules are unconstitutional, irresponsible and unconscionable,” said Ron Sherman, president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade. “How can the City of New York sell medallions to thousands of individual owner-drivers and small businesses, promising them the exclusive right to pick up street hails, only to take that right away in one destructive piece of legislation?”

The group is also claiming that the process in which the legislation was enacted was unconstitutional, violating a “Home Rule” procedure, in which legislation affecting only one locality can only be passed in the state legislature once the local legislative body has given its stamp of approval. There was no City Council vote on the issuance of new medallions, and no public hearing.

“How can the City do this without a single public hearing, without the authorization of the City Council, and without a single economic study on its effects on this industry comprised mostly of immigrants who have pursued the American dream by working hard, saving their earnings and playing by the rules?” Sherman asked.

What do you think? Is this legislation that will hurt the business of yellow cab drivers? Or will the bill provide service for areas where the yellow cabs were not serving anyway?

The mosque in February. (Photo by nolastname)

A letter from Borough President Marty Markowitz – dated January 4, 2012 – has surfaced, indicating his office may be sympathetic to Bay People’s zoning challenges against the Sheepshead Bay Islamic Center, a.k.a. the Voorhies Avenue mosque at 2812 Voorhies Avenue.

Keep reading for context, and view the letter.

The victim of February’s false arrest, in which an officer allegedly lied saying the man attempted to run him over with his car, confronted Deputy Inspector Georgios Mastrokostas, commander of the 61st Precinct, last week demanding to know if the precinct can be trusted in the future.

John Hockenjos took to the floor of the 61st Precinct Community Council to face the precinct’s commanding officer, expressing shock about the incident and stating that he fears relying on the city police in the future.

The erroneous charges, which were dropped by the district attorney, could have put Hockenjos in prison for seven years. His wife still faces 15 days, and charges against her have not yet been dropped.

“I was facing, if convicted, seven years in prison, losing my livelihood, losing my property, losing everything I had, my finances and my freedom. Two officers planted themselves in my driveway. I could not even move my car,” a visibly distressed Hockenjos told Mastrokostas. “I want to know: is this a culture in the 6-1?”

Hockenjos added that the allegedly false charges weren’t the only thing that went wrong that evening. He said the police officers refused to tell him why he was being arrested until after he was held at the precinct. In previous instances in which they called police regarding their two-year feud with a neighbor over property, they said the officers refused to take a report, including in one case where his wife was assaulted.

The experience has caused him to distrust the local precinct, already dissuading him from calling 911 for vandalism and alleged gang activity on his property.

“I feel unprotected. I’m now afraid to call 911 … I’m afraid for my life,” Hockenjos said. “I can’t protect myself, commander. I can’t do it. All I can do is take pictures.”

On February 5, the 55-year-old East 23rd Street resident was arrested and charged with first and second degree reckless endangerment and reckless driving after police at the scene claimed he attempted to run them over with his car as they stood in his driveway.

The charges were dropped days later after Hockenjos revealed surveillance video suggesting the officer fabricated his report, which stated that Hockenjos drove into his driveway “at a high rate of speed,” which forced Officer Diego Palacios “to jump out of the way to avoid being hit” by the four-door sedan. The video showed Hockenjos slowly pulling into the driveway and stopping several feet before the police officers – who didn’t budge.

Diego Palacios and another officer are currently under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau, have been relocated to a different precinct and are no longer on patrol, Sheepshead Bites is told.

Mastrokostas nor Hockenjos declined to discuss specifics of the case. Mastrokostas cannot comment on ongoing investigations, and Hockenjos has been advised by his lawyer to keep mum until the court matters are settled.

Still, Mastrokostas noted that he expects the most of his officers, and that Hockenjos and other members of the community shouldn’t hesitate to report crimes in the area.

“As far as the officers in the 6-1, I expect them to behave with the utmost professional attitude. We’re here to do a job – protect the community that we work in,” Mastrokostas said. “You shouldn’t feel hesitant about calling the police department. If the police respond and you feel they’ve acted inappropriately or did something wrong, I encourage you to call [Civilian Complaint Review Board] or the Internal Affairs Unit. It’s as easy as calling 311.”

An example of the graffiti left near the Hockenjos' home.

A Sheepshead Bay man accused of attempting to run over a cop had the charges against him tossed last week, after surveillance video suggested the arresting officer may have fabricated the incident.

The Daily News reports:

Felony charges against John Hockenjos, 55, accused of driving at a “high rate of speed,” causing the officer “to jump out of the way,” were thrown out after a surveillance tape showed the Brooklyn man slowly pulling into his driveway and the cop not even flinching.

“I was very worried. These were very serious charges against me,” the MTA engineer said after his ordeal ended. “I was facing seven years in prison.”

Officer Diego Palacios made the allegation Feb. 5 after responding to a call by Hockenjos’s neighbor.

… “The people are moving to dismiss for lack of evidence and in the interest of justice,” prosecutor Danit Almog said in Brooklyn Criminal Court Thursday morning.

“There’s a larger issue here,” said Hockenjos’ lawyer Craig Newman. “You have a police officer who doesn’t have the right temperament or judgment to be wearing a badge who’s still out there.”

The NYPD has confirmed that the Internal Affairs Bureau is looking into the matter.

Meanwhile, the Hockenjos’ told Sheepshead Bites that they feel unsafe and unprotected, afraid to call police in the case of an incident. When a vandal left graffiti on their home in late February that they interpreted as threatening in light of their ongoing feud with a neighbor, they told us they could not rely on the police to provide help.

The following a press release issued by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office:

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Janice K. Fedarcyk, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Raymond W. Kelly, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”), announced today the unsealing of charges against 36 defendants involved in a systematic scheme to defraud private insurance companies of more than $279 million under New York’s no-fault automobile insurance law.  The Indictment includes racketeering charges against eight members and associates of a criminal organization consisting primarily of individuals of Russian descent who were the owners and controllers of fraudulent medical clinics (the “No Fault Organization”),  as well as 10 licensed doctors and three attorneys.   The alleged scheme identified today is the largest single no-fault automobile insurance fraud ever charged, and the first case of its kind to allege violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”).

All of the defendants were arrested this morning in connection with today’s charges.  Thirty-five were taken into custody in New York and New Jersey and will be presented and arraigned in Manhattan federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz later this afternoon.   One defendant was arrested in Duluth, Minnesota, and will be presented tomorrow in federal court in the District of Minnesota.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Today’s charges expose a colossal criminal trifecta, as the fraud’s tentacles simultaneously reached into the medical system, the legal system, and the insurance system, pulling out cash to fund the defendants’ lavish lifestyles. As alleged, the scheme relied on a cadre of corrupt doctors who essentially peddled their medical licenses like a corner fraudster might sell fake ID’s, except those medical licenses allowed unlawful entry, not to a club or a bar, but to a multi-billion dollar pool of insurance proceeds.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said: “Our investigation uncovered a pattern of lucrative fraud exploiting New York’s no-fault auto insurance system to the tune of more than a quarter of a billion dollars. The criminal enterprise, while it lasted, was obscenely profitable. The scheme not only unjustly enriched the defendants and defrauded insurance companies. Auto insurance fraud is also a crime that indirectly victimizes every driver in New York.”

NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said: “Our undercover officers were treated like thousands of other ‘patients’ receiving therapy, tests, and medical equipment they didn’t need. I want to congratulate the U.S. Attorney’s office and the agents and detectives assigned to the joint FBI-NYPD Organized Crime Task Force for bringing this investigation to a successful conclusion.”

The following allegations are based on the unsealed Indictment and other documents filed today in Manhattan federal court:

Under New York State Law, every vehicle registered in the State is required to have nofault automobile insurance, which enables the driver and passengers of a registered and insured vehicle to obtain benefits of up to $50,000 per person for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, regardless of fault (the “No Fault Law”). The No Fault Law requires prompt payment for medical treatment, thereby obviating the need for claimants to file personal injury lawsuits in order to be reimbursed. Under the No-Fault Law, patients can assign their right to reimbursement from an insurance company to others, including medical clinics that provide treatment for their injuries. New York State Law also requires that all medical clinics in the State be incorporated, owned, operated, and/or controlled by a licensed medical practitioner in order to be eligible for reimbursement under the No-Fault Law. Insurance companies will not honor claims for medical treatments from a medical clinic that is not actually owned, operated, and controlled by a licensed medical practitioner.

From at least 2007 through 2012, the No-Fault Organization has engaged in a massive and sophisticated scheme to defraud automobile insurance companies of hundreds of millions of dollars by, among other things, creating and operating medical clinics that provided unnecessary and excessive medical treatments in order to take advantage of the No-Fault Law. In order to mislead New York authorities and private insurers, the true owners of these medical clinics (“Clinic Controllers”), almost all of whom were also members and associates of a criminal organization consisting primarily of individuals of Russian descent, paid licensed medical practitioners, including doctors, to use their licenses to incorporate the professional corporations, through which the medical clinics billed the private insurers for the bogus medical treatments. These doctors effectively operated as “straw owners” of the clinics.

The Clinic Controllers paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to runners who recruited automobile accident passengers to receive medically unnecessary treatments from the no-fault clinics. They also instructed the clinic doctors/straw owners to prescribe excessive and unwarranted referrals for various “modality treatments” for every patient they saw. The treatments included physical therapy, acupuncture, and chiropractic treatments – as many as five times per week for each – and treatments for psychology, neurology, orthopedics, and audiology. Clinic doctors also prescribed unnecessary MRI’s, x-rays, orthopedics, and medical supplies. The Clinic Controllers received thousands of dollars in kickbacks for patient referrals from the owners of the modality clinics (“Modality Controllers”), who were members and associates of the same criminal organization to which the members of the No Fault Organization and Clinic Controllers belonged.

The Clinic Controllers also referred patients to personal injury lawyers who filed bogus lawsuits on behalf of the patients and coached them on what injuries to claim in order to get as many treatments as possible. The personal injury lawyers also paid the Clinic Controllers thousands of dollars in kickbacks for these referrals.

In order to conceal and disguise the millions of dollars in claims paid by the automobile insurance companies, the members of the No-Fault Organization laundered the money through shell companies and corrupt check-cashing services. Often, checks would be written from the No-Fault or Modality Clinics with the payee line left blank, and in amounts less than $10,000 in order to avoid potential financial institution reporting requirements and other scrutiny. The checks were then cashed through check-cashers who made the checks payable to shell companies they controlled in order to conceal the true nature and purpose of the checks. The cash was then returned to members of the No-Fault Organization to fund kickbacks and for their personal use. At other times, the members and associates of the No-Fault Organization paid themselves through their own shell companies and then used the criminal proceeds to fund expensive vacations and to purchase luxury goods.

Just under a month ago, Maksim Gelman was sentenced to 200 years by a Brooklyn judge for the four stabbing deaths during his 28-hour rampage. Now a Manhattan judge has tacked on 25 more years for the non-lethal slashing in Manhattan – his last victim before being locked up.

Before his sentencing, though, Joseph Lozito – the man he stabbed, but who also fought back and eventually subdued Gelman – took the opportunity to get a little psychological payback for his victims.

The New York Post reports:

“When you attacked me, you went down real easy,” Lozito said, setting off an exchange of insults between the two men.

“You didn’t take me down, you jerk—,” Gelman roared back.

“What you have, ladies and gentlemen, the funniest Russian since Yakov Smirnoff,” Lozito shot back in response to the hulking Gelman’s outburst.

The trash-talking came as the crazed killer replayed the vile rants that highlighted his earlier sentencing, when he berated the boyfriend of a young woman he killed and bellowed at a Brooklyn judge to “suck my Russian d—.”

“F—ing moron! Jerk—!” Gelman yelled at Lozito.

… Lozito, whose head is massively scarred from the knife attack, named each of Gelman’s victims, telling the madman to “just think about the lives that you changed.”

“They’ll never get to walk the face of the Earth because you’re a spoiled little boy,” Lozito said. “Instead of taking your ball and going home, you threw a tantrum.

“I hope you rot in your cell,” he continued. “You have hell to look forward to, so enjoy it.”

At least one officer from the 61st Precinct may be under investigation after surveillance video shed doubt on his arrest of a Sheepshead Bay resident for allegedly trying to run him over.

Three days after he was locked up, John Hockenjos, a 55-year-old East 23rd Street resident, was released on bail last week and his lawyer said his client was falsely arrested and has videotaped evidence of the altercation to prove it.

Hockenjos’ attorney, Craig Newman, told Sheepshead Bites that he had turned copies of the tape over to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, as well as the NYPD Internal Affairs unit.

While many Brooklynites were getting ready to watch the Super Bowl on February 5, Hockenjos, who is employed by the MTA, was arrested and charged with first and second degree reckless endangerment and reckless driving after police at the scene claimed he attempted to run them over with his car as they stood in his driveway.

The sworn criminal complaint states that Hockenjos drove into his driveway “at a high rate of speed,” which forced Officer Diego Palacios “to jump out of the way to avoid being hit” by the four-door sedan.

The problem is surveillance video from Hockenjos’ home suggests Hockenjos did no such thing.

The video shows Hockenjos slowly pulling into the driveway and stopping several feet away from the officers. Hockenjos and his wife get out of the car to talk to the police. The officer did not budge, as he had claimed.

In the full video, not shown above, Hockenjos begins to unpack his car when another police car shows up. Officers eventually handcuff Hockenjos, though no indication of aggression or reckless driving is seen on the tape.

“In my 20 years of legal experience, I’ve never seem more crystal clear evidence of a false arrest.” Newman told the Daily News.

The police were originally summoned by neighbor Argo Paumere, with whom the Hockenjos’ have had an ongoing property dispute. The police are seen talking with Paumere when the Hockenjoses arrived.

Hockenjos and his wife, Irena, 51, have lived in their house for 14 years, but trouble started two years ago when Argo Paumere moved next door. According to Newman, Hockenjos’ driveway includes a two-foot easement that has become an ongoing feud between the homeowners.

Newman said Paumere has wanted to build a larger house since he moved in and has repeatedly asked Hockenjos to give up the small section of driveway. Hockenjos has refused and the lawyer said it has resulted in numerous calls to the 61st Precinct and his client being “dragged into court numerous times,” stemming from several harassment complaints filed by Paumere.

“But each case has been dismissed,” Newman said, so the dispute persists.

Newman declined to allow Sheepshead Bites to interview the couple citing the “pending criminal matter.”

Hockenjos faces seven years in prison if the charges are not dismissed. Newman said the next court appearance is scheduled for August, but the District Attorney’s office could bring the case back to court sooner if they decide to dismiss it after analyzing the videotape.