Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Since Bruce pays to play, why no indictment?

From the Huffington Post:

When is Attorney General Cuomo going to investigate the wrongdoing in Yonkers and Forest City Ratner's role in it? A first step for the yet-to-be-officially-announced gubernatorial candidate would be to return the $5,000 donation Bruce Ratner gave him because of the clear implications of the Ridge Hill indictments.

Sure, the Yonkers investigation is ongoing and more indictments may come or information that might clarify Forest City Ratner's involvement in this case may be presented in due course. But until the time that US Attorney Preet Bharara makes those clarifications apparent, many of us will continue to wonder why an alleged bribe, with the alleged involvement and agreement of Ratner representatives, is not being fully prosecuted.

What of those government entities doing business with Forest City Ratner for Atlantic Yards and other projects?

New York State's Empire State Development Corporation and the City (the Mayor and the Economic Development Corporation) have a duty to conduct their own inquiry (utilizing respective City and State investigative offices) of Forest City Ratner's involvement in the Ridge Hill case and satisfy themselves that there are no issues concerning the company's integrity. That is standard operating procedure when negative information about a current government contractor comes to light--even for rather flimsy allegations, let alone serious indications of misconduct in a federal indictment. If the City and State have not already done this, or it is not being done, it raises serious questions about improper favoritism.

It also seems that the Kings County District Attorney's Office has the responsibility to conduct its own investigation of the Ridge Hill project based on the indictment's allegations that a legally questionable quid pro quo occurred amongst the Brooklyn's most powerful developer, the indicted former Councilwoman Annabi and the indicted former GOP boss Jereis, in order to change the vote of an elected, public official.

And while Attorney General Hynes' office is at it, they ought to commence an investigation into Forest City Ratner's actions while trying to bring Atlantic Yards to fruition. Many Brooklyn residents and organizations have questioned the naked--and suspicious--favoritism granted Ratner and the legality of Forest City Ratner's deals with public officials in its pursuit of the Atlantic Yards project.

Smoke in Yonkers could signal a fire in Brooklyn.


In the meantime, a state court legalized theft once again yesterday.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cuomo has much more important things to investigate, like whether the Governors bodyguard slapped around his girlfriend on Halloween night.

Lino said...

One of the reasons you are getting these pro-developer rulings are the -conservative mook judges- that have been quietly seeded during the Giuliani/Potaki era.

The same people who vote for these stone-head doctrinaire bastards are the ones who'll get screwed when they find out who those pol's true masters are...

But, conservatives always know that no matter how bad they ream people, they can count on the fears of blacks, Hispanics, "socialists" etc to blind them.

Anonymous said...

That's because Cuomo is shady too!

Anonymous said...

I'm sick and tired of Bruce RATner. Him, Mayor Moneybags and the ESDC are all connected. They need to be tossed out on their asses. Nobody wants that stupid Atlantic yards project anyways. Fuck them all!

Anonymous said...

will you name the "mook conservative judges who were "quietly" put in office by the Rudy/Pataki administrations?

can you list their rulings on any developer projects?will you name any of these pols. "true masters" ?Q.C. commentors would be interested in this revelation?