Undisclosed de Blasio emails show cozy relationship with corrupt donor (NYP)
City Hall withheld nearly two dozen e-mails that show Mayor de Blasio had a much cozier relationship with Jona Rechnitz than he has admitted — even telling the crooked developer to reach out “anytime I can help,” The Post has learned.
De Blasio was corresponding with Rechnitz for more than two years, from late in his first campaign in October 2013 through February 2016, despite the mayor’s April 2016 claim that he and the admitted briber were “not particularly close,” the previously undisclosed e-mails show.
“Jona, really enjoyed our mtg,” de Blasio wrote on Oct. 4, 2013, following receipt of $36,700 in cash Rechnitz had collected for him. “Call upon me anytime I can help. And thanks for your extraordinary assistance for my cause — means a lot to me.”
Other e-mails obtained by The Post show de Blasio calling Rechnitz “my friend,” “brother” and “a mensch” — Yiddish for “a person of integrity and honor.” One even reveals that he told Rechnitz to keep their communications discreet.
“And always stay in touch, but please do via this email or via cell rather than text,” de Blasio wrote from his personal e-mail account — deblasio@att.blackberry.net — on Oct. 2, 2014. “Much easier for me. Thanks again for all your help.”
In addition to the terms of endearment that de Blasio heaped on Rechnitz — who cut a cooperation deal with the feds to avoid getting busted with pal Jeremy Reichberg in a hooker-fueled, NYPD corruption case — the never-before-seen e-mails show the mayor repeatedly thanking Rechnitz for advice and information on which de Blasio later acted.
The correspondences also reveal the usually thin-skinned mayor graciously accepting an apology from Rechnitz for an unexplained slight, writing, “No worries” during an exchange of e-mails on Dec. 3, 2013.
And when Rechnitz, now 36, wrote, “Thnx I only mean well and am young and learning,” de Blasio, 57, wrote back two minutes later, taking a fatherly tone as he said, “We are all learning . . .”
The 21 e-mails written by de Blasio were not produced by City Hall in response to a 2016 Freedom of Information Law request by The Post, even though officials turned over 286 pages of correspondence involving de Blasio, Rechnitz and Reichberg during 2014.
The newly discovered e-mails between de Blasio and Rechnitz also add to others that prosecutors unveiled last month in Manhattan federal court, where they were introduced as evidence against Reichberg and former NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant.
But the copies obtained by The Post this week include exchanges that were redacted in court papers, with some e-mails showing how de Blasio praised Rechnitz for advising him to attend an anti-crime CompStat meeting at NYPD Headquarters and later thanking him for the suggestion.
Another newly obtained e-mail shows de Blasio thanking Rechnitz for tipping him off that the private Jewish Shomrim security patrol knew about the 2014 kidnapping and slaying of Menachem “Max” Stark two hours before the NYPD did.
That’s a real issue. Thanks for raising it,” de Blasio wrote on Jan. 4, 2014.
Records released by City Hall also show that de Blasio forwarded Rechnitz’s e-mail to then-Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and other officials.
Other laudatory e-mails from de Blasio came in response to hefty donations from Rechnitz.
On Feb. 4, 2014, de Blasio sent Rechnitz an e-mail that said, “But want to profoundly thank you for all the help you’ve given lately. Means a lot to me.”
That show of appreciation came six days after Rechnitz gave $50,000 through his JSTD Madison LLC to the mayor’s now-defunct charity, the Campaign for One New York.
De Blasio also sent Rechnitz an Oct. 21, 2014, e-mail consisting solely of a subject line that reads, “You’re a mensch!”
A day later, the state Board of Elections recorded a $102,300 donation from JSTD Madison to the state Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, for which de Blasio was soliciting contributions as part of a failed bid to flip the Republican-controlled state Senate.
The mayor also sent Rechnitz a May 28, 2014, e-mail that consisted entirely of the subject line, “Will call you tmrw, my friend.”
When the call never materialized, Rechnitz wrote back late the next day, saying “I guess we will touch base tomorrow?
“We’ll get there, brother,” de Blasio replied the following morning. “A lot of other issues have come up suddenly.”
Rechnitz returned to his native Los Angeles after secretly pleading guilty in June 2016 to wire-fraud conspiracy in a deal to assist the feds with several corruption probes.
Rechnitz returned to his native Los Angeles after secretly pleading guilty in June 2016 to wire-fraud conspiracy in a deal to assist the feds with several corruption probes.
Those investigations involved both de Blasio and his former campaign-finance director, Ross Offinger, neither of whom was ever charged.
In October 2017 — after Rechnitz testified of de Blasio, “He took my calls. We were friends” — the mayor told reporters that they were only in contact “for a year, or a year and change.
“But this is not someone I ever knew well or was close to,” de Blasio said. “We were not close. He is exaggerating in many, many ways.”
He also called Rechnitz “just a horrible human being.”
During nine days of testimony that wrapped up earlier this month, Rechnitz claimed that he, Reichberg and former cabby advocate Fernando Mateo schemed to try to bribe public officials, including de Blasio and then-Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.
Neither official was ever charged.
Still, the three men donated and raised more than $250,000 for de Blasio: $100,000 in campaign contributions, $50,000 for the Campaign for One New York and $102,000 for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
Rechnitz also testified that he and Reichberg showered Grant and other cops with payoffs that included trips to the Dominican Republic, Las Vegas and Miami, with “hookers everywhere.”
Jurors even saw a video of Rechnitz and Reichberg wearing Santa hats as they rode around in a black Aston Martin convertible to deliver pricey gifts — including Nintendo games and American Girl dolls — to their cop buddies on Staten Island.
Rechnitz has testified that he doctored some e-mails between him and de Blasio, but the source who provided the e-mails to The Post vouched for their authenticity.
De Blasio has refused to say whether he deleted any of his e-mails with Rechnitz, and City Hall has offered a series of explanations for why other new e-mails surfaced in court, including a Bloomberg-era policy that they do not need to be archived.
Mayoral press secretary Eric Phillips has also argued that the de Blasio e-mails that surfaced in court “weren’t discovered in the search during the FOIL process.
“We have much more aggressive search protocols now than we did several years ago,” he told Politico on Dec. 6.
Last week, City Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-The Bronx) called on the Department of Investigation to open a probe “into City Hall’s failure to fully disclose communications with Jona Rechnitz.”
Phillips on Monday declined to comment on the e-mails obtained by The Post.
De Blasio won’t say why he’s been ducking the NYPD corruption trial
Incisive and extremely relevant questions from
Mayor de Blasio on Jona Rechnitz, 10/31/2017: "despite everyone’s efforts to act like this guy is such an important person, despite being a liar and a felon, he was not that important to me. So, if he sent me an email, I don’t know if I even saw it. I don’t recall seeing it."
Rechnitz says he met privately with de Blasio to discuss NYPD chief's resignation Politico
@nahmias
This trial is basically a referendum on how a lot of this city operates: its a massive bureaucracy, difficult to navigate. People with money and connections have found ways to shortcut the irritations — traffic, parking laws, building rules— that plague the rest of us.
@SalAlbaneseNYC
Rechnitz says he met privately with de Blasio to discuss NYPD chief's resignation https://politi.co/2KG01WU Good reporting by @nahmias on sleaze emanating from City Hall under @BilldeBlasio & all connected to our corrupt campaign finance system
De Blasio donor threw lavish party for pal to keep him from snitching(NYP)
A de Blasio donor who has admitted to bribing cops and politicians told a Manhattan federal jury on Thursday that he threw a lavish party for an alleged co-conspirator in January 2016 — to keep the man from snitching to the feds before he could.Jona Rechnitz said he dropped $40,000 on a party for the wedding of Jeremy Reichberg’s daughter at a time when the feds were closing in on their alleged scheme to grease palms at 1 Police Plaza.
Rechnitz said he did it not out of friendship — but out of fear.
“At the time, Jeremy and I were not really in touch,” he said. “I had heard he went to Israel and was working with the government. I wanted to keep him close — to make sure we were coordinated,” Rechnitz said.
A few months later, in June 2016, Rechnitz was singing to the feds, telling them he teamed up with Reichberg to bribe cops and that the men had worked their way into ex-NYPD Chief Philip Bank’s “inner-circle” when the scheme came tumbling down.
The de Blasio donor said he flipped because he had heard from the Manhattan US Attorney’s office that Reichberg wanted to flip first — and he couldn’t allow it.
“You did not tell Mr. Banks or Mr. Seabrook that the women were paid for, did you?” lawyer Susan Necheles said of a Dec. 2013 Caribbean getaway Rechnitz paid for.
“That’s not the kind of thing you have to say,” Rechnitz retorted. “We didn’t meet them in a bar.”
“I have never found Jona to be a reliable witness,” Seabrook’s lawyer Paul Shechtman said.
Banks’ lawyer, Ben Brafman, reiterated that Banks has not been charged with any crime.
Mayor de Blasio’s office didn’t provide two emails exchanged between the mayor and a couple of shady donors in response to Freedom of Information Law requests — but the emails suddenly surfaced as evidence in a federal corruption trial against one of the donors.
The Post in 2016 filed a request for “any and all emails” between de Blasio and his aides with campaign donors Jeremy Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz.
“This request is meant to encompass both work and `personal’ mail accounts of mayor’s office staff,” the filing said.
A batch of emails were provided a year later — but two were left out.
Rechnitz is now the key government witness against his former pal Reichberg, who is on trial in Manhattan federal court for allegedly bribing cops.
The other defendant is ex-NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant.
Emails exchanged between the donors and de Blasio on his personal Blackberry were introduced at the trial Wednesday — but hadn’t previously been turned over to The Post and other news
outlets as legally required.
In a Nov. 3, 2014 email to de Blasio, Rechnitz urged the mayor to try to persuade then-NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks from retiring.
“What can we do for you to refuse Banks’s resignation and get him back in and for [NYPD Commissioner Bill] Bratton to see past Phil’s monstrous mistake?” Rechnitz wrote.
The Post later reported that Banks quit while being probed for unpaid taxes tied to investments he had made with Rechnitz.
That email was not included in City Hall’s Aug. 4, 2017 response to The Post’s FOIL request.
Neither was another February 2014 email introduced at trial in which Rechnitz offers the mayor tickets for a Knicks game.
De Blasio declined the offer but said he wanted to “profoundly thank you for all the help you’ve given lately. Means a lot to me. And fyi, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to work regularly with Chief Banks. His future is bright.”
Mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips claimed the missing emails were much ado about nothing.
“Here’s one for you: WHY would we be lying about this particular email, which isn’t that interesting, when we’ve released thousands more, including those involving Rechnitz, many of which reporters have found much more newsy. The tin-hat take on this email doesn’t make any sense,” Phillips tweeted to one reporter.
“I have no idea where the email is … Again, why would we intentionally hide or destroy it? It says precisely nothing that isn’t public (or that is particularly interesting, I’d argue).”
He didn’t explain why the mayor’s office couldn’t locate the two emails, but prosecutors could.
Mayoral spokeswoman Natalie Grybauskas said there is no requirement that all email exchanges involving City Hall employees be retained.
“City Hall only retains emails when they are certain types of public records, like audits, personnel actions, policy memos, final reports, or emails that are subject to ongoing information requests or litigation. This is a Bloomberg-era email retention policy that has not changed. City Hall employees are under no requirement to retain every email ever written or received,” she said.
Police-Corruption Witness: We Bought Special Treatment From Top Chief
De Blasio donor boasted about 'lights and sirens' treatment from NYPD (NYP)
De Blasio-donor-turned-cooperating-witness Jona Rechnitz told a Manhattan federal jury that he and accused cop fixer Jeremy Reichberg teamed up to bribe public officials in 2013, after years spent paying off cops.
Evidence included photos of the men hobnobbing with de Blasio at Rechnitz’s midtown Manhattan office and at Gracie Mansion with their fellow fundraiser, taxi driver advocate Fernando Mateo.
Rechnitz said he, Reichberg and Mateo teamed up in 2013 to try and bribe public officials, including de Blasio and now former-County Executive of Westchester County, Rob Astorino, neither of whom have been accused of any wrongdoing.
In total, the men donated and raised $252,000 for de Blasio, including $100,000 in campaign contributions, $50,000 for the mayor’s controversial and since-disbanded Campaign for One New York and $102,000 to try to keep Democrats in control of the Senate.
They made the donations after agreeing with de Blasio’s campaign manager that they would get special treatment from City Hall, he said.
“When we called we wanted results — favorable results,” he said of his talk with campaign manager Ross Offinger, who has also not been accused of wrongdoing.
Astornio got a watch and $15,000 in donations. In exchange, Rechnitz and Reichberg were named Westchester police department chaplains, a perk that came with parking placards, he said.
Rechnitz told the jury that he and Reichberg also used their cop connections to score police perks for their wealthy friends, including real-estate executive Rotem Rosen, “King of Diamonds” Lev Leviev and the wife of the late 76ers owner Ed Snider.
Rosen, he said, scored police protection at his son’s bris — as well as “someone from the bags and pipes division of the NYPD to play at the ceremony.”
Emails show easy access for de Blasio donors in police bribery scandal
De Blasio donor allegedly got an NYPD sergeant to chauffeur a nurse he was wooing
Now-defunct nonprofit Campaign for One NY eyed developers looking for cozy relationship with City Hall The fundraising effort for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s controversial Campaign for One New York nonprofit – headed by political aide Ross Offinger – went above and beyond normal efforts to tap donors who had business before the city, many of whom were developers, a new report claims. Campaign Finance Rules Place limits on how much donors can give to the mayor’s political campaign, but they can give unlimited funds to his now-defunct nonprofit. It’s created a situation that calls into question whether many of the donors who stand to benefit from a cozy relationship with City Hall were making donations to support the political initiatives, or get a sweetheart deal from the city. Offinger, who served as finance director for de Blasio’s official election committee, often pitted lobbyists against each other in competition to raise more than each other, two lobbyists told the News.In early 2015, three weeks after Brookfield Property Partners broke ground on its 790-unit apartment building at Manhattan West, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen chatted on the phone with then-Brookfield chairman John Zuccotti, who was on Offinger’s list of potential CONY donors. Brookfield wrote a check to CONY that same day. In 2015, Tishman Realty & Construction reached a deal to pay $40 million to buy city-owned land in Times Square that the firm had leased for years. Two months later, an LLC affiliated with the company wrote two checks totaling $20,000, the Daily News reported. JDS Development also donated $13,500 to Campaign for One New York in June 2015. At the time, it was drafting plans for the largest planned tower in Brooklyn at 9 DeKalb.
Donors with pending business before the city gave at least $3 million of the $4.3 million raised by CONY from when it began in January 2014 to when it was shut down in March. [NYDN]
NYPD corruption trial descends into chaos as lawyers brawl
2. A closer look at how the mayor's political fundraiser worked with City Hall (NY1)
At the time, Offinger was a member of the de
Blasio campaign and also was fundraising for the mayor's now-defunct
nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York. Since 2014, Offinger has
recieved hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary from both entities.
The emails show Offinger at one time seemed to blend his campaign work with the government work at City Hall.
In an email from 2014, Offinger sends City
Hall a whole list of business and real estate leaders he is "shooing
for." To which, an aide writes: can we take this off an official thread.
Take another case, where City Hall aides loop
in Offinger on a call with a big donor, Stephen Nislick. Nislick led
the charge to ban horse carriages.
The notes show Nislick wanted the Department
of Health to shine more of a "negative light" on the industry. In the
same email, it says Nislick was promising the construction of affordable
housing.
In 2014, Offinger also made suggestions for
appointments to boards and commissions. And he was there to answer the
mayor's questions.
Like when the mayor read a news story showing
a campaign donation to him had been returned. Turns out the donation
was from someone who had lobbied the city or had an open contract, which
was prohibited.
Offinger says that donation was supposed to come from the donor's wife instead. That move would have avoided the rule.
3. Emails show prominent role for de Blasio's top fundraiser in City Hall (Politico)
In Mayor Bill de Blasio's City Hall, donor money talked.Thousands of pages of emails, released in response to a Freedom of Information request, show Ross Offinger, de Blasio’s top political fundraiser, was closely involved in the hiring and daily operations of the new mayor’s City Hall before the mayor was even sworn in.
The emails, released the day after Christmas, further illustrate a city government comfortable in the blurred lines between campaigning and governing, outside consultants and government officials. They also belie previous statements from the mayor’s office, which sought to distance itself from Offinger earlier this fall, when his name surfaced in connection with the Seabrook trial. Offinger was not accused of wrongdoing in the trial, but his sway over the administration was a central theme.
"Mr. Offinger wasn’t a government employee and did not make decisions at any level for city government," de Blasio’s spokesman Eric Phillips said at the time.
The emails suggest otherwise.
Offinger frequently weighed in on decisions about who the mayor should select to fill important vacancies at City Hall or on boards and commissions.
On Jan. 13, less than two weeks after de Blasio’s inauguration, Offinger fielded an email from Steve Sinacori — an attorney at the legal and consulting firm Akerman, and a member of de Blasio’s inaugural committee — requesting to speak with de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, about candidates for the powerful City Planning Commission, which approves land use projects throughout the five boroughs. De Blasio often consults his wife on appointments to positions within City Hall.
Offinger forwarded the inquiry along to de Blasio’s schedulers, who set up the call.
“[Steven] mentioned that he would like to follow up on an earlier conversation they had about City Planning candidates,” the mayor’s scheduler, Eunice Ko, told Offinger. “He says additional names are now being considered, and he’d like to offer some input on these new candidates. There are several pieces of information we’d like to have that we are going to put in a brief for Chirlane so she has some context.”
Sinacori, who bundled $500 for de Blasio’s 2013 campaign and also hosted a house party for him, was not a disinterested observer in the doings of the City Planning Commission.
Six real estate-related entities that later donated to the Campaign for One New York — the 501(c)(4) nonprofit that was shuttered in the wake of investigations into the mayor’s fundraising — hired Akerman as their lobbying firm, either outright or through a related entity or limited liability company, state lobbying records show.
Before he could even begin fundraising to support the Campaign for One New York, the mayor was instructed by the city’s ethics board not to raise money from people with matters pending or about to be pending before the city.
Before it was shut down, though, Campaign for One New York routinely collected donations from people with business at City Hall. And if someone was a big donor, their invitations received special attention, the emails indicate.
In January of 2014, mayoral consultant Jonathan Rosen forwarded an invitation for de Blasio to attend a Democracy Alliance conference to top aide Emma Wolfe. He copied Offinger because of the group’s ties to billionaire investor and political activist George Soros.
“Nothing bigger in the donor world than the [Democracy Alliance],” Offinger replied.
In 2016, the mayor’s fundraising apparatus caught the attention of federal authorities. Neither Offinger nor anyone at City Hall were ever charged in the federal inquiry into de Blasio’s fundraising, which stretched out over nearly a year. Federal prosecutors said they did not think they had found enough evidence to prosecute.
What prosecutors found, though, was a pattern of transactional behavior, acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim explained in a statement issued in March.
“We have conducted a thorough investigation into several circumstances in which Mayor de Blasio and others acting on his behalf solicited donations from individuals who sought official favors from the City, after which the Mayor made or directed inquiries to relevant City agencies on behalf of those donors,” Kim’s statement said.
The emails released by City Hall this week underscore those findings.
Offinger’s willingness to skirt the lines of favor trading came up earlier this fall, in the federal corruption case against Seabrook, when former de Blasio donor Jona Rechnitz — who served as the government’s star witness in the trial — testified that he had paid for Offinger to stay in a hotel in the Dominican Republic on a vacation.
City Hall has never agreed to provide a list of which donors the mayor personally solicited for money. A month after Offinger sent the list of donors, in April of 2016, news leaked that de Blasio’s fundraising operation was being investigated by federal prosecutors.
The level of influence Offinger held in city government, given the fact he was never a city employee, was certainly not unique to him. De Blasio has relied, throughout the course of his first term in office, on the advice of roughly a half dozen “agents of the city” — outside advisers from his favored consulting firms whose communications with City Hall the mayor’s office fought to shield from public disclosure.
POLITICO reported this year that the powerful lobbying firm Capalino and Company also formed an unofficial layer of bureaucracy in de Blasio’s City Hall — shaping policy, raising funds for events and answering technical questions on myriad aspects of municipal government.
One email exchange shows Offinger seeking access to City Hall’s internal email server, which he was briefly granted. The mayor’s spokesman explained by saying, “He only had access during a short period during the initial transition effort.”
Lobbyists Who Donated to de Blasio Nonprofit Settle With Ethics Panel ...
Video shows de Blasio donors allegedly delivering bribes to cops (NYP)
4. Inside Mayor de Blasio's $4.3M scheme to target big Donors ... - NY Daily News
Real estate investor Jona Rechnitz, a cooperating witness in several federal corruption cases involving New York City law enforcement officials and Mayor Bill de Blasio's campaign fundraising, testified in shocking detail Thursday about his pay-to-play relationship with de Blasio—one the mayor has repeatedly denied.
Rechnitz, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, described talking to the mayor on his personal cell phone once a week, according to multiple media reports, calling in favors. The special privilege was awarded him explicitly by Ross Offinger, the mayor's top donor and head of the controversial, barely legal nonprofit Campaign for One New York, he claimed.
Rechnitz testified that Offinger would "call whenever he needed money, and I'd call whenever I needed something," according to Politico. Rechnitz said that leading up to de Blasio's election, he and de Blasio would discuss "different issues in the city, if he wins, who he should be appointing for certain positions. Just talking and getting to know one another. He took my calls. We were friends."
"I was the yes man," Rechnitz added. "I always gave money, as long as I could get results." He also testified that he funneled approximately $160,000 to de Blasio's campaign and other de Blasio "pet projects," as the NY Post put it.
Crooked De Blasio Donor Testifies To Cozy Relationship With Mayor: 'He Took My Calls, We Were Friends'
Video shows de Blasio donors allegedly delivering bribes to cops (NYP)
“We’re going to go park in the chief of department’s extra spot,” Rechnitz boasts in the video.
Accused cop-briber Jeremy Reichberg and cohort Jona Rechnitz donned Santa hats and cruised around in a black Aston Martin convertible to deliver Christmas grifts to officers on Staten Island, according to videos and photos released Tuesday.
The pricey goodies, including Nintendo games and American Girl dolls, were delivered to Reichberg’s co-defendant, former NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant, as well as retired cop Eric Rodriguez and already-convicted ex-Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, Rechnitz testified in Manhattan federal court.
“Please salute us, officer, if you want to keep your job,” he adds snarkily as the men drive past a cop standing guard in the cold.
Another photo showed Reichberg standing next to an underground parking spot for the police brass. Rechnitz says in the video that they “were parking, and then we’re going with the PC [Police Chief Banks] in his car to the ball-dropping,” referring to the New Year’s Eve Times Square crystal-ball-descent celebration, which the NYPD controls.
Rechnitz has already admitted to bribing cops and public officials, including some in City Hall.
Rechnitz said Reichberg had many city officials in his pocket and used those connections to charge pals who wanted to buy their way out of jury duty and land expedited building permits.
The ex-friend recalled taking advantage of Reichberg’s cozy connections soon after meeting him about a decade ago, realizing his new buddy might be able to help him get a special placard to park wherever he wanted, including in no-parking zones.
“Everybody in the city knows that parking is a hassle,” the real estate investor and jeweler shrugged on the stand.
Rechnitz said he quickly learned that Reichberg was using his city connections, including with court-officer union boss Dennis Quirk, to line his own pockets.
The witness claimed that Reichberg used Quirk to get people out of jury duty and got paid for it. Rechnitz did not say Quirk took any money.
“I never got paid money from anybody,” Quirk said.
“If I can help somebody, I will help somebody.”
Meanwhile, Reichberg also had contacts with the city’s Department of Buildings, which he used to expedite housing permits for buddies, Rechnitz said.
Rechnitz didn’t say how much Reichberg earned pulling strings with city officials, but it emerged earlier at trial that he once charged $2,500 to get someone out of jail.
Rechnitz the Rat, Seabrook
NYPD cleared de Blasio donor's falsified gun-permit application: feds (NYP)
Brooklyn businessman accused of bribery was one-stop shop for avoiding jury duty, building inspectors: testimony
eremy Reichberg helped expedite building permits and avoid jury duty, corrupt Mayor de Blasio donor Jona Rechnitz said in Manhattan Federal Court. Those services came on top of Reichberg’s job as a “police liaison” for Borough Park, where he helped people quickly get out of holding cells or score special access at events like the New York City Marathon, Rechnitz said in Manhattan Federal Court.
“If somebody was called to jury duty, he said if I gave Jeremy the summons he would fax it to his contact,” Rechnitz, 35, said.
Reichberg’s contact in the court system was Dennis Quirk, the head of the State Court Officers Association, Rechnitz said.
Reached by text message, Quirk said that Rechnitz was “full of sh--.”
Rechnitz
has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and is the government’s star
witness in the case against Reichberg and NYPD Deputy Inspector James
(Jimmy) Grant. The son of a wealthy Los Angeles businessman, Rechnitz
began the first of several days of testimony recalling that he was
impressed by Reichberg’s parking placard and police connections when
they first met around 2008.
He
saw an opportunity to boost his own status in New York real estate
through Reichberg’s law enforcement ties, so the two started corrupting
cops together, he said.
“He was the guy who dealt with all the police and the details,” Rechnitz said of Reichberg. “I was the money man.”
Grant
was one of their loyal cops who did favors when they asked, Rechnitz
testified, recalling they paid for his expensive meals, flights and home
renovations. Grant gave Rechnitz rides to airports with his lights and
sirens blasting, Rechnitz said. Grant helped the pair resolve disputes
and helped them look like big shots through police escorts, according to
testimony.
“He’s so good, he does things when we call him,” he recalled Reichberg saying of Grant.
It wasn’t clear how much Reichberg charged for his alleged shady services.
He
would determine how much to charge depending on an estimate of his
client’s wealth, Rechnitz said. In previous testimony, a general
contractor recalled Reichberg charged $2,500 to help a pal get out of
lockup in 2015 after rear-ending a car while driving with a suspended
license.
Reichberg also helped people avoid “normal channels” at the Department of Buildings, Rechnitz said.
The unusual business wasn’t what it used to be, Reichberg allegedly once mentioned.
“He said that in the days of (Mayor Rudy) Giuliani, people like him used to make a fortune,” Rechnitz said.
Meanwhile,
in a separate development, de Blasio’s top fundraiser wrote that he
does not want to take the stand in the trial — just like the mayor
himself.
Ross
Offinger, who was was a central figure in a federal probe of de
Blasio’s fund-raising practices, asked the judge overseeing the Grant
and Reichberg trial to quash a subpoena to force him to testify.
Offinger never faced criminal charges. But he dealt extensively with Rechnitz, including accepting a trip to the Dominican Republic courtesy of the dirty donor.
Offinger
attorney Harlan Levy wrote in a letter that the federal probe of the
fundraiser never delved into the NYPD and that he has no first-hand
knowledge of the allegations against Reichberg and Grant.
Judge
Gregory Woods has not yet ruled on whether de Blasio should take the
stand. City Hall has said the mayor would have nothing to add to the
case.
Just days later, Offinger went to bat for deep-pocketed donor Jona Rechnitz, who has since pled guilty to bribing NYPD and city officials.
Ahead of a barbecue at Gracie Mansion for the 2016 Democratic National Convention selection committee, Offinger emailed the mayor’s office with the subject line: “Have a big donor friend of Jona Rechnitz who wants to come tonight.”
The email asks, “Can we make an exception?” for philanthropist Russell Galbut, whom Rechnitz wanted to bring along.
“Like
the Mayor’s testimony, Mr. Offinger’s testimony would do nothing more
than create a sideshow,” Levy wrote. “Unlike the Mayor, Mr. Offinger
does not oversee the police department. Such a sideshow would also be
extremely unfair to Mr. Offinger, since he has already been through a
year-long federal criminal investigation that appropriately resulted in
no charges against him.”
Rechnitz is expected to testify that he donated to de Blasio with the expectation he’d get special access to City Hall.
Grant’s attorney John Meringolo, who served the subpoenas on de Blasio and Offinger, has previously said he wants to grill de Blasio about his interactions with Rechnitz.
“I need to ask: Were you bribed?” Meringolo said. “My guess is he’s going to say no.”
De Blasio fundraiser helped get favors for donors, emails show (NYP)
Additionally, Offinger helped bigtime de Blasio bundler James Capalino get invites for 10 of his clients and associates to the mayor’s April 10 speech marking his first 100 days.Just days later, Offinger went to bat for deep-pocketed donor Jona Rechnitz, who has since pled guilty to bribing NYPD and city officials.
Ahead of a barbecue at Gracie Mansion for the 2016 Democratic National Convention selection committee, Offinger emailed the mayor’s office with the subject line: “Have a big donor friend of Jona Rechnitz who wants to come tonight.”
The email asks, “Can we make an exception?” for philanthropist Russell Galbut, whom Rechnitz wanted to bring along.
Lawyer for crooked de Blasio donor takes job with the feds(NYP)
Rechnitz faced off against Reichberg, and ex-NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant, on Tuesday, telling the jury that he conspired with Reichberg roughly a decade ago to bribe cops in exchange for perks like police escorts and help with their private disputes.
Reichberg, a self-described police liaison, had the contacts and Rechnitz, a real-estate investor, was the “money man,” he said.
Reichberg also profited off his connections, acting a a fixer to help get people out of jail — or even jury duty, Rechnitz said.
Rechnitz faced off against Reichberg, and ex-NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant, on Tuesday, telling the jury that he conspired with Reichberg roughly a decade ago to bribe cops in exchange for perks like police escorts and help with their private disputes.
Reichberg, a self-described police liaison, had the contacts and Rechnitz, a real-estate investor, was the “money man,” he said.
Reichberg also profited off his connections, acting a a fixer to help get people out of jail — or even jury duty, Rechnitz said.
De Blasio donor allegedly used NYPD connections to impress nurse: feds
A married de Blasio donor on trial for allegedly bribing cops used
his powerful police connections to try to score dates, according to new
court papers.
Jeremy Reichberg, on trial in Manhattan federal court, sought to woo a nurse by convincing his police pals to do favors for her, documents allege.
The nurse, Tara Sheils, was chauffeured around in a police vehicle to run “at least one purely personal errand,” and taken by Reichberg to an NYPD promotion ceremony so he could impress her, according to prosecutors’ papers.
Reichberg, 44, boasted about his cop connections and got his pal, convicted ex-NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, to give Sheils his business card and cellphone number in case she “ever needed anything,’’ the feds said.
Reichberg also brought his lady friend to NYPD headquarters to meet accused co-conspirator and ex-Chief of Department Philip Banks, who was second in command at the department, prosecutors said.
Sheils was also on Reichberg’s arm at One Police Plaza “to attend a promotion ceremony for unindicted co-conspirator Michael Milici,” the feds said.
Brooklyn businessman tried to woo mistress through NYPD ties: prosecutors (NYDN)
Jeremy Reichberg, on trial in Manhattan federal court, sought to woo a nurse by convincing his police pals to do favors for her, documents allege.
The nurse, Tara Sheils, was chauffeured around in a police vehicle to run “at least one purely personal errand,” and taken by Reichberg to an NYPD promotion ceremony so he could impress her, according to prosecutors’ papers.
Reichberg, 44, boasted about his cop connections and got his pal, convicted ex-NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, to give Sheils his business card and cellphone number in case she “ever needed anything,’’ the feds said.
Reichberg also brought his lady friend to NYPD headquarters to meet accused co-conspirator and ex-Chief of Department Philip Banks, who was second in command at the department, prosecutors said.
Sheils was also on Reichberg’s arm at One Police Plaza “to attend a promotion ceremony for unindicted co-conspirator Michael Milici,” the feds said.
Brooklyn businessman tried to woo mistress through NYPD ties: prosecutors (NYDN)
The corruption scandal swallowing up City Hall and the NYPD’s top brass is a multi-tentacled affair that raises questions about just how far the almighty dollar will take you in Bill de Blasio’s New York.
The feds are probing the cozy relationships two wealthy businessmen had with top cops; how another merchant with NYPD ties allegedly launched a $12 million Ponzi scheme; and exactly how the mayor and his former campaign treasurer solicited campaign cash from the real-estate industry.
So far, two de Blasio supporters, four high-ranking police officers as well as a retired top cop, and a restaurateur have been linked to the mushrooming investigation.
At the center are Jona Rechnitz, an Upper West Side real-estate investor, and Jeremy Reichberg, a Borough Park community leader. Both served on the mayor’s inauguration committee. They allegedly lavished gifts on top cops and were pulled into the Ponzi scheme as investors.
‘F—d’ NYPD cop’s wife part-Tony Soprano, part-dominatrix
His campaign took $9,900 in contributions from Rechnitz, while de Blasio’s nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, got $50,000 from him. Reichberg hosted a fund-raiser for the nonprofit that took in $35,000. Rechnitz also bundled $40,000 in contributions to the mayor and ponied up $102,300 to Democrats in the state Senate when de Blasio pleaded for support.
De Blasio recently announced he is shutting down the Campaign for One New York and last week said he would return Rechnitz’s $9,900 after The Post revealed the donation. He has not given back the other contributions.
When they weren’t raising cash for Hizzoner, Rechnitz and Reichberg were allegedly treating the NYPD like a personal security service, showering brass with cash, diamonds and trips abroad in exchange for special treatment.
“They go straight to the top: the [commanding officer], lieutenants and other top officials at the precinct,” a source told The Post.
One of those taking the calls, sources said, was Deputy Inspector James Grant, who kept a mezuzah on his office door even though he’s not Jewish, and who told a friend, “I’m f- -ked,” when he learned of the probe.
Before going to the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side, Grant was the top boss of Brooklyn’s 72nd Precinct from 2011 to 2014 and would allegedly shepherd Reichberg from the airport when he returned from overseas trips with diamonds.
In return, he got cash and the occasional loose diamond for his wife, a brassy Staten Island lawyer who starred in a short-lived reality-TV show, sources said.
The businessmen, whose phones were tapped by the feds, allegedly doled out other gifts, like Super Bowl tickets and vacations to China, London and Israel.
Grant, 43, and Deputy Housing Chief Michael Harrington, 50, were stripped of their guns and shields and put on desk duty last week. Brooklyn South Deputy Chief Eric Rodriguez; and Deputy Chief David Colon were both transferred.
Banks, once considered a contender for NYPD commissioner, left the force when he was offered a promotion a year later to first deputy commissioner, a job he decried as purely administrative.
Not known at the time was that probers were looking into why Banks had “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in his bank account, along with his connections to Rechnitz and Reichberg, who went with him to Jerusalem and paid for his hotel.
On Friday, the feds indicted Manhattan cafe owner and Banks associate Hamlet Peralta on wire fraud for allegedly suckering at least a dozen investors into a $12 million Ponzi scheme. His now-shuttered Hudson River Cafe was a hangout for such NYPD bosses as Colon and Harrington.
Rechnitz and Reichberg were among the investors who thought they were sinking money into Peralta’s wholesale wine business, but Peralta used the millions for clothes, debts, restaurants and spas, the indictment says.
Peralta and Banks may have traveled together, said a source who called the 36-year-old Bronx man “a really bad guy.”
De Blasio in video with accused in corruption probe (Fox 5)
One of the two fundraisers at the center of a federal corruption probe involving the NYPD
is seen in video hugging Mayor Bill de Blasio outside of his home in
Brooklyn in 2014. De Blasio has said he barely knew the men, but the
video shows the friendly embrace with Jeremy Reichberg.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bhara is investigating de Blasio's fundraising, but it is not clear what he is focusing on.Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz are being investigated for allegedly giving cops illegal gifts in exchange for favors.
Former NYPD Chief Entangled in FBI Investigation of Corruption in the Department
NYPD's former Chief of Department says he'll take the 5th if called to ...
Feds: Former S.I. cop caught in corruption probe was ‘bought and paid for’
A former high-ranking NYPD official from Staten Island was “bought and paid for” by a Brooklyn businessman who lured the veteran cop into a long-running and mutually beneficial bribery scheme, authorities allege.
Former Deputy Inspector
James Grant was allegedly treated to a trip to Las Vegas via a private
plane, where a prostitute was on board; a two-night suite at a hotel
room in Rome; and countless lavish gifts, dinners and home improvement
projects in exchange for granting special favors to Borough Park
businessman Jeremy Reichberg, prosecutors said.
“James
Grant let himself be bought,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica
Lonergan during opening arguments in the NYPD corruption trial Tuesday
in Manhattan federal court. “He betrayed his oath as an officer of the
NYPD and broke the law.”
The now-retired Grant and Reichberg were busted in 2016 during an FBI probe into NYPD corruption. The defendants are accused of fraud and bribery in the scheme that began back in 2008, authorities said.
Prosecutors
claim the Hasidic businessman paid for new windows and railings at
Grant’s home, and bought his wife and kids expensive Christmas gifts,
including jewelry and a Nintendo gaming system.
Reichberg allegedly spent thousands lining the
pockets of police officers, including Grant, in return for special
favors, including access to police escorts, helicopters, expediting an
application for gun license and helping his friends finagle out of
arrests.
“He was a businessman trying to buy cops,” Lonergan said.
In 2008, Reichberg met business partner Jona Rechnitz -- a wealthy real estate developer who testified he made large donations to Mayor Bill de Blasio and other politicians and received special treatment -- and the two teamed-up to get favors and NYPD access. De Blasio has denied Rechnitz’s allegations.
Rechnitz
has since pleaded guilty to his role in the bribery scheme in exchange
for cooperating with the feds. Defense attorneys painted Rechnitz -- the
government’s star witness -- as a wanna-be rich guy who bribed cops to
elevate his status in the community.
“Jona bankrolled the gifts, trips, diners and private planes,” said Reichberg’s lawyer, Susan Necheles.
“Jona is a master manipulator,” said Grant’s attorney, John Meringolo. “He bribed politicians, including the mayor."
Meringolo
contends Reichberg -- the Jewish man from Borough Park -- and Grant --
the Irish boy from Coney Island -- were merely good friends. Grant paid
for his vacations and home improvement projects, said the defense.
Former escort testifies about mile-high encounter with NYPD deputy inspector, Brooklyn businessman accused of bribery( NYDN)
Former NYPD Chief Entangled in FBI Investigation of Corruption in the Department
Former NYPD Chief Entangled in FBI Investigation of Corruption in the Department
Former NYPD Chief Entangled in FBI Investigation of Corruption in the Department
Judge won't block Bill de Blasio testimony in NYPD corruption trial https://www.amny.com/news/bill-deblasio-nypd-bribery-trial-1.22796869 … via
Defense lawyers want to use the mayor to attack the credibility of a government informant expected to testify at the trial of former deputy inspector James Grant and businessman Jeremy Reichberg.
Ex-hooker testifies about Vegas sex romp in NYPD bribery case (NYP)
Gabi Grecko — whose real name is Gabriella Curtis — testified Thursday that de Blasio donor Jeremy Reichberg took her on the junket to service “anyone who asked,” and once they were in Sin City, she wound up sharing a room with disgraced NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant at the MGM Grand.Grecko said “yes” when asked if she had “sexual activity” with Grant on the trip.
She also admitted to “sexual contact” with Reichberg and his real-estate investor pal Jona Rechnitz on the plane, but not with passengers Det. Michael Milici and Rechnitz pal Marco Franco.
Reichberg and Rechnitz brought Grant, Milici and Franco on the trip for the Super Bowl XLVII weekend in 2013.
FBI listened in as lawyer chatted with shady de Blasio donor
Apr 23, 2018 - During their conversation, Rechnitz told Brafman he was “calling ... “Ben was protecting Jona,
giving him all the information and finding a plan to throw me under the
bus,” he told The Post. ... he wasn't cooperating, and Peralta's claim
otherwise was “not true. ... Young Thug bond revoked after failed drug test ...
Former NYPD Chief Entangled in FBI Investigation of Corruption in the Department
A Manhattan federal judge on Friday refused to quash a defense subpoena for Mayor Bill de Blasio to testify at an NYPD corruption trial beginning next week that will feature testimony from the government informant who has claimed he paid bribes to the mayor.
“This appears to be relevant and the mere fact that the mayor is a public figure is not enough for me to preclude his testimony,” Woods told lawyers during a lengthy pre-trial conference.
Reichberg was charged with conspiring with ex-partner Jona Rechnitz, the informant, to wine and dine Grant and other cops with free meals, travel and prostitutes in return for perks like VIP access to public events, police escorts and gun licenses.
Rechnitz pleaded guilty to paying for access to City Hall, among other crimes, and de Blasio — who was never charged — has called him a liar. Defense lawyers want to use the mayor to attack the credibility of Rechnitz, whose previous testimony led to a bribery conviction of former jail union boss Norman Seabrook.
But prosecutor Martin Bell warned that if that happened, they would have to use information compiled during their investigation of possible City Hall corruption involving de Blasio and aide Ross Offinger to cross-examine him over his claims that Rechnitz lied.
Jury questionnaires indicated the mayor was polarizing, Bell warned, and given the “breadth of the investigation” of the mayor the examination could become a “distraction.”
The subpoena to de Blasio was included among dozens defense lawyers have issued to NYPD officers and officials — including Commissioner James O’Neill, former Commission William Bratton, and former chief of department Phil Banks — on the eve of trial to try to elicit explosive testimony about NYPD practices.
Defense lawyers said some of the cops — like Banks — had ties to Reichberg and Rechnitz, and top brass would have to admit that accepting things like dinners and flights from wealthy individuals was standard behavior at the highest levels of the department, not a violation of their rules.
“It is an accepted police practice,” said Susan Necheles, who wants to argue that her client, Reichberg, had every reason to believe what he was doing was OK.
Woods told an NYPD lawyer that he will consider whether to enforce the subpoenas when the government completes its case and defense lawyers can narrow the number of witnesses they want to call.
The judge said he would conduct a separate hearing on Banks, after receiving a letter indicating that the ex-chief will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
EXCLUSIVE Brooklyn Businessman Got NYPD Helicopters To Fly Over Cruise
FBI investigating NYPD for alleged ‘gifts-for-favors’ scandal (NYP)
The FBI is investigating suspected NYPD corruption focusing on the
relationship between two politically connected businessmen and a slew of
officers throughout the ranks, multiple sources told The Post on
Monday. The feds are grilling about 20 cops — including three deputy
chiefs and the head of the Upper East Side’s
19th Precinct — over gifts and foreign trips that the businessmen may
have doled out to them in exchange for favors, law-enforcement sources
said. A grand jury also has been convened, sources said.
The
investigation began with an unrelated deal-gone-awry involving the two
businessmen — Mayor de Blasio buddies Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy
Reichberg, well-placed sources said. They
gave a large sum of money to a third party who was supposed to buy
discounted liquor for them to sell at a profit, but investors lost their
money and the feds opened a fraud probe, sources said. Wiretaps on the
two businessmen’s phones revealed relationships with several NYPD cops —
and the probe soon led the feds to then-NYPD Chief of Department Philip
Banks and his close pal,
