Trylon synagogue taken to court

From the Times Ledger:

A rent dispute between Ohr Natan synagogue and the Rego Park congregations’ landlord has landed the two in court.

Rabbi Nahum Kaziev, who leads the Bukharian house of worship, at 98-81 Queens Blvd., said Ohr Natan was served with an eviction notice after the property owners accused the temple of not paying rent.

He said the synagogue continued sending monthly checks, but was told its landlord, Trylon LLC, did not receive them.

Anthony La Vigna
The temple attempted to send more checks to account for the missing money, but Trylon argued the rent was late and moved to terminate its lease in Queens Supreme Court, according to Kaziev.

Judge Terrence O’Conner dismissed the case because of a technicality earlier this month, but Trylon LLC plans to re-file its case.

Million dollar Russian scammers immune from prosecution

From the Huffington Post:

Dozens of current or former Russian diplomats and their spouses enjoyed luxury vacations and spent tens of thousands of dollars on concert tickets, fine clothing and helicopter rides as they lied about their incomes to get the government to pay their health care bills with money meant for the poor, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The diplomats were among 49 individuals charged in a complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, though no arrests were made and only 11 of the diplomats and their spouses remained in the United States. The complaint said Medicaid, a health care program for the poor, lost about $1.5 million in the scheme since 2004.

"Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a Manhattan news conference. He called it "shameful and systemic corruption."

Russian officials at the United Nations did not immediately comment.

The complaint alleges that the defendants submitted fraudulent applications for medical benefits for pregnancies, births and care for young children. Federal prosecutors said the diplomats qualified for Medicaid benefits by underreporting their income, often by tens of thousands of dollars.

Bharara said it was a case "we would be prosecuting and making arrests in, but for immunity." Still, he added, participation in crimes by diplomats generally leads to expulsion from a country.

One expensive piece of real estate

From the Daily News:

For $30 million, this Mill Basin mansion comes with everything and the kitchen sink. Four of them, actually, plus a dock for a dozen boats.
The most expensive Brooklyn home ever — asking twice as much as anything else on the market — it sprawls some 23,000 feet between a main house and guest house with 257 feet of Jamaica Bay frontage.

The 10-bedroom, 15-bath property is the 17-year passion project of Galina Anissimova, ex-wife of Russia’s 38th richest man, a shadowy minerals baron.

Her broker, James Cornell of The Corcoran Group, said she probably spent more than $30 million transforming the place .

“It’s perfect,” Cornell said. “It’s the highest quality everything I’ve ever seen in 24 years in the business.”

Perfection includes garage space for seven cars, a circular meditation room inscribed with signs of the Zodiac and a 1,000-square-foot outdoor pool — larger than many Brooklyn apartments — beside which sits a gigantic gazebo with room for 50 guests.

"Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it"

From DNA Info:

The building housing a long-time and prominent Rego Park synagogue is slated for demolition, raising fears that the congregation, which has more than 1,000 people, will have no place to go.

The worries came despite assurances from new landlord Rudolf Abramov of Trylon LLC that the displacement of Ohr Natan Synagogue would be temporary and the congregation will be allowed back once the new building is completed.

The news also comes after the congregation poured more than $2 million into a 4-year-long renovation of the historic former Art Deco Trylon Theatre.

The group's rabbi, Nahum Kaziev, said he fears that despite the developers' pledge, the congregation may not be allowed to return.

Kaziev also said the displacement during the construction period would last a couple of years.

"Where are we going to be in the meantime? On the street?," said Kaziev. “It’s unbelievable, it’s a shame."

The 25,000-square-foot property, located on a triangle-shaped lot between Queens Boulevard, 99th Street and 66th Avenue, was sold in December 2012, for $9 million, according to Eugene Kim from Massey Knakal, a real estate company, which facilitated the sale.

It was sold in 2012? I found a blog post about it, but no press release. Interesting that all media outlets would fail to pick up this February news story about such a controversial property. Who exactly did Massey Knakal send it out to...or did they "forget" to send it out?

Anyway, I don't feel sorry for the congregation at all. They could have had a permanent home. But they instead chose to lobby Melinda Katz for funding to destroy historical aspects of it as well as to deny landmark status for the building. Why couldn't preservation be part of the plan? Because they just HAD TO destroy the historic mosaics in front of the place and cinderblock up the entrance. So they are about to get exactly what's coming to them.

DOB shuts down Brooklyn clinic

From the Daily News:

A Coney Island medical building has been abruptly shuttered because of safety violations - leaving doctors and patients out in the cold.

The five doctors whose offices are at 2965 Ocean Parkway have not been able to treat sick patients city officials closed the building last Tuesday after inspectors discovered there was no emergency exit.

“It’s a terrible situation. My patients rely on my care and I have no access to them,” said Dr. Alexander Shekhter, an internist, who was worried about his mostly elderly Russian patients.

“These are patients in wheelchairs and patients on Medication,” said Shekhter. “They shut us down without any warning. If I violated something I understand, but the Dept. of Buildings has nothing to do with medical care.”

Buildings Dept. officials aren’t letting anyone into the four-story 3,300 square-foot building, which has only has one staircase and no emergency exit, according to documents posted on the agency’s website.

Ever-changing Flushing

From the NY Times:

Ms. Goldberg, 98, lives in a 19-story apartment house in Flushing, Queens, one of two neighboring buildings that were erected for survivors of the Holocaust. When she moved there in 1978, she said, her neighbors formed a tight community of predominantly Jewish refugees like her who had fled to the United States from Austria or Germany.

“We had parties,” Ms. Goldberg said, her voice barely above a whisper. “We had card games. It was our people. We had Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in our apartment.”

Now, she said, “It’s completely changed — I have no neighbors here.”

For Ms. Goldberg, the transformation has been steady and overwhelming. Of the 326 residents in her building, now only 31 are Holocaust survivors, and only 7 of them are German or Austrian.

The new neighbors are friendly enough. But she said: “We do not talk. We say hello, goodbye. But that’s it. They don’t speak German. They don’t speak English. They speak Russian and Chinese. Sometimes they just shake their heads.”

This is actually a very fascinating article showing how different groups live together and tolerate each others' presence, but don't really know each other. Not only that, but most people aren't interested in knowing each other.

Brooklyn pols support money launderer

From the NY Post:

A Brighton Beach-connected international money launderer — who worked under the European equivalent of John Gotti — counts ranking New York politicians among his friends.

A trio of powerhouse politicos is coming to the aid of Nikolai Dozortsev: state Sen. Carl Kruger, Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny, and even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The elected officials all sent letters on his behalf to the Brooklyn federal court judge who will sentence Dozortsev later this week.

Dozortsev – a twice-convicted felon with a criminal career spanning two decades – was the money man for a violent organized crime syndicate. The group’s illegal activities in the U.S. and Europe easily exceeded $50 million a year, officials say.

He worked alongside the legendary European mob boss Ricardo Fanchini, and faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.

But Brook-Krasny calls Dozortsev a man "of integrity and strong moral fiber" in a letter written on Assembly letterhead and addressed to the judge presiding over the case.

Kruger, another Brighton pol, who sits on the state Senate’s Crime Victims and Crime and Corrections committees, urged Judge Frederic Block to kindly "take under consideration" the assistance Dozortsev and his family has given to other immigrants from Russia settling in New York.

Markowitz wrote Block a letter praising the character of Dozortsev’s parents and explaining that although he had never met "Nick," he hopes their qualities had been passed on to him.

P.S. Pedro Espada's been indicted.

Immigrants and voting - two opinions

From Sunnyside Post:

It is time for our evolving democracy to embrace voting rights in local elections for all residents. We are all stakeholders in our community and should have a say in important local issues. In the words of the Revolutionary patriots who put their lives on the line for the freedoms we enjoy today, “No taxation without representation.”

Our democracy is becoming ever more inclusive, but we still have a long way to go. Over the years, we have recognized the right of African Americans, women, and others to vote. Even so, this progress has not yet extended to all residents. Tax paying residents who do not yet have citizenship cannot vote, even in local elections.

New York has always been a beacon for both immigrants and democracy. This is why we should lead the way in ensuring that our non-citizen community members can exercise the right to vote in local elections.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn...courtesy of Sheepshead Bites:

“For far too long, dozens of thousands of the Russian-American senior citizens of New York have been shut out of the voting process unfairly because of the language barrier,” pontificated State Sen. Carl Kruger when he introduced the legislation. Passed by the New York state Senate 48 to14 on May 28, the bill, known as S. 552 – An act to amend the election law in relation to providing Russian-language voting materials” passed the state Assembly with only 23 members dissenting out of 132 votes cast.

Russian was thereby added to the list of existing alternate languages in which election material must be printed, the others being Spanish, Chinese and Korean.

...we don’t really have a need for these translations. I don’t know who is going to be reading them, when all this can be heard on the radio in a form that is a lot more interesting and less officious.

Other than that, I have never had any problems at the voting polls. Respectful Russian–speaking volunteers showed and explained everything.

It appears that the motivation behind this bill was painfully transparent — it was a dishonest and disrespectful misjudging of the Russian community by the politicians.

“In my humble opinion, I just don’t understand real purpose of this bill,” immigrant Boris Borovoy states flatly. “The majority of politically active Russian-Americans are fluent in English and have no need for a Russian translation; to me it’s another pork barrel, another waste of taxpayers’ money for a mostly symbolic purpose.

And for hard-working, middle-class Russian-Americans it’s real slap in a face. “Want to make some important political decisions? Learn English, comrade. That’s as simple as it gets”.

Russians busted in day care scam

From the NY Post:

Seven city workers have been busted for allegedly taking cash and jewelry to help a ring of Russian day-care center operators scam more than $18 million in taxpayer money.

The scheme involved more than 30 day-care centers in Brooklyn and Staten Island run by a group that called itself "the Congregation," according to a complaint filed this morning in Manhattan federal court.

Alleged ringleader Liudmila Umarov and three co-defendants are accused of bribing workers at various city agencies to help them defraud a subsidy program for low-income parents.

The scam, which was uncovered by the city Department of Investigation, used the names of eligible kids gleaned from city records to get payments for services never actually provided.

The city workers also steered parents to send their children to centers run by the Congregation, and enrolled homeless-shelter kids in their programs, the complaint says.

Medicare scam in Brooklyn

From the NY Post:

Keep those lips zipped, comrade -- and help us rip off Uncle Sam for $72 million!

A Brooklyn medical office used a Soviet-era propaganda poster to tell Russian-immigrant patients to keep quiet about kickbacks they were getting for letting doctors submit thousands of bogus Medicare claims in their names, federal prosecutors revealed yesterday.

"Don't gossip!" warned the Russian-language poster that prominently hung in the "kickback room" of the Bay Medical office on Bay Parkway -- where patients literally lined up for illegal payoffs of a couple of a hundred dollars or so each.

But not everyone kept their mouths shut.

Federal authorities got several people to rat out the alleged scam and yesterday arrested dozens of doctors, employees and patients of Bay Medical and other Medicare "mills" elsewhere in Brooklyn and in Miami, Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, La.

It is the largest Medicare-fraud prosecution ever, totaling $251 million in funds swindled from the federal health-insurance program.

Featuring a large drawing of a woman holding an index finger to her lips, the not-so-helpful poster reads: "Keep your eyes open. These days even the walls have ears. Chatter and gossip go hand in hand with treason."

Those threats helped Bay Medical steal $72 million by submitting fraudulent claims, prosecutors said.

Spies like us!

From Gothamist:

...the Justice Department announced it arrested 10 people for "allegedly carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation." And in case you were wondering, "Federal law prohibits individuals from acting as agents of foreign governments within the United States without prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General." However, Russia's Foreign Ministry is blasting the arrests, saying, "We do not understand what prompted the U.S. Justice Department to make a public statement in the spirit of Cold War espionage. Such incidents have occurred in the past, when our relations were on the rise. In any case it is regrettable that all these things are happening on the background of the 'reset' in Russian-U.S. relations announced by the U.S. administration."

According to the NY Times, the suspects were looking for information on nuclear weapons, details on the U.S.'s Iran policy, the CIA...

On the cover of the tabloids is Anna Chapman, whom the Post calls "a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victoria’s Secret body." She allegedly passed information to a Russian official every Wednesday this year. Another of the suspects is Vicky Pelaez, a columnist for El Diario newspaper. The Daily News lists the places were the alleged spies would do their business: The Forest Hills LIRR station, the globe outside the Trump International at Columbus Circle, a Starbucks in Midtown, a restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens, etc.

Library forced to cut back on Russian soaps

From the Daily News:

Most borrowers will never see the maps that line librarian Sze Wai (Lacey) Chan's cubicle at the Central Library in Jamaica, but as the library system's official demographer, she's made a career of tracking them down.

Part statistician and part detective, Chan has studied the borough's newest immigrants since 1997. Using the data she gathers, she helps tailor new materials and programs to their interests.

But looming budget cuts may soon make much of her painstakingly-collected data useless because the library won't be able to buy new foreign-language materials to chase the changing population, library officials said.

For Chinese immigrants, those materials include a never-ending supply of Japanese and Korean films, while West Indians prefer Nigerian movies. And Russians can't live without their soaps.

Our tax dollars are subsidizing the acquisition and rental of Russian soap operas?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Here's an idea: During the recession, how about limiting libraries to what they were built for - education through BOOKS.

Shooting at Forest Hills restaurant

 

Queens liver cancer rates are way up

From the Queens Tribune:

During a “State of the Hospital” presentation at New York Hospital Queens, Director of Surgical Oncology Dr. Mitchell Chorost subtly revealed a little-known reality within the borough.

“We’re seeing an unusually high rate of liver cancer as a result of Hepatitis C,” he said, citing ethnic factors as the main driving force behind the spike. “A lot of people don’t realize that the problem is out there.”

Chorost’s findings, coupled with the 15th Anniversary of Hepatitis Awareness Month this May, bring a new urgency to raising awareness about this communicable and deadly, yet treatable, disease.

Nearly 80 percent of all untreated cases of Hepatitis C are believed to lead to liver cancer, according to the State Dept. of Health. The cancer itself causes 10,000 deaths nationwide each year.

According to Chorost, a growing population of first-generation Asian and Russian immigrants has driven an increase in the overall rate of Hepatitis C and liver cancer.

“These cultures are very close people,” he said. “They assimilate with each other and that’s how they spread these diseases within each other.”

It is a byproduct of a growing rate in their native countries, the doctor added.

“There is no vaccine against Hepatitis C. It’s a worldwide epidemic, effecting namely Far East countries like China and Korea,” he said. “These are patients who weren’t aware they had it in China and Russia and they came with it. They’re carriers.”