Sheldon Silver was found guilty on seven counts of fraud, extortion, and money laundering this afternoon by a federal jury.
Silver automatically forfeits his Assembly seat upon conviction, and faces up to 120 years in jail.
Update: Suspected East River rapist in custody
After a man was caught on security cameras using the victim’s credit card, NYPD were tipped off to the suspect’s identity. Yesterday afternoon the suspect turned himself into police.
Bowerie Boogie had the story this morning.
Update: NYPD releases photos of suspect in Wednesday’s East River rape
NYPD has released photos of a man suspected of raping a jogger behind the East River bandshell Wednesday evening.
From the NYPD wanted notice:
The New York City Police Department is asking the public’s assistance identifying the suspect wanted for rape within the confines of the 7th Precinct (Manhattan). Details are as follows:
On Wednesday, November 25, 2015, at approximately 7:30 p.m., a 26-year-old female victim was jogging in East River Park, in the vicinity of Cherry Street when the suspect, on a bicycle, approached her and motioned for her to be quiet. The victim turned around and started to run in the opposite direction when the suspect grabbed her hair, put his arm around her throat and pulled her into the amphitheater area where he raped her. The suspect fled the scene thereafter. The victim was removed to Beth Israel Hospital where she was treated and released.
The suspect is male Black in his twenties.
Video surveillance still photos are of the suspect using the victim’s credit card in a deli.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
All calls are kept strictly confidential.
Jogger raped near East River bandshell on Thanksgiving eve
A 26-year-old woman was raped near the bandshell last night; police are searching for a man described as 220 pounds with dreadlocks.
Call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS if you have any formation about the incident.
ABC News reported that the woman was jogging in the park around 7:30 pm when she was attached.
Home for the holidays?
Closing arguments were made yesterday in the federal corruption trial of Assemblyman Sheldon Silver. Jurors are expected to be instructed and start deliberating today.
The prosecution has attempted to show that Silver received kickbacks from two law firms for work brought by individuals and corporations with business before the state who were aided in an official capacity by Silver in exchange for that business.
The defense has argued that these relationships constituted no more than run-of-the-mill conflicts of interest and do not rise to the level of quid pro quo bribery.
Even directors are kept in the dark
A message from East River Board Members Lee Berman and Peter Herb.
Dear Neighbors,
We know many cooperators are concerned about East River’s closed-door policy-making. But the hard truth we have learned in the year since you elected us to the board is that, when it comes to essential information and analysis, even directors are kept in the dark.
- At only half our board meetings have we seen even basic financial reports, and those were a month or more out of date. We were the only two directors who asked for current financials.
- The budget was presented to the board three months late and we were given only ten minutes to look it over. That budget contains inflated flip-tax forecasts that will leave us in a $1.5 million hole unless the real estate market heats up again. And the budget is missing the huge expenses for laundry room repairs — at least $500,000 not accounted for at all. Yet we were the only two directors to protest the last-minute vote.
- A new sublease policy passed with only back-of-the envelope analysis. Endless sublets will reduce first-time sales and cut into our flip-tax revenue, which accounts for 20% of our income. We were the only two directors who asked for a more thorough analysis.
Now we know that only two directors on a board of eleven is not enough to bring about positive change. We need four more forward-thinking directors to preserve all the things we love about East River while strengthening our financial security and sharing information and ideas with openness and respect.
Let’s come out of the dark — vote for Jim Keenan, Faith Schreier, Julian Swearengin, and Mike Turner. With all four of them beside us on the board, we will reaffirm the guiding principles of cooperative living and enrich East River Co-op for the next generation.
Cooperatively yours,
Lee Berman
Peter Herb
PS. With the holiday, it may be too late to mail in a directed proxy. Please fill out the general proxy for your address (find it here) to make sure your vote is counted for Jim, Faith, Julian, and Mike.
Proposal: Distribute coop financials 30 days before election
Ten days to go before our annual meeting … ten days before voting closes for the board of directors … and shareholders are still denied basic information about the coop’s financial situation.
Our fiscal year ended on June 30, yet almost five months later we have not yet seen financial statements. How are we supposed to make a judgement about our directors — especially the three incumbents running for re-election — if we are kept in the dark about their record?
The four candidates endorsed by Cooperatively Yours have pledged to make our audited annual report available 30 days before the annual meeting, so that appropriate questions can be raised during the campaign — and answered before you have to cast your vote.
How much did our unpopular pet policy cost us over the past year in legal fees? Is income keeping up with expenses? These are the kinds of questions we should be able to ask the candidates, and our discussions should be informed by up-to-date numbers. Instead, it has been the board’s pattern to distribute these financial reports at the last minute, just days before the annual meeting (after many cooperators have already cast their vote by proxy).
It shouldn’t take five months to produce information shareholders are entitled to. If we elect four new board members, it won’t anymore.
MTA bus town hall: Tuesday at 6:30
State Senator Daniel Squadron’s office is sponsoring a community meeting Tuesday evening to discuss “ways to improve bus service in your neighborhood.”
One item on the agenda that’s always of interest to East River cooperators: increasing bus service on Grand Street. The MTA has in the past rejected the idea of adding more M14A service, but a new idea on the table would bring the more-frequent M14D around to stop at Grand and Lewis before terminating under the bridge at Columbia Street.
The M21 already makes this loop around — too infrequently — so the bus stops already exist. The M14D could come down the FDR Access Road as usual, but instead of making a right on Delancey, continue south along the FDR to Grand Street. After a stop at Grand and Lewis, the bus could continue straight to Delancey, make a left under the bridge, and be right back on track.
Do you think that’s a good idea? Bad idea? Have another idea? Join representatives from the MTA and our local representatives’ offices:
Tuesday, November 17
6:30 p.m.
Manny Cantor Center
197 East Broadway
6th Floor
Question: Where are the financials?
It’s election time, with the annual meeting just two weeks away. Meet the Candidates night is Monday at 7pm, when we should be able to ask incumbents and candidates some tough questions about the state of the coop. But without having last year’s financials in hand — profit & loss and balance sheet — how do we even know what to ask?
So here’s a question: why are the financials always withheld until the last minute?
The fiscal year ended June 30. Four months is plenty of time to get the financials audited and distributed, which would give us all the opportunity to review the numbers, ask questions of the candidates, and make an informed choice. But if the last few years are an indication, the board will wait until just a couple days before the annual meeting to distribute financials.
Ellen Gentilviso is the chair of the finance committee; John Sotomayor is the treasurer. Along with Richard Kenny, they are directly responsible for this lapse and are asking you to re-elect them anyway. On Monday, ask this question and see if they can defend their record.
Question: What’s up with that new sublease policy?
With the meet the candidates forum coming up on Monday night, some questions come to mind that the incumbents should really be asked to answer. Here’s a big one:
Last month it was announced that the board had approved — with no input from shareholders and nothing but back-of-the-envelope analysis — a new sublease policy. The new policy raises fees slightly, from 100% of your maintenance to 150%, in exchange for allowing you to sublet your apartment forever. The board memo announcing the changes heralded “hundreds of thousands of dollars a year” that would come from the increased fees — though, more tellingly, the 2015-16 budget, approved after the new sublease fees were enacted, anticipates only $20,000 in additional revenue.
So do these numbers really add up? What’s behind the new policy?
Board candidate Mike Turner ran the numbers, and it doesn’t look good for the coop. Mike writes:
Extending the number of years allowed for sublets will reduce the number of first-sale apartments. That will cause a corresponding reduction in flip-tax revenue, which currently accounts for 20% of our annual income. Nudging even one prospective seller to become a permanent landlord would cost the co-op $140,000 in one year for a first-sale 2-bedroom apartment. It would take this one sublet apartment 13 years to generate that lost resale revenue through sublet fees, AND an ADDITIONAL 11 years for this sublet apartment to pay off the interest incurred on that $140,000 debt. In other words, it would take 24 years before we start to see a profit on this one apartment.
Check that out: 24 years before the coop makes a dime on those new fees. All the while the shareholder — now landlord — is earning an income from their apartment.
So who exactly was this new policy enacted for? For those few new landlords, not for the rest of us who will spend the next 24 years subsidizing their rental property.
Clip the question above and drop it in the hat Monday night — let’s see what sort of excuse incumbents Ellen Gentilviso, John Sotomayor, and Richard Kenny come up with.