Pacific Park will be subject to rent-stabilization increases, Greenland Forest City Partners surely has an interest in steady increases in annual rents. (So too do all landlords.) * Bill de Blasio appoints three members to Rent GuidelinesBoard, giving the mayor complete control (NYDN) * New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed three members to the board that sets rents for about one million rent-stabilized apartments, filling all the body’s seats in time for an annual fight, the Times reports: * De Blasio’s three new appointments to the Rent GuidelinesBoard have landlords worrying that a rent freeze is in the offing, Crain’s reports:

More on Rent Control

More on Ratner

Will All the Govt $$$ Used to Build Barclays Stadium Wind Up In the Hands of the Russians?

Forest City selling majority stake in Barclays Center(Capital) * Breaking: Ratner's selling share of Barclays Center(at a loss?) (Atlantic Yards Report) SBJ writer Daniel Kaplan suggested that potential owners could be Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who owns a 45% share of the arena, or the new owners of the Islanders, former Capitals owner Jonathan Ledecky and London-based investor Scott Malkin. If Prokhorov controls the arena, that would mean that foreign owners control all of Atlantic Yards. * Current management seen as continuing at Barclays Center(operating company), though not clear how long; why is Ratner selling for seeminglow price? (AYR) Forest City Enterprises and Bruce Ratner are selling their 55% share of the Barclays Center--actually, the arena operating company--and only a few details have emerged since Sports Business Journal broke the news yesterday. Sports Business Journal noted that investment bank Evercore, which is packaging the arena deal, declined to comment, and "Forest City referred questions to Nets and arena spokesman Barry Baum, who declined to comment." Ratner has been unable to sell his 20% share of the Nets, though the paper valuation of the team has rocketed, to a potential $1 billion or more. There's apparently a gap between the paper value and the lack of annual profits. Sports Business Journal reported: The problem, market insiders said, are the steep financial losses at the Nets, which incurred a U.S. sports record loss of $144 million last season, according to published reports. The team has committed to stop the red ink after this season, but with an owner, Prokhorov, seen as willing to tolerate losses to sign top players, finding a willing partner subject to capital calls is not easy. ...Forest City paid Prokhorov a fee to avoid capital calls through July 2015, according to Forest City’s annual report, so the purchaser of the stake would apparently enjoy one capital-call-free season — the coming, 2014-15 season.* Forest City selling majority stake in Barclays Center(Capital)* Greenland Forest City now promoting condos to buyers in China; 2005 video shows executive claiming Forest City had no preferencefor condos (AYR)

First Forest City Gets Over A Billion in Government $$$ to Build Their Stadium . . . Now Green Cards

It comes on top of $228 million raised in 2010 by Forest City Ratner under the federal government's EB-5 program, and $249 million raised earlier this year by Forest City, in combination with Greenland. (In the Chinese EB-5 market, the Atlantic Yards brand has enough cachet that they're not calling the project PacificPark.) Why bother, when the partners presumably have a significant amount of equity? Because they need loans to proceed with the project, and they want a bargain. “It’s a very low-cost way to fill out your capital stack," a real estate lawyer has said, comparing a 12% interest rate for a mezzanine loan to an EB-5 loan in "the low single digits." (The immigrant investors care more about getting green cards, and getting their money back after five years, than a robust interest rate.)Yards brand has enough cachet that they're not calling the project PacificPark.) Reasons for cynicism about EB-5 The federal government's EB-5 program should inspire significant cynicism on its face, given that it's dubious to let the wealthy, especially ones with no special skills, jump the immigration line. Also, it's fundamentally dubious to hand out green cards when no actual new jobs need be counted (indirect jobs are OK) and when private companies--not the public--are the major beneficiaries. The EB-5 track record should inspire further cynicism, given that, to qualify for the $500,000 investment, the regional centers gerrymander the map to ensure that the project is located in an area of high unemployment. (Remember the "Bed-Stuy Boomerang" that encompasses Atlantic Yards?)

Greenland Forest City Partners, the joint venture that will reap the savings from a below-market loan, is 70% owned by the Greenland Group, itself owned by the Shanghai government. In other words, as with the second round of Atlantic Yards fundraising, a foreign government is profiting by marketing a scarce U.S. public resource--green card slots under the EB-5 program--to its own citizens. This is, as far as I know, unprecedented. And the role of Greenland (see the green logo at top left in the advertisement below) enhances the investment for a Chinese audience. If this is legal, it's unimaginable this scenario was contemplated by Congress when it authorized the program in 1990, aiming to compete with other countries that were welcoming the world's wealthy in the wake of uncertainty in Hong Kong. In other words, it's twisting the spirit, if not the letter, of the law even more than the dubious 2010 first round of Atlantic Yards EB-5 fundraising. The proponents of the "Atlantic Yards III" investment, on a web page set up by the Qiao Wai Group migration consultancy, include elected officials like Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Gov. David Paterson, and Borough President Marty Markowitz, who are no longer in office. Also, this is the first time I've ever seen EB-5 promoters claim that a top

U.S.

diplomat is in support, in this case Charles Rivkin, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs. As far as I can tell from a machine translation, Rivkin is saying optimistic things about Atlantic Yards.

Greenland Forest City Partners, the joint venture that will reap the savings from a below-market loan, is 70% owned by the Greenland Group, itself owned by the Shanghai government

Norman Oder ‏@AYReport

MT @davidbivins Interesting article abt future of BK realestate,gentrification, w/some juicy details @brooklynbureau * Despite convo@ realEstate parley, mayb ENY is a "nextneighborhood" @brooklynbureau @citylimitsorg via @CrainsNewYork

s

NYT Disconnect From de Blasio's Build Baby Build, the Barclays Gentrification Push Out

From the NYTs: The NYT calls de Blasio's housing plan timely and exciting mission. His plan is to build aggressively and densely, and demand that a significant portion of new units be permanently affordable. Use all means possible to protect what’s there, including strengthening rent regulations and tripling, to $36 million a year, the amount the city spends to protect tenants from greedy landlords in housing court.

Mr. de Blasio’s skeptics are right about some real estate truisms; the people with lots of money are poised to win no matter what — they will get their water views and dog salons — and developers will profit mightily. And in parts of the city on the churning edge of the gentrification wave, as in stretches of Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights, where storefront Pentecostal churches and old brownstones mix with banh mi places and ironic coffee shops, displacement seems inevitable. Brooklyn’s Barclays Center project gave developers and corporate tenants the tax breaks and profits they wanted, but the gauzy promise of an affordable neighborhood around it has not yet been fulfilled. In Manhattan, giant luxury towers still sprout skyward, while rich foreigners park their money in luxe apartments that stay empty.

Fact and Reality: The NYT is Right in Saying That Thousands of Affordable Housing Have Been Lost in the Barclays Center Area and Not One Affordable Apartment Has Been Open to Date Where is the proof that increase development leads to more affordable. There is proof that increased development leads to gentrification push out. Most of the 400 affordable planned for the Barclay site rent for $3500 hardly affordable to the seniors being forced out of their $700 Crown Heights Apartments.

Summary: The Hidden Money Buying Up New York Real Estate (NYT) At the Time Warner Center, 37 percent of the condominiums are owned by foreigners. At least 16 foreigners who have owned in the building have been the subject of government inquiries, either personally or as heads of companies. The real estate industry does little examination of buyers’ identities or backgrounds, and there is no legal requirement for it to do so. Nearly half of the most expensive residential properties in the United States are now purchased anonymously through shell companies.

How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Outof Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers

How NYC is losing the Middle Class

Real Estate Developers, Tax Breakes and Politics

The Parkside Monopoly
More on Gentrification

Ratner's BS Catches Up With Him Again

Construction Is Shut Down at Atlantic Yards Complex

Forest City Ratner and its partner, a Swedish construction company, are battling over who should pay for millions of dollars in cost overruns at an innovative residential project at the former Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn.

Atlantic Yards Review: NYT Goes After the Tarantula Hoax . . . But Whiffs On Atlantic Yards Lawsuit

The Atlantic Yards CBA promised a path to union apprenticeships. Instead, BUILD's coveted program provoked a bitter lawsuit(AYR)

For many Brooklynites, the first element of the Atlantic Yards holy trinity—“jobs, housing, and hoops,” as announced in December 2003—ranked first. A well-paying construction job would be a ticket to the middle-class and a secure future.

For years, the prospect of such jobs, helping build an arena and 16 towers, animated the constant, bumptious presence of unionized construction workers at rallies and public hearings. That prospect also drew more than 8,000 people—many of them underemployed or unemployed black men—to the offices and meetings of Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development (BUILD), a group Assemblyman Roger Green helped organize in late 2003 to provide job training at Atlantic Yards and offer "community" validation for a project that would bypass local oversight. After years of demolition and utility work, the Barclays Center began construction in March 2010. Local workers were hired, but there was no role yet for many who put huge hopes in the project, backing BUILD at rallies and hearings. Such hopes drew more than 1,200 people, some lining up at 3 am, to an August 2010 information meeting for a long-promised pre-apprentice training program (PATP). The program would enroll 36 construction trainees for 15 increasingly fractious weeks. It was the first and only cohort in a program once aimed to “address the problem of long-term disproportionately high unemployment in the Community,” according to the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner signed with BUILD and seven other groups, trumpeted as a new paradigm for community engagement. That PATP, which graduated the trainees in December 2010 but sent none to union apprenticeships, is now the subject of a bitter lawsuit filed by 20 former trainees, who charge Forest City and BUILD with “avarice, duplicity and hubris” and seek compensation for the careers they say were promised and the unpaid training that went awry. The lawsuit faces a crucial hearing in federal court in Brooklyn tomorrow at noon. (Update: here's coverage of the hearing, where a judge raised questions about attempts to tie BUILD and Forest City.)

Ratner 100,000 Affordable Housing Government Deal

Rattner Gets More Government $$$ to Build Housing That he Promised to Build As Part of the Original Deal to Build the Stadium

Helping needy? In all-affordable #AtlanticYards towers, 65% ofUnits to households earning $100K+

1. Tom Robbins ‏@tommy_robb 5m
  
  "Bruce Ratner, a politically savvy fellow who has a dairy-farmer-like appreciation for the teat of public subsidy"After Decades at a Walk-Up, Tenants Fear Losing a Home(NYT)

AYR: Ratner Departs from promise that 40% of affordable units would be low-income

Disconnect with needy? In two new 100% affordable Atlantic Yards towers, 65% of units would go to middle-income households earning $100K+(AYR) * Facing pressure from potential lawsuit, Forest City agrees to accelerate affordable housing to 2025; formation of new subsidiary hailed, but leaves closest neighbors unhappy(AYR)On the eve of the final state approvals for Atlantic Yards, developer Forest City Ratner, apparently threatened by a prepared but never filed civil rights lawsuit that jeopardized the pending joint venture with a crucial new investment partner, has agreed to accelerate the construction of affordable housing in the project to finish all 2250 units by 2025, rather than 2035 as state documents would permit.* After 11 years of delays and lawsuits, the developer behind the Atlantic Yards project has agreed to accelerate construction of an affordable housing project after a deal was reached with state officials, the Times reports: * State to Forest City: Build cheap digs at Atlantic Yardsfaster(Brooklyn Paper) * Atlantic Yards affordable housing going to families making $100G: officials(NYDN)

More on How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects

Norman Oder ‏@AYReport

@JuliaManhattan 2 all-affordable towers help get @BilldeBlasio his numbers, but departfrom #AtlanticYards plan

A Web of Corrupt Lobbyists and Elected Officials Surround Ratner But Never Touch Him

The New Teflon
Don Mr. Ratner
Yonkers Corruption Trial Puts Forest City Ratner in the Spotlight(NY Magazine) Brooklyn-based developer Forest City Ratner is not facing any criminal charges in a juicy corruption trial of a political operative and a former city councilwoman in Yonkers. But the trial, which began in mid-February, has shed some light on the nebulous web of politicians and politicians-turned-lobbyists that were working to approve a $650 million Forest City real-estate project * Top Senate Republican Wrapped Up In Yonkers Corruption Trial(City and State) (The provenance of Hiffa remains unclear, but there is an Albany-based lobbying firm called Ostroff, Hiffa, and Associates, which has a lot of business before the state, including representation of SUNY Binghamton, which is in Libous’s district. The firm has more than 200 registered contracts with the state lobbying commission over the past six years.

Only the Guy Was Hired By Ratner and A Councilwoman Who Sold Her Vote Went to Jail

Bruce Bender, a former executive with the development company Forest City Ratner who came out of Kruger's Thomas Jefferson club was taped in the feds Kruger bribery case and testified at the Yonkers bribery. Scott Cantone, FCR’s senior VP for government affairs, testified in Manhattan federal court that the firm hired then-Yonkers Republican Party chairman Zehy Jereis as a “consultant” in 2006 because Jereis was the only one who could swing a key vote their way to push through a stalled $650 million mixed-use development called “Ridge Hill.” Cantone added that Jereis was canned after three months – during which he was paid $15,000 – once the firm learned Jereis was the focus of a federal corruption probe. The contract was supposed to be for one year.

Not Only Does Ratner Not in Any Trouble for the Corruption of His Lobbyists He Wins the Jacqueline Kennedy Medal

Plan to Honor Ratner (NYT)
Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol. *Times finally publishes article on Ridge Hill trial, lets flack DePlasco defend Forest City against unidentified "critics," downplays developer's dubious behavior (Atlantic Yards Review)Ratner was not charged with wrongdoing, but it clearly behaved dubiously--details omitted from the Times coverage. Its representatives strung along Zehy Jereis, nervous about giving him the lobbying job he requested, since that would be a quid pro quo, but afraid that not giving him a job would scotch efforts to flip Annabi's vote.* We didn't know we hired a crook: Ratner firm (NYP) Officials of developer Bruce Ratner’s firm are claiming the company had no clue it recruited a convicted drug dealer and election fraudster to salvage a stalled $842 million mixed-use development in Yonkers.

The NYT did not get into where the money came from to bribe Councilwoman Annabi Or Kruger

Ms. Annabi’s lawyer, William I. Aronwald, suggested during cross-examination of one witness that Mr. Pirro had been paid $1 million for his efforts to lobby for Ratner. Zehy Jereis was paid 60,000 as a consultant after the project was approved. But the question that has not been addressed was where the 160,000 bribe money came from to pay Annabi.

The NYT Left Out the Fact That This is The Second Ratner Bribe Trial This Year

Ratner Lobbyist Richard Lipsky pleaded guilty to bribing former Senator Carl Kruger $250,000. Kruger who stated out in politics with Bruce Bender at the Thomas Jefferson Club according to FBI tapes was helpful to his old clubmate. An FBI raid of Lipsky's house uncovered $100,000 in cash and $4,000 in "crisp" bills in his suit pocket. We still don't know where the Lipsky Kruger's bribe cash came from.

Window Into Developer’s Relentless Quest to Get a Yonkers Project Approved(NYT) For Forest City Ratner, it had become a make-or-break moment: The developer had already spent roughly $70 million on a proposed 81-acre luxury mall and housing complex in Yonkers, but was one vote shy of winning the City Council’s approval. . . “I have taken every angle with this Sandy,” Mike Spano, a consultant, wrote on Sept. 25, 2005, in an e-mail to Bruce Bender, then a Forest City executive. Mr. Spano had also enlisted others — including union heads, the Yonkers Republican Party chairman, a well-connected lawyer and even his brother, State Senator Nicholas A. Spano — in the effort to persuade Ms. Annabi.* A Yonkers corruption case involving a councilwoman’s approval for a mall and housing complex also reveals developer Forest Ratner’s aggressiveness in seeking support from an elected official * Rhil Reisman details a patronage trail that somehow always leads to ex-Sen. Nick Spano.

The Boys Meet in Brooklyn to Cut A Deal to Clear the Way for Ratner Yonkers Project

Lentol in the Ratner Trial

During yesterday’s testimony, it was also revealed that state Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) helped broker the first meeting with Jereis who convicted for bribing a Yonkers former city councilwoman and FCR officials in June 2006 at Marco Polo Ristorante in Brooklyn. ‘No-$how’ Ratner woe NYP) An executive at Forest City Ratner testified in Manhattan federal court yesterday that he hired former Yonkers GOP chairman Zehy Jereis for a no-show job to help push through legislation on a stalled $630 million development project. FCR's Cantone testifies: defendant Jereis probably wouldn't have gained no-show job had he not gotten defendant Annabi's vote switch on Ridge Hill; also, Brooklyn Assemblyman Lentol played key cameo(Atlantic Yards Report)

NYP Attacks de Blasio Welfare Reforms, But Leaves Out Govt Checks to Developers Like Bruce Ratner

Lindsay’s third term(NYP) How sad that policies that do nothing to help the neediest and most vulnerable members of society are called “progressive,” even as they march us back to the kind of decisions of the 1960s and ’70s that helped devastate so many inner cities. It’s as if John Lindsay is back in Gracie Mansion.In this, New York was helped along by the historic 1996 welfare-reform bill, which, as E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center reminds us, “transformed an open-ended entitlement program into a system based on work incentives.” And at a huge savings to taxpayers: According to the city’s Independent Budget Office, the cost of public-assistance grants plunged to $1.4 billion this year from $4.4 billion (in 2014 dollars) in 1995. By almost any measure, this is a huge achievement.

Atlantic Yards Reports Asks Who Decided That Ratner $$$ OK and Wal-Mart $$$ are No Good? And Why?

A big check (not even a donation) from Ratner is fine, according to Lewis. A big check from Wal-Mart is toxic(AYR)Once upon a time, in 2005, the Forest City Ratner "publication," the Brooklyn Standard, promoted a rather meager gesture, the developer's decision to deposit--not give--$1 million in the black-owned Carver Federal Savings Bank, calling it "investing in the community." Beaming along with Bruce Ratner and a giant oversized check was Bertha Lewis, then of ACORN, along with two other Community Benefits Agreement signatories, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry and James Caldwell. Forest City not only supported the CBA signatories but bailed out national ACORN at Lewis's behest, before it declared bankruptcy.

Ratner Flashback State agency says Bruce Ratner used federal program to finance Atlantic Yards project, Nets arena(NYDN 2010) * Bruce Ratner re-invests in Cuomo, DiNapoli; Forest City gives to Democratic slush fund(AYR) * You're Helping Bruce Ratner Pay His Mortgage -- NYMag * True News (The Bund): How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval ... * Joe Lhota slams Bill de Blasio over being quiet on affordable housing in Atlantic Yards(NYSDN, 2013) * Queens Crap: Because "progressives" love Bruce Ratner * Bertha Lewis, Bruce Ratner make Times "Evening Hours" party page

How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects

What About the Govt Funded Gentrification Ratner Created?

Does Giving Govt $ Ratner Create Homelessness? Push Out Business Creating Unemployment . . . People on Welfare?

Brooklyn Tenants Protest, Demand More Protections To End Displacement

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The severe housing crunch in New York City is causing rent to skyrocket, but on Saturday protesters took to the streets in Brooklyn in an attempt to push back.

Hundreds of tenants joined forces with the Crown Heights Tenant Union to call for strengthened tenant protections in order to end displacement and what they call systematic rent overcharges, CBS 2 reported.

“Salaries have not gone up. Prices for everything else have gone up and we need our rents to remain the same. We have no problem with gentrification because we love the beautification of the neighborhood, but we also have the right to remain in our apartments,” one woman said. The tenant union is calling on BCB Capital Management, Pinnacle Realty and others to comply with their demands through a legally binding agreement.* Pressured to Move, Low-Income Tenants Resist Buyout The Brooklyn Bureau* Expensive Affordable Housing Riveting piece by @jbarro on #NYC's extraordinarily expensive affordable housing program * Foreclosure Nearly 30,000 city homeowners could lose home to foreclosure.

On Inside City Hall, Deputy Mayor Glen papers over change in affordable housing by saying those earning over $100K need housing; also hails 35% family-sized units(AYR)

From City Limits: Behind Atlantic Yards Housing Deal, Some Big Shifts(AYR)

My City Limits' Brooklyn Bureau article, Behind Atlantic Yards Housing Deal, Some Big Shifts, has the subhed "Affordability in next two buildings skews to households earning six figures; pattern suggests more all market-rate towers; new emphasis on larger units."

One lingering question is whether the tradeoff--speedier towers, but lesser affordability, at least in the next two towers--is worth it.

Also, I report on the possibility of a major departure from the mixed-income towers touted by the developer:

According to a draft document obtained by this reporter, Forest City is considering a plan in which six of 14 residential towers contain exclusively market-rate towers (three rental, three condo). Of the remainder, two would be the just-announced 100 percent affordable rental buildings, five would follow the promised 50 percent affordable/50 percent market template for rentals, and one would mix condos and 50/50 rentals.

Updated) Community negotiators got faster affordable housing and new oversight. They didn't know two all-affordable towers would skew toward $100K+ households.(AYR)

Ratner joins de Blasio's Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City (as he did with Bloomberg)(AYR)

Ratner Who Destroys Neighborhoods Gets Jacqueline Kennedy Award?

Kennedy Saved Grand Central Station Ratner Put Up A Shopping Mall and A Stadium

Preservation Group Criticized for Plan to Honor Developer of Big Brooklyn Project(NYT)

The Municipal Art Society plans to give its Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal to Bruce C. Ratner, builder of the Atlantic Yards development.* On night Ratner/Gilmartin get Onassis Medal, "appalled" Historic Districts Council plans showing of film, panel discussion (including me)(AYR)

SKDKnickerbocker back in the news; chief-of-staff in NYC office was FCR flack; firm produced misleading Atlantic Yards brochures(AYR) News that Audrey Gelman, spokesperson for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (and occasional actress on Girls) is going to the consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker reminded me to take a look at the firm (previously known as Knickerbocker SKD) and its multiple Atlantic Yards connections, producing propaganda on behalf of the project and hiring a former Forest City Ratner flack..KnickerbockerSKD emerged later, and an April 201 merger produced the new firm. The 2/22/11 profile in Capital NY, How former liberal operative Josh Isay became the default paid-media guy to the New York establishment,stated: Both the corporate and the political clients ostensibly benefit from the same essential asset: Isay’s knowledge of how reporters, politicians and regulators process information.

Ratner Award for?

JoAnne Wasserman ‏@Bkjowasserman

Ratner award sparks intra-preservationist fight http://capi.tl/1kCp0Uo via @capitalnewyork
Norman Oder ‏@AYReport

@Bkjowasserman @capitalnewyork More reasons to question award to Ratner/Gilmartin http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-night-ratnergilmartin-get-onassis.html … @danarubinstein #AtlanticYards

A Community Tug of War in Brooklyn(NYT)

Three community boards have shared jurisdiction over wide-ranging aspects of the 22-acre project that includes Barclays Center, with each making an argument for sole custody.

Norman Oder ‏@AYReport 7m

@thedailybeast Dissects mythologizing of #JayZ http://thebea.st/1oKPBU5 I'd add his shilling for #AtlanticYards http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/the_jay_z_distraction/ … @Salon

#AtlanticYards = "strengthening the infrastructure of crony capitalism" says @NoticingNY's Michael White http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2014/05/at-hea

Brooklyn Could Make the Next President

DNC AT THE BARCLAYS?: City's 2016 Democratic National Convention pitch could include Brooklyn(NYDN)

The Russians Are Coming

Cold War Returns to Brooklyn- Nyets

Brooklyn Nets owner says plans to bring NBA club under Russian jurisdiction(Yahoo News) MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian billionaire said on Monday he planned to relocate his company that runs the Brooklyn Nets basketball team to Russia, in keeping with the Kremlin's call on Russian businessmen to repatriate their assets to help combat new U.S. sanctions.* Geopolitical pickle: Nets owner Prokhorov pursues unprecedented effort to move team under a Russian company(AYR)

Will Obama Impose A Red Line Over Changing Nyets Cheerleaders?

Mikhail Prokhorov plans to move Nets ownership to Russian company(NYDN) * NBA Denies Clearing Nets to Become 'Russian'(NYT) * Moscow Nyets? Brooklyn Nets Owner to Relocate Parent Com(Fox)* Tycoon Prokhorov denies sanctions link to US basketball club ... *Brooklyn Nets Ownership Moves to Russia, Amid Crimea Sanction Fears(TIME)
Breaking News Russian Troops Surrounding Brighton Beach

Ratner Giving a bad name to sucking up?
Ratner and Gilmartin surely aren't preservationists, having demolished renovated and renovation-worthy industrial buildings for Atlantic Yards

Municipal Art Society For $ale
What would Jackie think? MAS to honor Forest City's Ratner and Gilmartin with highest award, the Onassis Medal(AYR) Following on its myopic (juried) award to the Barclays Center as "Best Neighborhood Catalyst," the Municipal Art Society (MAS), that venerable urbanist organization, is giving its highest honor, the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal, to Bruce Ratner and MaryAnne Gilmartin of Forest City Ratner at a fundraising gala June 11. The Times Tower in Midtown was where Forest City, with notable chutzpah, tried to wrangle triple tax-free Liberty Bonds aimed to rebuild Lower Manhattan. So the question should be asked: What would Jackie think? What about Jane Jacobs?

Court upholds 2 NY pols corruption convictions(WSJ) YONKERS, N.Y. — The U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the corruption convictions of two former Yonkers politicians. The three-judge panel on Tuesday rejected the appeals of former City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and Yonkers Republican Chairman Zerhy Hereis (JEHR'-ish).

Rattner Still Sucking On the Government Tit

1. Tom Robbins ‏@tommy_robb 5m
  
  "Bruce Ratner, a politically savvy fellow who has a dairy-farmer-like appreciation for the teat of public subsidy"After Decades at a Walk-Up, Tenants Fear Losing a Home(NYT)

After 3 Ratner Lobbyists Are Send to Jail He Keeps Hiring More Lobbyists

Forest City Ratner's 2011 city/state lobbying: 50% jump, with big contract to Kasirer; in Congress, D'Amato's firm lobbied for EB-5, and even got paid for not lobbying
Forest City Ratner may not be among the state's top ten in lobbying expenditures any more, but the firm still dished out more than $500,000 in 2011 to influence legislation and official action in Albany and New York City. The total represents a nearly 50% increase over its spending in 2010, according to online lobby data How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects(True News)

1.28.2013

Bruce Ratner to step down as Forest City CEO(CrainsNY)

Ratner Lobbyist Trial Forged Email Conspiracy Theory - No Love?

Doubt Cast on Defendant’s Romantic E-Mails(NYT) In a Yonkers corruption trial, a prosecutor accused Zehy Jereis of fabricating e-mails in which he expressed desire for a former city councilwoman. In the sprawling Yonkers political corruption trial, prosecutors charged that defendant Zehy Jereis forged emails in effort to create the appearance that a $175,000 bribe for a Yonkers councilwoman was actually the result of a romantic infatuation, * Defendant Jereis cross-examined in Yonkers corruption trial: contestations, contradictions, and a major question: were the lovesick emails a sham?(Atlantic Yard Review)

Lowe Yonkers Corruption Nexus

Lowe — who worked as a lobbyist for Forest City Ratner — was also subpoenaed as part of the federal probe of the company’s Ridge Hill development in Yonkers.
Developer of Major New Rochelle Project, Forest City Ratner, Bribed Yonkers Official Sexy Sandy Annabi, U.S. Attorney Charges (Talk of the Sound) * A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol. Sampson was senator #1 in the Kruger indictment. Shocking than Kruger's $500000 gift to Bruce - Atlantic Yards Report * Window Into Developer’s Relentless Quest to Get a Yonkers Project Approved(NYT) * Annabi verdict is latest win for U.S. attorney(LoHud)

Ratner's Lobbyist Trial Reveals A Web of Other Corruption Crimes and Still No Media Coverge
Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan called for an ethics investigation into the allegation that surfaced at a Yonkers corruption trial that Sen. Tom Libous promised a law firm increased business if it gave his son a $150,000-a-year job.* Yonkers trial: evidence that Council Member Annabi fudged numbers to get home loans, didn't disclose help from Jereis(Atlantic Yards Review)
* Sen. Skelos: I spoke with Sen. Libous, said he did nothing wrong; that's good enough for me. Convict claims Libous rigged job for son.

Atlantic Yard Blogger Writes in NY Magazine About the Ratner Lobbyist Trial . . . Which Has Been Basically Black Out by the NY Media

Yonkers Corruption Trial Puts Forest City Ratner in the Spotlight(NY Magazine) Brooklyn-based developer Forest City Ratner is not facing any criminal charges in a juicy corruption trial of a political operative and a former city councilwoman in Yonkers. But the trial, which began in mid-February, has shed some light on the nebulous web of politicians and politicians-turned-lobbyists that were working to approve a $650 million Forest City real-estate project.

NYT Ends Ratner Lobbyist's Trial Blackout To Spin FCR Flack Spin Crap
So, after three days of testimony from Forest City Ratner officials, and a one-day grace period, the New York Times today finally publishes an article about the Ridge Hill project and Yonkers corruption

Times finally publishes article on Ridge Hill trial, lets flack DePlasco defend Forest City against unidentified "critics," downplays developer's dubious behavior (Atlantic Yards Review)

Bruce Ratner Built the NYT's New Headquarters

The ending of the NYT article does lean Ratner's way:

A Forest City spokesman, Joseph DePlasco, spins on Wednesday Ratner the Victim. That critics had focused unfairly on the developer’s role. “This is really about a company trying with great difficulty to navigate the byzantine maze of politics in Yonkers,” he said.

Ratner's Team Afraid to Make It Look Like Pay to Play

The developer was not charged with wrongdoing, but it clearly behaved dubiously--details omitted from the Times coverage. Its representatives strung along Zehy Jereis, nervous about giving him the lobbying job he requested, since that would be a quid pro quo, but afraid that not giving him a job would scotch efforts to flip Annabi's vote.

At one point in the article, the Times notes an email sent by Bender:

"Mr. Bender responded bluntly: “get sandy on bd tell your brother we need help now.”

But the NYT did not report Mr. Bender was actually a lot more blunt. He preceded that sequence with the phrase "no fucking around."

The NYT did not get into where the money came from to bribe Councilwoman Annabi

Ms. Annabi’s lawyer, William I. Aronwald, suggested during cross-examination of one witness that Mr. Pirro had been paid $1 million for his efforts to lobby for Ratner. Zehy Jereis was paid 60,000 as a consultant after the project was approved. But the question that has not been addressed was where the 160,000 bribe money came from to pay Annabi.

The NYT Left Out the Fact That This is The Second Ratner Bribe Trial This Year

Ratner Lobbyist Richard Lipsky pleaded guilty to bribing former Senator Carl Kruger $250,000. Kruger who stated out in politics with Bruce Bender at the Thomas Jefferson Club according to FBI tapes was helpful to his old clubmate. An FBI raid of Lipsky's house uncovered $100,000 in cash and $4,000 in "crisp" bills in his suit pocket. We still don't know where the Lipsky Kruger's bribe cash came from.

Window Into Developer’s Relentless Quest to Get a Yonkers Project Approved(NYT) For Forest City Ratner, it had become a make-or-break moment: The developer had already spent roughly $70 million on a proposed 81-acre luxury mall and housing complex in Yonkers, but was one vote shy of winning the City Council’s approval. . . “I have taken every angle with this Sandy,” Mike Spano, a consultant, wrote on Sept. 25, 2005, in an e-mail to Bruce Bender, then a Forest City executive. Mr. Spano had also enlisted others — including union heads, the Yonkers Republican Party chairman, a well-connected lawyer and even his brother, State Senator Nicholas A. Spano — in the effort to persuade Ms. Annabi.* A Yonkers corruption case involving a councilwoman’s approval for a mall and housing complex also reveals developer Forest Ratner’s aggressiveness in seeking support from an elected official * Rhil Reisman details a patronage trail that somehow always leads to ex-Sen. Nick Spano.

Shocking: Forest City Had No Idea of Their Lobbyists Criminal Backround

We didn't know we hired a crook: Ratner firm (NYP) 6:00PM Officials of developer Bruce Ratner’s firm are claiming the company had no clue it recruited a convicted drug dealer and election fraudster to salvage a stalled $842 million mixed-use development in Yonkers.

NY Post: Forest City didn't conduct background check into Jereis, spokesman claims they had "no way of knowing" his criminal past(Atlantic Yards Report)

Past press coverage of Jereis Legal Problems: NY Times, Journal News, NY Daily News

Norman Oder ‏ @AYReport #RidgeHill trial: Forest City execs pushed to pay Jereis despite internal doubt bit.ly/xePyv8 Company wasn't 'bilked,' as per NYTimes Did Forest City Ratner get "bilked" by Yonkers defendant (as suggested in 2010 Times coverage)? Trial testimony indicates the opposite(Atlantic Yards Report)

The Daily News Does Not Cover the Trial But Does PR for Forest City Ratner

Barclays Center looks for Brooklyn foodie vendors at new Atlantic Yards Nets arena (NYDN) Looking for local eateries to sell 'Everything from pickles to pizza,' say officials

Ridge Hill trial: Forest City execs pushed payment for no-show job despite internal resistance; prosecution's case complicated by Bender's agreement that developer convinced Annabi to switch vote

After all, testimony yesterday indicated that Forest City executives had no problem with Zehy Jereis's seemingly no-show job and, even though he hadn't submitted required monthly reports and a lower-level employee had raised a red flag, two of the firm's top government relations executives, Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone, ordered that he be paid $15,000.

Trial Day 4 No NYC Media Coverage - Too Big For Coverage?

NYT, NYP and DN Continues to Covers-Up For Developer Bruce Ratner

This Report Made Possible by Atlantic Yards Report

On a day when a former Yonkers city councilman testified about a company that has already received $750 million and has had its lobbyist convicted of bribing criminal Carl Kruger $250,000 the NYC's papers black out coverage of the second Ratner bribery trial. Where an Ex-Yonkers Council Member: "Forest City Ratner games the system and does not play by the rules"(Atlantic Yards Report)

Ratner Gamed the System

The Journal News offers an overview article on the developer, Forest City known for tough political skills around region. The toughest critic is a local:

Forest City Ratner has “little or no regard for public opinion,” said John Murtagh, a former Yonkers councilman and opponent of the Ridge Hill project who recently testified in the trial. “Their entire business model is to exploit every tax loophole and taxpayer-funded subsidy that they can. Promise the world and deliver far less, and do it all by manipulation.”

Ratner Protesters Disappearance Act Help the Developer Get Away With Gaming the System

In 2006 Ratner protest attracts thousands today when it becoming clearer and clearer that the developer's lobbyist bribed public official to gain millions in government funding the protesters have disappeared. The public silence makes it a slam dunk for newspapers to get away with their blackout of the Yonkers bribery trial where the developers lobbyist have already been exposed. Notice how the developers is never indicted only those who work for the developer. Maybe a renewed protest could demand that the prosecutors find out were the lobbyists got their bribery money and who else was involved.

NYT MIA In Ratner Lobbyist Trial

A house ad in the Times and a question mark about coverage of Forest City Ratner's role in the Yonkers corruption case(Atlantic Yard Review) It was curious that, after a Forest City Ratner executive testified last Thursday about the developer's questionable behavior connected to its Ridge Hill project, a key part of the corruption case against two Yonkers figures, no article appeared in the New York Times. . . It seemed even more curious after a look at the print paper Friday. There, at the bottom of A22, a page devoted to metropolitan coverage, was a house ad (right) for the Times. Such house ads are typically used to fill space when there's no paying ad or article to take precedence.

The NYT Test: The Bender Evaluation Lets See If the Paper Covers the Trial This Week?

Bruce Bender, a former executive with the development company Forest City Ratner who came out of Kruger's Thomas Jefferson club was taped in the feds Kruger bribery case and in now scheduled to tell what he knows about the Yonkers bribery. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol The NYT Tower was built in partnership with Forest City Ratner. That new Times headquarters almost bankrupted the paper when the the real estate market collapsed in 2008. The building had to be refinanced with Mexican billionaire Carlos Sims and TARP money (+funny stuff) givem to GMAC who held the building mortgage.

On the Third Day of the Ratner Lobbyists Bribe Trial the NYP Begins Covering, NYT and DN still in Black Out Mode

NYT had reporters there, but no story today yet?

But NYP Coverage Was Misleading According to Atlantic Yards Report

An executive at Forest City Ratner testified in Manhattan federal court yesterday that he hired former Yonkers GOP chairman Zehy Jereis for a no-show job to help push through legislation on a stalled $630 million development project, the Post writes: http://nyp.st/A2HhtG

Correction This is not correct. He testified that they hired Jereis *after* the legislation passed and that they specifically avoided doing do before it passed because it wouldn't look good. If they had hired Jereis before the vote it would have looked even more like a quid pro quo and Forest City might have been indicted Scott Cantone, FCR’s senior VP for government affairs, testified in Manhattan federal court that the firm hired then-Yonkers Republican Party chairman Zehy Jereis as a “consultant” in 2006 because Jereis was the only one who could swing a key vote their way to push through a stalled $650 million mixed-use development called “Ridge Hill.” --it was because he was the only one who could have swung a vote to push through the project

More on the Trial

‘No-$how’ Ratner woe NYP) An executive at Forest City Ratner testified in Manhattan federal court yesterday that he hired former Yonkers GOP chairman Zehy Jereis for a no-show job to help push through legislation on a stalled $630 million development project. FCR's Cantone testifies: defendant Jereis probably wouldn't have gained no-show job had he not gotten defendant Annabi's vote switch on Ridge Hill; also, Brooklyn Assemblyman Lentol played key cameo(Atlantic Yards Report) Forest City exec tries to explain no-show job given to defendant in #RidgeHill Yonkers corruption trial

The Boys Meet in Brooklyn to Cut A Deal to Clear the Way for Ratner Yonkers Project

Lentol Involved in the Ratner Trial

During yesterday’s testimony, it was also revealed that state Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) helped broker the first meeting with Jereis who is on trial for bribing a Yonkers former city councilwoman and FCR officials in June 2006 at Marco Polo Ristorante in Brooklyn.

Bill to Ban Crooked Ratner Lobbyist Like Richard Lipsky

Ratner Lipsky is awaiting jail for bribing Carl Kruger who is also heading to jail. Ban con lobbyists: pol(NYP) A Bronx Democrat wants lobbyists convicted of felonies to be suspended for three to five years from plying their trade.

Post, NYT and Daily News "Watergates" Covers-Up For Developer Bruce Ratner

Media Blackout Day 2 For the Second consecutive day of Corruption Trial That Could Implicate Rattner or His Staff in Pay to Play Bribery Corruption None of the NYC's papers covered it. Only Atlantic Yards Report and Lohud.com are covering the Ratner project trial.

Atlantic Yards Report:

In court, former Yonkers Council Member explains why she resisted Forest City's plan: "I truly believe that Ridge Hill had been given a sweetheart deal"

LoHud.com:

2 Ridge Hill foes testify on Sandy Annabi's vote * Yonkers Mayor Michael Spano takes stand at corruption trial (Lohud.com) Prosecutors once suspected Yonkers Mayor Michael Spano of misleading federal authorities when they were investigating the role of his brother, former Sen. Nicholas Spano, in the Ridge Hill development corruption case.

Norman Oder @AYReport Ex-Yonkers pol: #RidgeHill got sweetheart deal bit.ly/zktvs5 Ex-officials from #AtlanticYards developer Forest City may testify soon

Post, NYT and Daily News "Watergates" Covers-Up For Developer Bruce Ratner

On The First Day of Corruption Trial That Could Implicate Rattner or His Staff in Pay to Play Bribery Corruption None of the papers covered it NYP Instead Cheerleads for Ratner Says His Arena Shaping Up New Nets arena shaping up(NYP)'

Blogger Atlantic Yards Reports Covers the Corruption Trial FCR's Bender mentioned in first day of Ridge Hill trial testimony: he was at two key meetings regarding defendant Annabi's changed vote * Witnesses testify of Sandy Annabi's spending: Rolex watch, diamond necklace (LoHud)

Ratner's Lobbyist Trial

Ratner's lobbyists Tip of Corrupt Crime Wave Which the Media Ignores

Albany’s favorite felon (NYP Ed) The Post calls for tighter policing of the lobbying industry, citing the fact that former Sen. Nick Spano is retaining his lobbying license despite a guilty plea on tax evasion charges. Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway still pays Spano between $6,000 and $15,000 a month. And Western Region OTB pays him $50,000 a year. Genting aqueduct just took him off the payroll this week. * The Post says that Nick Spano’s trip to prison is a temporary detour before he resumes a lucrative lobbying career. New twists in Ridge Hill corruption trial: Forest City consultant Pirro said to claim job for defendant Jereis would get defendant Annabi to flip her City Council vote(Atlantic Yards Review) Former Sen. Nick Spano lost another lobbying client.

NYP Left Out Lobbyist Lipsky Bribed Kruger

The NYP failed to mention in its editorial that Lobbyist Richard Lipsky who worked or the same developer Forest City Ratern involved in the Spano case, was convicted of bribing Carl Kruger. Besides paying $250,000 An FBI raid of Lipsky's house uncovered $100,000 in cash and $4,000 in "crisp" bills in his suit pocket. We still don't know who gave Lipsky all that cash.Lobbyist Pleads Guilty to Paying Bribes to a State Senator(NYT)

Is Spano Plea Connected to Ratner Lobbyist Corruption Trial Starting Next Week?

Another Corrupt Lobbyists Former Elected Official

A former State Senator turned lobbyist pleaded guilty to a felony today. * Don’t worry, he can still lobby. * Ex-Westchester Senator Admits Tax Obstruction * Ex-Politician Pleads Guilty in Taxes Case(WSJ)

Net Gangs

When ACORN endorsed Republican Spano in 2006, was Forest City Ratner a factor? Worth pondering, though plea deal suggests no ties to Ridge Hill (Atlantic Years Report)

Maybe A Connect to Second Forest City Ratner Trial

Bruce Bender Leaves Forest City Surrounded By Corruption and Right Before Another Bribe Trial Involving the Company

Yonkers pol Nick Spano to plead guilty to tax evasion; brother Mike, now mayor, served as FCR agent on Ridge Hill; did Nick have a Ridge Hill connection? (Atlantic Yard Report) * Media Black Out Shake Up At Forest City Ratner Surrounded in Kruger Corruption(True News) * Times columnist Michael Powell pointed out the developer is involved in two federal indictments. Powell wrote, "The Brooklyn and Yonkers cases are not simply about wayward politicians. The cases share an intriguing tie to the developer Bruce Ratner, who in project after project deploys lobbyists and politicians to change zoning ordinances and chase down rich packets of subsidies." * Forest City executive in charge of Ridge Hill, and his successor, both leave company within one year (Atlantic Yard Review)

True News Has Been Asking Where the Bribe Money in Both the Cases Involving Ratner Came From?

Who Paid the Elected Officials Kruger and Annabi?

Lobbyist Richard Lipsky pleads guilty to bribing crooked pol Carl Kruger (NYP) Lipsky bribed Kruger for $250,000 and was caught during an FBI raid with $100,000 in his apartment. The FBI and U.S. Attorney says former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi was birbed $160,000 to change her votes on to Yonkers Forest City Ratner Ridge Hill project.

We Know What Was In It For Kruger Did Pols Get Gifts?

In 2006 No Land Grab Asked 1) Why are South Brooklyn politicos Kruger, Golden, Fidler and Nelson big on Atlantic Yards? Like, what's in it for them?

Lobbyist Hank Morris Payed Off Many Lobbyist Who Helped Him Elect Hevesi with Pension Fund Deals

The NYP did not talk about another lobbyist Hank Morris who is in jail now for ripping of the pension funds. Other lobbyist who got in trouble for pension fund abuses besides Morris, Kevin McCabe, Global Strategy, Patricia Lynch, Andrew Cuomo pay-to-play pension probe nails Hevesi pal Patricia Lynch * HANK MORRIS PLEADS GUILTY IN PENSION FUND PAY-TO-PLAY SCANDAL

NYP Used By Sheinkopf When They Allow Him to Attack Liu A George Arzt Client

Ridiculous: NYP Uses Consultant Who Took the 5th to Judge Liu's Conduct(True News)* Lobbyist Hank Sheinkopf Took the 5th in the Aquduct gambling investigations

More Lobbyist Corrupt To Come

Lobbyist Bill Lynch set up a meeting with Rev. Flake with Patterson, even though Lynch was a lobbyist against a company against Flacke. Carl Andrews was just order by the court to tell what he knows about the AEG mess. Many Political Consultants/lobbyist Breed Corruption: Political Insiders Use Pols to Become Rich From Government * Andrew Cuomo Goes to Albany, Where Lobbyists Are Waiting - (Village Voice) * State Lobbying Soars Passed $200M * Stanley Schlein Rides Again A Bronx fixer's scandalous history doesn't bother Yankees or Democrats * Bronx Lobbyist Serves as Espada's Lawyer in Senate Talks - NYTimes.com

Queens Dictator Lobbyist Stavisky Above the Law in the Banana Republic of Queens

Modern Boss Tweed

In 2005 in a NYT article Dick Dadey executive director of Citizens Union expressed concern about what he called "a growing problem" of council members being lobbied by firms that serve as political consultants to many of them. "It clearly gives a lobbyist who does campaign work unfair advantage, because it gives them a level of access to the elected official that they otherwise would not have." In 2005 the Parkside was paid a total of $1.7 million by more than 40 clients last year, many of them nonprofit receiving member items from the city council.

The Parkside Group, carved out a dual role in New York politics: as lobbyist for nonprofit groups seeking city money and as a political consultant to a dozen council members, including the speaker and the Finance Committee chairman, who have a major hand in approving budget requests from those same groups. Miller who became so close to Parkside after it helped him win his speaker post asked one of Parkside partners to help him hire a chief of staff. Did Parkside Get Funds from Millers Slush Fund? In 2004, Miller launched his ill-fated drive to become mayor right from Parkside's offices. Lobbyists' Role in Council Slush Fund Scandal Probed (City Sun 2008) * A Letter to Garcia: (Michael) Garcia U.S. Attorney | Room Eight * O'Hara and Stavisky Voting Residence Injustice While the Media looks the other way

The Trial That Can Up End The Lobbyist Takeover of Politics . . . Pirro Kiss of Death

Judge Allows New Claims in Bribe Trial(WSJ) A Manhattan federal judge presiding over a Yonkers corruption trial ruled Tuesday that prosecutors can introduce previously unknown allegations involving former state Sen. Nick Spano, who pleaded guilty last week to tax evasion. * With Action by Judge, Details in a Yonkers Corruption Case Emerge (NYT)

Was Councilwoman Sandy Annabi Bribed to Vote for A Ratner Project

An account released in court included statements, said to be made by Albert J. Pirro Jr., suggesting how a member of the Yonkers City Council Sandy Annabi could be persuaded to vote for a development. Mr. Pirro was quoted as saying to Dennis Robertson, then a councilman. “We will just give Zehy a consulting contract, and we will get. Prosecutors have also charged that Mr. Jereis repeatedly asked Forest City Ratner’s representatives to hire him as a consultant, and that the developer agreed in 2006 to give him a job “sometime after Annabi formally voted in favor of the Ridge Hill project,” according to a federal indictment. He eventually received a $60,000 consulting deal. her vote.”* l Pirro was caught on tape telling developers that he could get a Westchester lawmaker’s approval for a project by offering an associate of hers a job.

What Did Bruce Ratner Know and Do?

Feds Must Find If the High Fees Paid To Lobbyists Are Intended for Bribes

Lobbyist Pleads Guilty to Paying Bribes to a State Senator(NYT) Prosecutors charged that over several years, Mr. Lipskyhad shared lobbying fees with Mr. Kruger in return for the senator’s actions on matters about which Mr. Lipsky had been paid to lobby. A major client of Lipsky, a large one, was a real estate developer that has been identified in news reports as Forest City Ratner.

Media Only Reports on the Pleas Ignores Others Involved

The NYT mentioned Rattner' Forest City real estate company as one of Lipsky's clients but did not say what Kruger did for them or who was involved with them. * Lobbyist Lipsky Admits to Bribery(WSJ) * Lobbyist Linked To Kruger Pleads Guilty In Bribery Case(NY1)

Lipsky was Ratner's Forest City 2nd Lobbyist Bribery Indictment in A Year

Developer of Major New Rochelle Project, Forest City Ratner, Bribed Yonkers Official Sexy Sandy Annabi, U.S. Attorney Charges (Talk of the Sound)

A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol

Forest City Public Tit Money Caught in Corrupt Kruger

Bruce Bender, an executive with the development company Forest City Ratner who came out of Kruger's Thomas Jefferson club, was pressing him for $15 million in state funding for three Brooklyn projects. Mr. Kruger said he would get back to him. Half an hour later, he checked with his aides, found out he had $500,0000 left over at his own discretion, and told them to give it to the company for a project at Prospect Park. “I love you,” Mr. Bender said a few minutes later In a Series of Phone Calls, an Ear Into a Federal Corruption Case * Atlantic Yards Efforts in View in Kruger Case(WSJ) * "I Don't Mind F-king The Bridge."(Develop Don't Destroy) *WSJ, regarding Kruger case, goes easy on FCR's obligation to rebuild bridge, reveals unmet request for additional city housing subsidy (Atlantic Yard Report)

Maybe A Connect to Second Forest City Ratner Trial

Bruce Bender Leaves Forest City Surrounded By Corruption and Right Before Another Bribe Trial Involving the Company

True News Has Been Asking Where the Bribe Money in Both the Cases Involving Ratner Came From?

Who Paid the Elected Officials Kruger and Annabi?

Lobbyist Richard Lipsky pleads guilty to bribing crooked pol Carl Kruger (NYP) Lipsky bribed Kruger for $250,000 and was caught during an FBI raid with $100,000 in his apartment. The FBI and U.S. Attorney says former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi was birbed $160,000 to change her votes on to Yonkers Forest City Ratner Ridge Hill project.

We Know What Was In It For Kruger Did Pols Get Gifts?

In 2006 No Land Grab Asked 1) Why are South Brooklyn politicos Kruger, Golden, Fidler and Nelson big on Atlantic Yards? Like, what's in it for them?

Is Spano Plea Connected to Ratner Lobbyist Corruption Trial Starting Next Week?

Another Corrupt Lobbyists Former Elected Official

Net Gangs

When ACORN endorsed Republican Spano in 2006, was Forest City Ratner a factor? Worth pondering, though plea deal suggests no ties to Ridge Hill (Atlantic Years Report)

Bruce RatnerGate: Nobody Knew About the Kruger Bribes . . . Press Clean Up Time

Bruce Bender Leaves Surrounded By Corruption

Forest City Departures, New Firm In Offing(YNN) Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone are striking out on their own to create a new political consulting firm. Bender got some unwanted press recently when he was caught on the federal wiretap negotiating for state funds for a non-Ratner project with former Sen. Carl Kruger, who lost his seat after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. Lobbyist Richard Lipsky, who represented Ratner, also pleaded guilty in the pay-to-play probe. Federal prosecutors said he paid hundreds of thousands in bribes to Kruger, the former Senate Finance Committee chairman.

Forest City Public Tit Money Caught in Corrupt Kruger Web

Bender is Involved in Another Ratner's Forest City Bribery Indictment in A Year

Developer of Major New Rochelle Project, Forest City Ratner, Bribed Yonkers Official Sexy Sandy Annabi, U.S. Attorney Charges (Talk of the Sound)

A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol

Where Are the Investigative Reporters?

One of the biggest government funded developers in the city Bruce Ratner had major shake up in his company yesterday having to do with charges of corruption and not a single newspaper picked up the story. A company that has haul in $726 million in special public benefits. It a story of lobbyist bribing public officials to get public money and zoning changes for projects by Ratner's Company Forest City. Ratner VP Bruce Bender from Kruger's Thomas Jefferson Club who was taped by the FBI getting state money from the convict Carl is gone. Bender is also name in a lawsuit where New Rochelle pols were indicted for bribes on another Forest City project. * Report: Bender, Cantone leave Forest City for new consulting firm; could pending Ridge Hill corruption trial be the spur?(Atlantic Yard Report)

Convict Kruger Bribed and the Developer Knew Nothing?

The NYT whose HQ was built and financed by Ratner wrote about his bribery problem on January 9th 2012 after Forest City Lobbyist Richard Lipsky pead to bribing Inmate Kruger. Where did the $250,00 that Lipsky bribed Kruger come from? or the $100,000 the FBI found in the lobbyist home when they raided it. Mr. Ratner has walked between the legal raindrops. Federal prosecutors have not implicated him or his company, Forest City Ratner, in either of these corruption cases. He must have no idea how he got the hundreds of millions from Kruger, Filder and the other pols for his company. He also must be clueless about the bribery cases against him. Another example how the media filters corrupt story to protect the powerful and only report on the incitements and convictions.

Bruce RatnerGate: Nobody Knew About the Kruger Bribes . . . Press Clean Up Time

Bruce Bender Leaves Surrounded By Corruption

Forest City Departures, New Firm In Offing(YNN) Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone are striking out on their own to create a new political consulting firm. Bender got some unwanted press recently when he was caught on the federal wiretap negotiating for state funds for a non-Ratner project with former Sen. Carl Kruger, who lost his seat after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. Lobbyist Richard Lipsky, who represented Ratner, also pleaded guilty in the pay-to-play probe. Federal prosecutors said he paid hundreds of thousands in bribes to Kruger, the former Senate Finance Committee chairman. * Executive departures from Forest City pile up: four of five listed as key lobbyists in 2006 are gone(Atlantic Yard Reports)

Forest City Public Tit Money Caught in Corrupt Kruger Web

Bags of Cash : Political Corruption and Lobbyists in NYC, NYS

Lobbyist Is Expected to Plead Guilty in Corruption Case.‎

The New York Times

Jan 3, 2012 - Richard J. Lipsky, a prominent New York lobbyist who was charged in the bribery conspiracy case that also ensnared State Senator Carl ...

Bender is Involved in Another Ratner's Forest City Bribery Indictment in A Year

Developer of Major New Rochelle Project, Forest City Ratner, Bribed Yonkers Official Sexy Sandy Annabi, U.S. Attorney Charges (Talk of the Sound)

A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol

The ending of the NYT article does lean Ratner's way:

A Forest City spokesman, Joseph DePlasco, spins on Wednesday Ratner the Victim. That critics had focused unfairly on the developer’s role. “This is really about a company trying with great difficulty to navigate the byzantine maze of politics in Yonkers,” he said.

Ratner's Team Afraid to Make It Look Like Pay to Play

The developer was not charged with wrongdoing, but it clearly behaved dubiously--details omitted from the Times coverage. Its representatives strung along Zehy Jereis, nervous about giving him the lobbying job he requested, since that would be a quid pro quo, but afraid that not giving him a job would scotch efforts to flip Annabi's vote.

At one point in the article, the Times notes an email sent by Bender:

"Mr. Bender responded bluntly: “get sandy on bd tell your brother we need help now.”

But the NYT did not report Mr. Bender was actually a lot more blunt. He preceded that sequence with the phrase "no fucking around."

Mangone Dirty Fixer Lawyer 18 Months

Anthony Mangone, the corrupt Westchester lawyer and political fixer whose cooperation helped prosecutors convict three state senators and other public officials, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison by a judge who called him a "dirty lawyer,” the Journal Newswrites: * Westchester lawyer Anthony Mangone was sentenced to 18 months in prison in connection with a 2010 bribery case in Yonkers. He was accused of taking part in a political fixing scheme involving former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and former Yonkers Republican Chairman Zehy Jereis. * To Judge, Lawyer’s Cooperation Doesn’t Offset Corruption (NYT) Anthony J. Mangone, a lawyer convicted on corruption charges, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The United States attorney’s office had asked for leniency.* Anthony Mangone, a former attorney whose cooperation aided the conviction of three New York state senators, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by a judge who said his crimes were too serious to let him escape incarceration. * Mangone had been the most important cooperating witness to federal prosecutors in years, whose information helped put away three former GOP senators – Vincent Leibell, Tom Libous and Nick Spano. But a judge nevertheless rejected his attorneys’ request for leniency in the form of no prison time, saying he had been a “dirty lawyer for many, many years.”

The NYT did not get into where the money came from to bribe Councilwoman Annabi

Ms. Annabi’s lawyer, William I. Aronwald, suggested during cross-examination of one witness that Mr. Pirro had been paid $1 million for his efforts to lobby for Ratner. Zehy Jereis was paid 60,000 as a consultant after the project was approved. But the question that has not been addressed was where the 160,000 bribe money came from to pay Annabi.

The NYT Left Out the Fact That This is The Second Ratner Bribe Trial This Year

Ratner Lobbyist Richard Lipsky pleaded guilty to bribing former Senator Carl Kruger $250,000. Kruger who stated out in politics with Bruce Bender at the Thomas Jefferson Club according to FBI tapes was helpful to his old clubmate. An FBI raid of Lipsky's house uncovered $100,000 in cash and $4,000 in "crisp" bills in his suit pocket. We still don't know where the Lipsky Kruger's bribe cash came from.

Window Into Developer’s Relentless Quest to Get a Yonkers Project Approved(NYT) For Forest City Ratner, it had become a make-or-break moment: The developer had already spent roughly $70 million on a proposed 81-acre luxury mall and housing complex in Yonkers, but was one vote shy of winning the City Council’s approval. . . “I have taken every angle with this Sandy,” Mike Spano, a consultant, wrote on Sept. 25, 2005, in an e-mail to Bruce Bender, then a Forest City executive. Mr. Spano had also enlisted others — including union heads, the Yonkers Republican Party chairman, a well-connected lawyer and even his brother, State Senator Nicholas A. Spano — in the effort to persuade Ms. Annabi.* A Yonkers corruption case involving a councilwoman’s approval for a mall and housing complex also reveals developer Forest Ratner’s aggressiveness in seeking support from an elected official * Rhil Reisman details a patronage trail that somehow always leads to ex-Sen. Nick Spano.

The 1% Who Benefit From the Bribery Always Walk

Veteran trial attorney Murray Richman, who represented Annabi after she was first indicted, also questioned whether federal prosecutors were sometimes drawn to cases for the splashy headlines rather than digging deeper into larger public corruption.
“They go for the hangers,” said Richman, referring to a term used in billiards whereby players target balls that are perched closest to the holes and thereby are the easiest to sink. “There’s no question that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is quite selective in the cases they bring,” he said. “They follow the evidence as they perceive it, but they pick on a particular bone and they stay at the same bone and don’t put a wide enough net out there.” In Brooklyn Carl Kruger Heads to Jail and so may the lobbyist who work for Ratner, Richard Lipsky Annabi verdict is latest win for U.S. attorney(LoHud)

If the office is "quite selective," does that mean certain developers have gotten a pass? We Know He Go One From the Media When They Decided to Not Cover the Trail

What They Say What They Mean

When Ratner's FlackDePlasco says the developer is an example of a good corporate citizen, he really means that he is being paid to get good press for a guy that will hire corrupt lobbyists who will do anything to get his projects public dollars. Forest City Ratner: good corporate citizen or relentless seeker of advantage? (100% non-invented quotes)(Atlantic Yards Report) “I think all of this stems from [Bruce Ratner's] sense of what it means to be a good corporate citizen..." -- Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in the Forward, May 2011 *

"“Just left emergency rm my wife needs surgery tomorrow no fucking around get sandy on bd tell your brother we need help now I have to close this and take care of my family.” -- Forest City Ratner executive Bruce Bender, September 2005, revealed in Ridge Hill corruption trial, February 2012

"My dilemma is as you know, I don't mind fucking the bridge, I can't fuck it right now, I've got to leverage that bridge, what's my value?" -- Forest City Ratner executive Bruce Bender, December 2010, revealed in Carl Kruger investigation, March 2011

No Land Grab Blog April Fools Joke is telling

Leading New York Developer Arrested in FBI Raid

After Yonkers Corruption Conviction, Investigation to Continue U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is promising more to come for those named in the case. Sen. Tom Libous denied the influence-peddling allegation directed at him by a disbarred attorney who testified at the trial, insisting there’s “nothing to investigate.”

With Two Convictions of its Lobbyists MSM Protects Developer Bruce Rattner

Barclays Center promotional round-up: Daily News, NY1, Channel 13(Atlantic Yards Review)
estate correspondent), now has another reason to offer editorial support of the Barclays Center arena: the Daily News Golden Gloves, the newspaper-sponsored boxing tournament, is moving its two-day finals to the Brooklyn venue: Nets Develop Business Deals In Their Future Borough(NY1) Meanwhile, NY1 published a segment, headlined Nets Develop Business Deals In Their Future Borough, that provided a tour of the new Nets offices in Brooklyn, led by relentless promoter Brett Yormark (Nets/Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment CEO), keyed to the big news that the Brooklyn Marriott is now the arena's official hotel * Following up a belated but worthy analysis of Charlie Rose's "infomercial" with Bruce Ratner, Noticing New York Michael D.D. White turns his righteous ire to the performance of Channel 13, which has used the upcoming Andrew Bocelli concert at the Barclays Center as a lure for donors--while not exactly providing the incisive coverage of the arena the controversy merits.

Criminal Lobbyists Who Win Approval or Obtain Government $$$ for His Projects

Forest City Ratner: Plausible Deniability or Victim

While the Feds says Forest City Ratner company has not broken the law, they say the lobbyists hired to get government favors have. If you believe that Ratner who won $750 million for his Atlantic Terminal Nets Stadium project in Brooklyn did not know what his lobbyists were doing you should apply for a job as a reporter in New York.

Deep Throat Said Follow the Money, So Why is Nobody Following Where Ratner's Lobbyist Got Their Bribe $$$ . . . Maybe They Donated It?

$$$ For Love or Bribery A couple of months ago another lobbyists for Ratner Richard Lipsky pleaded guilty to bribing Carl Kruger $250,000. It has not been answered where Lipsky who was paid $3,500 a month got the half of million he paid to bribe Kruger. Federal prosecutors claimed in court yesterday that former chairman of the Yonkers' GOP Zhey Jereis paid former Yonkers' Councilwoman Sandy Annabi $175,000 to change her negative vote that was blocking a mega development. Zhey was a lobbyist hired by Forest City Ratner at $60,000 a year to get the Rose Hill project approved in Yonkers. Zhey lawyer explained his client’s payments to Ms. Annabi as resulting from his romantic feelings for her. Prosecutor Tells How Ex-Yonkers Councilwoman Got Secret Payments(NYT) * Ridge Hill trial opens, but mystery persists regarding Forest City Ratner's role in compensating accused consultant who paid accused Council Member(Atlantic Yards Report)

Permanent Government Using Lobbyists for the Dirty Work to Shield Themselves From Corruption

How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects Using Lobbyists (True News)

Nice work, except for felons(TU) The Times Union calls for the loophole allowing ex-Sen. Nick Spano to continue serving as a gambling lobbyist, despite his plea on felony tax evasion charges, to be closed. **The Times Union wants to ban convicted felons from lobbying.**

We Know Russia is Ratner's Corrupt Lobbyist What About Brooklyn and Yonkers

Prokhorov, in the New Yorker, said he hasn't broken laws, but admits to corrupt dealings (and shrugs them off as inevitable in Russia) (Atlantic Yards Review) *Forest City Ratner Lobbyist Pleads Guilty to Bribing Elected Official(newrochelletalk.com) * Ex-Yonkers City Councilwoman convicted of bribery * True News: Another Ratner Lobbyist Gets Convicted and Nobody Notices * How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects(True News)

Atlantic Yards Report

This watchdog blog, written by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about Forest City Ratner's planned $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project, to build the Barclays Center basketball arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

Bruce RatnerGate: Nobody Knew About the Kruger Bribes . . . Press Clean Up Time

Bruce Bender Leaves Surrounded By Corruption

Forest City Departures, New Firm In Offing(YNN) Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone are striking out on their own to create a new political consulting firm. Bender got some unwanted press recently when he was caught on the federal wiretap negotiating for state funds for a non-Ratner project with former Sen. Carl Kruger, who lost his seat after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. Lobbyist Richard Lipsky, who represented Ratner, also pleaded guilty in the pay-to-play probe. Federal prosecutors said he paid hundreds of thousands in bribes to Kruger, the former Senate Finance Committee chairman.

Forest City Public Tit Money Caught in Corrupt Kruger Web

Bender is Involved in Another Ratner's Forest City Bribery Indictment in A Year

Developer of Major New Rochelle Project, Forest City Ratner, Bribed Yonkers Official Sexy Sandy Annabi, U.S. Attorney Charges (Talk of the Sound)

A Forest City Ratner executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger is featured in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that later led to bribery charges against a councilwoman. Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said FCR Vice President Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his expected vote opposing a controversial FCR development. Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol

Maybe A Connect to Second Forest City Ratner Trial

Bruce Bender Leaves Forest City Surrounded By Corruption and Right Before Another Bribe Trial Involving the Company

Yonkers pol Nick Spano to plead guilty to tax evasion; brother Mike, now mayor, served as FCR agent on Ridge Hill; did Nick have a Ridge Hill connection? (Atlantic Yard Report) * Media Black Out Shake Up At Forest City Ratner Surrounded in Kruger Corruption(True News)

Gelman Sexual Abuse Friend is No Problem for Ratner Flack SKD Knickerbocker

SKDKnickerbocker back in the news; chief-of-staff in NYC office was FCR flack; firm produced misleading Atlantic Yards brochures(AYR)

Photo Gelman and Terry Richardson
Audrey Gelman, real-life best friend to Lena Dunham and ex-girlfriend of infamous fashion photographer Terry Richardson, has officially weighed in on the recent debate over whether female celebrities should vow not to work with men who are known to mistreat women. On December 21st, Gelman, who is a political consultant and spokesperson for incoming Comptroller Scott Stringer, and the real-life inspiration for "Girls" character Marnie Michaels, took to Twitter to address the criticism Dunham had received for her 2013 V Magazine shoot with Richardson. In addition to working with some of today's biggest female stars -- Dunham and Beyoncé included -- the photographer has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault over the years.

News that Audrey Gelman, spokesperson for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (and occasional actress on Girls) is going to the consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker reminded me to take a look at the firm (previously known as Knickerbocker SKD) and its multiple Atlantic Yards connections, producing propaganda on behalf of the project and hiring a former Forest City Ratner flack..The Chief-of-Staff in the New York City office is Loren Riegelhaupt, famously known for saying:, on behalf of Forest City, "When it comes to sharing information with the public and governmental bodies, there’s no such thing as too much, as far as we are concerned." DDDB went to town on the developer's consistent violation of that pledge.

SKD Creates Fiction for Ratner and NYT
Previous coverage

As I wrote 5/10/06, Forest City Ratner's recent reality-bending brochure was the equivalent ofs a political campaign, produced by Knickerbocker SKD, which has worked on political campaigns and strategic communciations for major players, including Mayor Bloomberg. After all, why would the third page of the flier (right) offer a distorted fisheye photo, implying that the 8.5 acres of railyards constitute the majority of the 22-acre site.* More about SKD Knickbocker

And just as newspapers like the Times regularly evaluate political commercials (including those by this firm) for accuracy, they should do the same for such developer p.r.. They didn't, and they haven't.

The only previous acknowledgement of the consultant's role was a 10/14/05 article by the New York Times, headlined To Build Arena, Developer First Builds Bridges, which stated:

Forest City Ratner also contracted with Knickerbocker SKD, a media consultant, to produce two promotional mailings, each going to more than 300,000 households in Brooklyn.

That's strategy, not analysis.

The NYT Pimps for SKD and Ratner Who Built Their HQ

There was no attempt by the Times to evaluate the content of those mailings, though the first one, especially, was deeply deceptive. For example, the flier (right) quoted gushing praise for the plan attributed to the New York Times, as if it were the newspaper's editorial voice, rather than identifying it as a statement from then-architectural critic Herbert Muschamp.

Firm history
In a 1/7/02 New York Observer article headlined "Cuomo Gets Young Turks For 2002," WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reported that Josh Isay had formed a firm with Dan Klores--founder of the dkc firm handlings p.r. for Forest City Ratner.
KnickerbockerSKD emerged later, and an April 201 merger produced the new firm.

The 2/22/11 profile in Capital NY, How former liberal operative Josh Isay became the default paid-media guy to the New York establishment,stated:

Both the corporate and the political clients ostensibly benefit from the same essential asset: Isay’s knowledge of how reporters, politicians and regulators process information.

Here's the bottom line regarding Isay's choice of political clients, which likely applies to corporate clients, as well: Certainly, he will not feel constrained by any sense of partisan duty. (As one of Isay's consultant friends put it, "Josh is highly motivated by making profit, which is fine.")

SKD Ratner Used A Boyland to Go After A Political Opponent

Atlantic Yards wrote 10/16/06, there was another connection: Belated Boyland filings show she outraised Montgomery, used same firm as Ratner.

Overdue campaign finance filings from 18th Senatorial District candidate Tracy Boyland, who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent (and Atlantic Yards opponent) Velmanette Montgomery, show that the former City Council member, despite a candidacy launched two months before the September primary, indeed raised more than the $100 she reported at election time. Was Boyland, in fact, the "Ratner candidate," as some charged? Not exactly, but there were some signficant intersections. As predicted by a source in the Crain's Insider, Boyland indeed used the same consulting firm--Knickerbocker SKD--that FCR uses for its deceptiveAtlantic Yards mailers. (As noted, Boyland told the Brooklyn Papers that she's friends with FCR's Bruce Bender, a former top City Council aide.) Boyland spent $37,000 on Knickerbocker SKD's services. The candidate, who made virtually no publicly scheduled campaign appearances and avoided questions from reporters and newspaper editorial boards, inundated voters with mailings and also had campaign workers put up numerous posters and hand out literature outside polling places.* SKD has never registered as a lobbying firm. The New York Times reported that, despite SKD's claims that it engages only in public relations, the firm has contacted Obama administration officials on behalf of its clients.
More on How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects

A Report From WCBS Is Married to A Former Ratner Lobbyists Mike Spano

'Slam dunk' verdict called 'turning point' for Yonkers, the newspaper got that headline quote from Mayor Mike Spano, bother of Nick a Yonkers Republican, pleaded guilty to tax evasion, in a case where public corruption also figured prominently.

If Sandy or Zehy Jereis Rat There is a Lot More to This Corruption Story

Mike Spano was not charged but is not immune to whispers. A Republican turned Democrat, he hired Jereis's wife at City Hall. And, in anonymous comments at the Yonkers Tribune, some went after him, with one warning:

Mike Spano will not finish a four year term.
Before it's over, both Zehy and Sandy will bury him in order to cut a deal. Al pirro must also be having a hard time sleeping.

NYP Says Tighter Policing of Lobbyist Industry and Leaves Out Most of Lobbyist Breaking the Law

Ratner's Lobbyist Trial

Ratner's lobbyists Tip of Corrupt Crime Wave Which the Media Ignores

Albany’s favorite felon (NYP Ed) The Post calls for tighter policing of the lobbying industry, citing the fact that former Sen. Nick Spano is retaining his lobbying license despite a guilty plea on tax evasion charges. Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway still pays Spano between $6,000 and $15,000 a month. And Western Region OTB pays him $50,000 a year. Genting aqueduct just took him off the payroll this week. * The Post says that Nick Spano’s trip to prison is a temporary detour before he resumes a lucrative lobbying career. New twists in Ridge Hill corruption trial: Forest City consultant Pirro said to claim job for defendant Jereis would get defendant Annabi to flip her City Council vote(Atlantic Yards Review) Former Sen. Nick Spano lost another lobbying client.

NYP Left Out Lobbyist Lipsky Bribed Kruger

The NYP failed to mention in its editorial that Lobbyist Richard Lipsky who worked or the same developer Forest City Ratern involved in the Spano case, was convicted of bribing Carl Kruger. Besides paying $250,000 An FBI raid of Lipsky's house uncovered $100,000 in cash and $4,000 in "crisp" bills in his suit pocket. We still don't know who gave Lipsky all that cash.Lobbyist Pleads Guilty to Paying Bribes to a State Senator(NYT)

Lobbyist Hank Morris Payed Off Many Lobbyist Who Helped Him Elect Hevesi with Pension Fund Deals

The NYP did not talk about another lobbyist Hank Morris who is in jail now for ripping of the pension funds. Other lobbyist who got in trouble for pension fund abuses besides Morris, Kevin McCabe, Global Strategy, Patricia Lynch, Andrew Cuomo pay-to-play pension probe nails Hevesi pal Patricia Lynch * HANK MORRIS PLEADS GUILTY IN PENSION FUND PAY-TO-PLAY SCANDAL

The Trial That Can Up End The Lobbyist Takeover of Politics . . . Pirro Kiss of Death

Judge Allows New Claims in Bribe Trial(WSJ) A Manhattan federal judge presiding over a Yonkers corruption trial ruled Tuesday that prosecutors can introduce previously unknown allegations involving former state Sen. Nick Spano, who pleaded guilty last week to tax evasion. * With Action by Judge, Details in a Yonkers Corruption Case Emerge (NYT)

Was Councilwoman Sandy Annabi Bribed to Vote for A Ratner Project

An account released in court included statements, said to be made by Albert J. Pirro Jr., suggesting how a member of the Yonkers City Council Sandy Annabi could be persuaded to vote for a development. Mr. Pirro was quoted as saying to Dennis Robertson, then a councilman. “We will just give Zehy a consulting contract, and we will get. Prosecutors have also charged that Mr. Jereis repeatedly asked Forest City Ratner’s representatives to hire him as a consultant, and that the developer agreed in 2006 to give him a job “sometime after Annabi formally voted in favor of the Ridge Hill project,” according to a federal indictment. He eventually received a $60,000 consulting deal. her vote.”* l Pirro was caught on tape telling developers that he could get a Westchester lawmaker’s approval for a project by offering an associate of hers a job.

Rather Fails With Corporate Welfare and Corruption

Ratner Facing New Tests When Forest City Ratner broke ground on its $904 million basketball arena, it was a sign that one of the most active developers in New York was emerging from a brutal recession. But as the market creeps back, large challenges remain for the development firm.(WSJ) * NBA deal is 'net' loss for B'klyn (NYP)

Councilwoman Letitia James (D-Brooklyn) and Prospect Heights activist Patti Hagan, both longtime foes of Atlantic Yards, said the SEC documents are the latest "proof" that Ratner can't deliver 2,250 affordable housing units and most of the 17,000 jobs he promised state officials in order to gain project approvals.* Financial 411: Forest City Ratner Makes Its Stamp on the City

Ratner Money From Corrupt Kruger In Kruger Case, Real Estate Developer Among the Cast - NYTimes.com Ratner Money From MTA MTA APPROVES BAILOUT PLAN FOR BRUCE RATNER'S ATLANTIC YARDS IN ...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

How Bruce Ratner Wins Approval for his Projects 512

Ratner's BS Catches Up With Him Again

Atlantic Yards Review: NYT Goes After the Tarantula Hoax . . . But Whiffs On Atlantic Yards Lawsuit

Ratner 100,000 Affordable Housing Government Deal

The NYT did not get into where the money came from to bribe Councilwoman Annabi Or Kruger

The NYT Left Out the Fact That This is The Second Ratner Bribe Trial This Year

The Boys Meet in Brooklyn to Cut A Deal to Clear the Way for Ratner Yonkers Project

Lentol in the Ratner Trial

Bruce Ratner to step down as Forest City CEO(CrainsNY)

Atlantic Yard Blogger Writes in NY Magazine About the Ratner Lobbyist Trial . . . Which Has Been Basically Black Out by the NY Media

Ratner's Team Afraid to Make It Look Like Pay to Play

At one point in the article, the Times notes an email sent by Bender:

The NYT did not get into where the money came from to bribe Councilwoman Annabi

The NYT Left Out the Fact That This is The Second Ratner Bribe Trial This Year

Shocking: Forest City Had No Idea of Their Lobbyists Criminal Backround

We didn't know we hired a crook: Ratner firm (NYP) 6:00PM Officials of developer Bruce Ratner’s firm are claiming the company had no clue it recruited a convicted drug dealer and election fraudster to salvage a stalled $842 million mixed-use development in Yonkers.

Past press coverage of Jereis Legal Problems: NY Times, Journal News, NY Daily News

The Daily News Does Not Cover the Trial But Does PR for Forest City Ratner

Barclays Center looks for Brooklyn foodie vendors at new Atlantic Yards Nets arena (NYDN) Looking for local eateries to sell 'Everything from pickles to pizza,' say officials

Trial Day 4 No NYC Media Coverage - Too Big For Coverage?

NYT, NYP and DN Continues to Covers-Up For Developer Bruce Ratner

This Report Made Possible by Atlantic Yards Report

NYT MIA In Ratner Lobbyist Trial

On the Third Day of the Ratner Lobbyists Bribe Trial the NYP Begins Covering, NYT and DN still in Black Out Mode

NYT had reporters there, but no story today yet?

But NYP Coverage Was Misleading According to Atlantic Yards Report

An executive at Forest City Ratner testified in Manhattan federal court yesterday that he hired former Yonkers GOP chairman Zehy Jereis for a no-show job to help push through legislation on a stalled $630 million development project, the Post writes: http://nyp.st/A2HhtG

The Boys Meet in Brooklyn to Cut A Deal to Clear the Way for Ratner Yonkers Project

Lentol Involved in the Ratner Trial

During yesterday’s testimony, it was also revealed that state Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) helped broker the first meeting with Jereis who is on trial for bribing a Yonkers former city councilwoman and FCR officials in June 2006 at Marco Polo Ristorante in Brooklyn.

Bill to Ban Crooked Ratner Lobbyist Like Richard Lipsky

Ratner Lipsky is awaiting jail for bribing Carl Kruger who is also heading to jail. Ban con lobbyists: pol(NYP) A Bronx Democrat wants lobbyists convicted of felonies to be suspended for three to five years from plying their trade.

Post, NYT and Daily News "Watergates" Covers-Up For Developer Bruce Ratner

Media Blackout Day 2 For the Second consecutive day of Corruption Trial That Could Implicate Rattner or His Staff in Pay to Play Bribery Corruption None of the NYC's papers covered it. Only Atlantic Yards Report and Lohud.com are covering the Ratner project trial.

Atlantic Yards Report:

LoHud.com:

Post, NYT and Daily News "Watergates" Covers-Up For Developer Bruce Ratner

On The First Day of Corruption Trial That Could Implicate Rattner or His Staff in Pay to Play Bribery Corruption None of the papers covered it NYP Instead Cheerleads for Ratner Says His Arena Shaping Up New Nets arena shaping up(NYP)'

Blogger Atlantic Yards Reports Covers the Corruption Trial FCR's Bender mentioned in first day of Ridge Hill trial testimony: he was at two key meetings regarding defendant Annabi's changed vote * Witnesses testify of Sandy Annabi's spending: Rolex watch, diamond necklace (LoHud)

NYP Left Out Lobbyist Lipsky Bribed Kruger

Another Corrupt Lobbyists Former Elected Official

Net Gangs

Who Paid the Elected Officials Kruger and Annabi?

We Know What Was In It For Kruger Did Pols Get Gifts?

In 2006 No Land Grab Asked 1) Why are South Brooklyn politicos Kruger, Golden, Fidler and Nelson big on Atlantic Yards? Like, what's in it for them?

Lobbyist Hank Morris Payed Off Many Lobbyist Who Helped Him Elect Hevesi with Pension Fund Deals

NYP Used By Sheinkopf When They Allow Him to Attack Liu A George Arzt Client

More Lobbyist Corrupt To Come

Queens Dictator Lobbyist Stavisky Above the Law in the Banana Republic of Queens

Was Councilwoman Sandy Annabi Bribed to Vote for A Ratner Project

What Did Bruce Ratner Know and Do?

Feds Must Find If the High Fees Paid To Lobbyists Are Intended for Bribes

Media Only Reports on the Pleas Ignores Others Involved

The NYT mentioned Rattner' Forest City real estate company as one of Lipsky's clients but did not say what Kruger did for them or who was involved with them. * Lobbyist Lipsky Admits to Bribery(WSJ) * Lobbyist Linked To Kruger Pleads Guilty In Bribery Case(NY1)

Who Paid the Elected Officials Kruger and Annabi?

We Know What Was In It For Kruger Did Pols Get Gifts?

In 2006 No Land Grab Asked 1) Why are South Brooklyn politicos Kruger, Golden, Fidler and Nelson big on Atlantic Yards? Like, what's in it for them?

Another Corrupt Lobbyists Former Elected Official

Net Gangs

Bruce RatnerGate: Nobody Knew About the Kruger Bribes . . . Press Clean Up Time

Bruce Bender Leaves Surrounded By Corruption

Bruce RatnerGate: Nobody Knew About the Kruger Bribes . . . Press Clean Up Time

Bruce Bender Leaves Surrounded By Corruption