SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Photo by Lenny Markh

The following is a press release from the offices of Councilman Lew Fidler:

City Councilman Lew Fidler is proud to announce that the City Council unanimously voted, at their Stated Meeting yesterday, to approve his bill requiring gas stations to clearly display, on roadside signs, all of the prices they charge – no matter if a customer uses cash or credit.

Under State law, gas stations are not allowed to charge extra when customers choose to pay by credit card rather than cash. Yet, throughout the City, gas stations have skirted this by instead offering a ‘cash discount.’ Even worse, the roadside signs used by these gas stations often displayed only the cash price. The higher price for credit card purchases, which most of their customers were likely paying, was generally left off the sign entirely. Only the word ‘cash,’ sometimes hidden in tiny letters, was there to warn drivers that they might end up paying more.

“This is a loophole the size of a truck,” said Councilman Fidler. “You can call this a legal fiction or a distinction without a difference, but either way, New Yorkers just call it absurd. By the time you park your car next to the pump it’s too late to be told what the actual price you’ll be paying is. Gas is too expensive already for us to allow gimmicks and tricks to make it cost even more. Drivers need to know what the price is when they’re driving by, so they can decide where to take their business. It’s basic transparency and it’s basic consumer protection.”

Councilman Fidler’s bill will now require that all gas stations in the City of New York display all of the gas prices they charge, on required roadside signs. Stations that charge the same price for all forms of payment would only have to display the one price, while those that differentiate prices would have to post every one of their different prices. The bill also requires that clear lettering and wording be used for these prices, so drivers with only a second to glance at the signs can easily read them.

“This bill will give drivers the information they need,” Fidler said. “And, with information comes power – the power to be an informed shopper and, hopefully, the power to create some small measure of price competition between gas stations. If gas stations want to offer discounts they still can – but it has to be done openly and without hiding the price that most of their customers will be paying.”

Councilman Fidler expressed his thanks to Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Dan Garodnick, Chairman of the Council’s Committee on Consumer Affairs, as well as to all of his Council colleagues for their support for his bill.

“Sometimes you get an opportunity to do something about a problem that just gnaws at the innards of New Yorkers. I know this was one of those for many of us and I am sure that we will be happier to see this bait and switch tactic vanish once and for all,” Councilman Fidler added.

The Mayor is expected to sign the bill next week, and it will take effect 120 days after being signed into law.

Source: Assemblyman Cymbrowitz’ Office

Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz co-sponsored a couple of bills designed to protect residents from shady insurers (A.2287) as well as require insurance companies to cut through the red tape when processing storm damage claims (A.1092), according to a press release sent out by his office.

Cymbrowitz wants to create a Homeowners Bill of Rights (A.2287), which would require insurers to provide those who own their own homes with easy-to-understand documents clearly stating what exactly their insurance covers, how and when to file a claim, and where to obtain coverage in the case of an emergency.

“It is imperative that homeowners know their rights and aren’t left out in the cold without the necessary insurance coverage they need to rebuild their lives,” Cymbrowitz said.

The purpose behind the other bill (A.1092) is to create a new set of requirements that ensure speedier responses from insurers to residents who are filing claims in the aftermath of a major disaster, such as Superstorm Sandy.

“People can’t wait forever to get their lives back to normal,” Cymbrowitz said in the release. “There has to be an industry standard in processing claims so that people know what to expect and insurers can be held accountable for their actions.”

Photo by Erica Sherman

There’s a new class of despicable low-life in the neighborhood: the Rapid Repair con artist. According to an e-mail blast from Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, his office has been fielding complaints from residents about fraudsters who – somehow – got a hold of the Rapid Repairs client directory and are shaking down vulnerable Sandy victims.

Hopefully, once they’re off the streets, we’ll find out how in the world the city let a database of Sandy victims in dire straits fall into the hands of criminals.

Here’s the e-mail from Cymbrowitz:

I’ve received a few reports from residents who tell me that scam artists pretending to be from the city’s Rapid Repairs program have been showing up at peoples’ homes offering to do work, such as remove a boiler, or have asked residents for payment for services. Apparently the scammers have gotten hold of the Rapid Repairs directory, which contains names and addresses of residents who require repairs.

Let me be clear on this: Rapid Repairs will NEVER ask you for payment. If they do ask for payment, they are not from the Rapid Repairs program. Do not let this person into your home!

In order to protect yourself and your loved ones from these scam artists, here are some tips you should know:

• All Rapid Repairs workers are required to carry an ID and badge, identifying them as a Rapid Repairs worker. Always ask to see the badge and ID of the person who says they are from Rapid Repairs.
• When Rapid Repairs comes to your house for the first time, you will be given a card with the phone number of your Rapid Repairs site supervisor. If you are not sure if the person at your door is from Rapid Repairs, contact your site supervisor immediately.
• If you feel endangered by the person at your front door, call 911 immediately.

Home repair frauds increase following major storms, and there are corrupt people who will try to prey on those who have already lost so much. As we work through this recovery process together, I want to make sure everyone stays safe, and that means knowing how to protect yourself from con artists.

As always, I’m here to assist you. Please feel free to call my office at (718) 743-4078, emailcymbros@assembly.state.ny.us or visit my temporary district office at 2658 Coney Island Avenue (between Avenues W and X), which is open Monday – Thursday from 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and on Fridays until 5 p.m.

Janna Doheny, after surrendering to authorities. (Source: Brooklyn DA)

Janna Doheny, the owner of multiple units inside Brighton Beach’s posh Oceana condominium development, is charged with bilking more than $29,000 from Medicaid over the course of eight years, according to a new indictment revealed by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

Doheny, 43, filed falsified documents for Medicaid, claiming her only source of income for her and her daughter was just $1,550 a month from her job at an adult entertainment establishment in Queens, and that her savings and investments totaled less than $5,000.

But investigators claim that Doheny wasn’t as cash strapped as her Medicaid application stated. They say Doheny lived the high life, making pricey purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue, Victoria’s Secret and Amazon, as well as getting professional glamour shots in skimpy swimwear while vacationing at a luxury resort in Arizona – a discovery they found by perusing her profile on a Russian-language social networking site.

“Lying to the system to receive Medicaid is a theft of taxpayer dollars and will not be tolerated,” said Human Resources Administration Commissioner Robert Doar, whose agency assisted in the investigation. “At HRA, we maintain the integrity of public assistance programs by providing benefits to those who are eligible and investigating those who ignore the rules.”

Investigators also found that Doheny not only purchased several condo units at Oceana between 2002 and 2010 – where price tags range from $500,000 to $2 million – but that she also owned property in Bay Ridge, Long Beach and South Florida.

The complaint goes on to state that Doheny deposited more than $100,000 annually into several bank accounts in her own name and the name of her business, Oceana Ventures, as well as a pile of cash totaling $170,000 in a safe deposit box on Long Island.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, along with the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General and the Human Resources Administration, started to take a closer look at Doheny’s holdings after being tipped off to the Oceana purchases.

Vadim Vasilenko has been in jail since 2007 for allegedly running a money laundering credit card scam operation that involved $47 million dollars, however he has yet to have his day in court.

After years of appeals, arguments, and false starts, Vasilenko is still imprisoned without the possibility for parole and without a firm trial date in place. Getting desperate for any kind of help, Vasilenko has taken to the skies, flying banners over Brighton Beach this month asking both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama for help.

With no response from the presidential candidates, Vasilenko is now hoping that the Virgin Mary will come to his aid, as he plans to fly another plane pleading to Mother Mary herself, according to UPI.

As Vaslikenko awaits his call on divine intervention, you can watch him plead his case to Eyewitness News.

Honoring real survivors at a Holocaust Memorial Park ceremony. Photo by Erica Sherman

A disturbing scheme that has been running since 1994, which bilked a Holocaust survivors fund of $57 million, may finally be coming to a close. The scam was uncovered in 2009 after an FBI sting, and a year later the US Attorney’s Office announced indictments against 11 employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference. Thirty-one people have been charged so far.

Several individuals from Brighton Beach collaborated with employees of  the Claims Conference, which manages the funds, and submitted applications for victims of the Holocaust. The problem was that the claims that were submitted and approved were for victims who did not exist, or people who were not qualified to receive the funds.

The employees received kickbacks for approving the fraudulent applications and the ringleaders who submitted the falsified documents received unlawful Holocaust reparations.

Valentina Romashova, who stole $150,000 from Holocaust survivors, has recently admitted her role in the scheme and plead guilty in court. She has been ordered to return the money and can serve up to five years in prison for her participation in the scheme, according to the New York Daily News.

Romashova approved almost 5,000 fake applications.

An ex-employee of the fund program, Yevgeniya Abramovich, was also sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay back $201,000, wrote the Jewish Press.

Police are looking for the two scam artists caught on camera in the video above.

The suspects are described as wearing dark colored wigs and sunglasses, last seen driving a darkly colored four-door Audi, according to DNAinfo.

The site goes on to describe their scam:

The con happened August 28, 2012 near Kings Highway and E. 16th Street, police said.

The suspects, two middle-aged women, approached the female victim with a bag they told her was filled with cash. In exchange for sharing the supposed cash, the victim gave the scammers an undetermined mound of money.

Cops call the ruse a so-called pigeon drop, a term that describes a scam in which the victim is easily conned.

Vitaly Borker, the owner of a Manhattan Beach-based online eye-wear retailer accused of harassing and threatening customers, was sentenced to four years in federal prison yesterday.

Borker, 35, was arrested in December 2010 after a New York Times article caught him boasting of his success in attracting traffic and sales to his site, DecorMyEyes.com, by terrorizing customers with threats of violence and even rape. Authorities busted Borker days later, and a raid on his Beaumont Street home-office found a trove of counterfeit goods, guns and child pornography.

His actions even spurred Google to change its system for page ranking, so that cyber-bullies like Borker do not benefit from negative online reviews.

In May of 2011, Borker pleaded guilty to two counts of sending threatening communications, one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. The mail fraud and wire fraud charges are because Borker was allegedly selling knock-offs of designer eyewear.

“Vitaly Borker was an Internet shopper’s worst nightmare,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. “Borker operated behind the veil of the Internet and aliases to first defraud his victims and then, if they complained, terrorize them with threats, intimidation, and harassment.”

The sentencing comes short of the five to six-and-a-half year sentence that prosecutors were shooting for, but much more than the 18 months his attorney expected.

Borker will also pay more than $96,000 in fines and restitution. His attorney said he will appeal the sentencing.

For several months after Borker’s arrest, he was released on a $1 million bond and was confined to his home. The judge banned him from using the internet, and even phone usage was monitored. To ensure compliance, the judge tasked a security guard to stay with him the entire time, at a cost to Borker of $1,000 a day.

According to CBS News, Borker was in tears during the sentencing and said, ‘I had a big mouth. I just couldn’t control it and it ruined my life.’

The New York Times reports that, though Borker pleaded guilty, a slew of hearings had delayed sentencing:

Though he pleaded guilty, Mr. Borker’s case went on for more than 18 contentious months, punctuated by a number of hearings. The latest, in July, centered on whether Mr. Borker had uttered the worst of the statements in the government’s indictment, something he denied.

A handful of Mr. Borker’s victims were summoned to testify about calls and e-mails they had received, which turned out to include a threat to slice off the legs of one customer. Federal District Judge Richard J. Sullivan said, at the end of one day of testimony, that he found the victims credible and so disturbing that he revoked Mr. Borker’s bail, which had allowed him to live at home under restrictions.

… His lawyer, Dominic F. Amorosa, argued that Mr. Borker deserved leniency because he is mentally ill — a doctor hired by the defense said he has “a bipolar mood disorder characterized by impulsive and manic mood symptoms” — and was frequently under the influence of marijuana and alcohol.

Mr. Amorosa also contended that only a tiny fraction of Mr. Borker’s customers were threatened and that his business was otherwise a thriving enterprise. DecorMyEyes had thousands of repeat customers, he said, and millions of dollars in revenue.

“He threatened, horribly, 25 people,” Mr. Amorosa said, suggesting that was a small number, given the scale of the company.

Once Borker is released from prison, he will face three years of probation, during which he will not be permitted to use a computer.

Source: NYTimes.com

We just got wind of this story and, though we may be  a bit late, we wanted to report on the latest for Vitaly Borker, local internet thug.

Borker was busted for bashing customers who emailed him to complain about the counterfeit sunglasses on his DecorMyEyes.com website in May of last year. In response, he made vulgar and violent threats in emails, on forums, via phone and more.

“I was answering personally about 100 e-mails a day and lost control of what I was saying at times,” he said.

On June 8, he was charged for the child pornography found on his home computers at the time of the investigation.

During the cyber bully bust, police seized several hard drives from his Beaumont Street home in Manhattan Beach. Later, when the drives were scanned, police found photographs of various minors engaged in sexual acts.

He is charged with 60 counts of possessing images of a sexual performance by a child and two counts of possessing images of an obscene sexual performance by a child, according to the New York Daily News. If convicted, he will serve up to 1 1/3 to 4 years for each charge.

Additionally, he will serve at least three years in prison for the internet terrorizing of his customers.

Correction (3:35 p.m.): The original headline on this story mistakenly noted that Borker was convicted of possessing the child pornography. At this point in time he has only been charged. Sheepshead Bites sincerely regrets any confusion this may have caused.

The following is a press release from the offices of State Senator Marty Golden:

State Senator Martin J. Golden (R-C-I, Brooklyn) today is alerting local residents to two scam attempts brought to his attention which sought to obtain personal information for the purposes of fraud.

One resident yesterday reported a phone call from someone claiming to work for the Kings County Clerk’s Office threatening that failure to provide personal information would result in the termination of their Social Security benefits. Personal information requested included a marriage license, and when the local resident refused to give information, the person left a telephone number to return the call which was affiliated with the County Clerk’s office.

Senator Golden’s office has reported this matter to the Kings County Clerk’s Office and the Inspector General of the Office of Court Administration will be notified about this incident.

Another area resident reported today door to door visits from people claiming to be part of the Verizon preparation for FIOS. These individuals also are requesting significant personal information under the guise of Verizon, who states the company never sends people soliciting door to door. Verizon has been notified of this incident by Senator Golden’s office.

“I bring these two incidents to the attention of the neighborhood in an effort to alert people and prevent identity theft and fraud. The alarming reality is that there are people looking to prey on our residents, especially our seniors, in an attempt to open fake credit card accounts, withdraw money from banking accounts, and more. Identity theft has become the number one financial and consumer crime, causing individuals to lose their good financial standing and credit ratings,” said Senator Marty Golden.

Senator Golden has pamphlets available in his office entitled, “Special Report to Consumers, Protect Yourself From Identity Theft”. To obtain a copy, please contact Senator Golden’s District Office at (718) 238-6044 or via email at golden@nysenate.gov