Bronx Man Charged With 2018 Shooting

  Geoffrey S. Berman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James P. O’Neill, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) announced the unsealing today of an Indictment charging RAKIM BROWN, a/k/a “Ra,” with the January 28, 2018, shooting of a woman in connection with a drug conspiracy, resulting in injuries to her face and leg.  BROWN will be presented and arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein. 

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Working with the NYPD and our other law enforcement partners, we will continue to investigate and prosecute drug trafficking and the violence that so often accompanies it.  The indictment of Rakim Brown for a drug-related shooting demonstrates that link between drugs and guns.”

NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill said:  “The NYPD and its law enforcement partners pursue – unrelentingly and with precision – those who carry guns and those who traffic illegal drugs.  I want to thank the investigators and prosecutors who worked to obtain today’s indictment.  Their work helps make our city safer.”

As alleged in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court[1]: 

Between 2016 up to and including 2018, RAKIM BROWN, a/k/a “Ra,” was involved in a conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.  Between April 2017 up to and including 2018, BROWN used, carried, and discharged a firearm during and in furtherance of that drug conspiracy, including on January 28, 2018, when, in connection with a dispute with a rival drug crew, he shot at a woman and caused injuries to her face and leg. 

BROWN, 24, of the Bronx, New York, is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of using and carrying a firearm, which was brandished and discharged, in connection with the narcotics conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.  The statutory maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant would be determined by the judge.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the NYPD.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Bonanno Crime Family Captain Sentenced To Over 7 Years In Prison

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JOSEPH SABELLA, a/k/a “Joe Valet,” was sentenced to 87 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein for his role as a captain in the Bonanno Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman stated:  “As he admitted in open court, Joseph Sabella was an active member of the Bonanno Crime Family who engaged in numerous racketeering acts.  He will now spend years in prison for his crimes.  Together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to aggressively prosecute members of La Cosa Nostra who intimidate, threaten, and harm members of our community.”

According to the Indictment, documents filed in this case and statements made in related court proceedings:

La Cosa Nostra (“LCN”), also known as the “Mob” or the “Mafia,” operates through entities known as “Families.”  In the New York City area, there are five LCN Families, namely, the Bonanno Family, the Genovese Family, the Luchese Family, the Colombo Family, and the Gambino Family.  Members and associates of one La Cosa Nostra family at times work together with other La Cosa Nostra families in jointly undertaken criminal ventures.

The Bonanno Family, like other LCN Families, operates through a group of individuals known as “crews,” each of which is led by a “capo” or “captain.”  The crews are composed of “made” members, called “soldiers,” and trusted non-members called “associates.”  Above the capos are the highest-ranking members – the boss or acting boss, the underboss, and the consigliere, or counselor – who oversee the Family.

Between 2012 and January 2018, SABELLA acted as soldier and then captain in the Bonanno Family.  As a member of the Bonanno Family, SABELLA engaged in numerous racketeering acts, including extortion, fraud, and physical assaults.  In particular, SABELLA participated in the long-term extortion of a New York-based demolition company (“Company-1”) that netted the Bonanno Family thousands of dollars a year for nearly three decades.  SABELLA also participated in the physical assault of the owner of a strip club (“Victim-1”) and the subsequent extortion of Victim-1 out of his legitimate and illegitimate business interests.

SABELLA, 54, of Monroe, New Jersey, previously pled guilty on February 12, 2019, to conspiracy to commit racketeering.  As part of his guilty plea, SABELLA admitted to his involvement in the extortion of Company-1, the extortion of Victim-1, a large-scale, multi-year fraud at a construction site on Staten Island, and the physical assaults on Victim-1 and one of Sabella’s former business partners, all as part of his participation in the Bonanno Family.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Labor, the Diplomatic Security Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York City Police Department, and the Special Agents of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Vincent Esposito Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court To 24 Months In Prison

And Forfeiture Of $3.8 Million For Racketeering Conspiracy

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that VINCENT ESPOSITO was sentenced today to 24 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero for conspiring to commit racketeering offenses with members and associates of the Genovese Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra.  Judge Marrero also imposed financial penalties, including approximately $3.8 million in forfeiture, a $20,000 fine, and restitution to be determined.  ESPOSITO previously pled guilty on April 10, 2019, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “By his own admission, for more than a decade Vincent Esposito made millions with members of the Genovese Crime Family by extorting payments, demanding kickbacks, committing fraud, and instilling fear.  Today Esposito has been sentenced to prison for racketeering conspiracy.”

According to the Indictment and statements made during public court proceedings:

La Cosa Nostra, also known as the “Mob” or the “Mafia,” operates through entities known as “Families.”  One of the Families operating in the New York City area is the Genovese Crime Family.  For years, continuing until 2017, ESPOSITO conspired with other members and associates of the Genovese Crime Family to commit a wide range of crimes to enrich themselves, including multiple acts of extortion, honest services fraud, and bribery.  Among other things, ESPOSITO directed the long-running extortion of a union official (“Official-1”) for annual tribute payments of more than over $10,000, and had a number of lower-ranking members of the enterprise collect money and convey threats to Official-1 on Esposito’s behalf.  In another extortion scheme, ESPOSITO’s co-conspirators extorted a different union official (“Official-2”) and a financial adviser (the “Adviser”) for a cut of commissions made from union investments.

At the time of ESPOSITO’s arrest, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) executed a search warrant on his home and seized more than $3.8 million in U.S. currency hidden throughout the residence, along with an unregistered handgun, ammunition, brass knuckles, and lists of made members of the Genovese Crime Family.  Under the terms of his guilty plea, ESPOSITO agreed to forfeit the more than $3.8 million seized by the FBI as criminal proceeds resulting from the offense. 

In addition to the prison term, ESPOSITO, 51, of New York, NY, was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $3,816,685.59 and to pay a fine of $20,000.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and Office of Labor-Management Standards, the New York City Police Department, and the Special Agents of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Attorney General James Launches Inquiry Into Dangerous Conditions At Subway Station

Significant Flooding at Court Square Station Resulted in Individual Almost Colliding with Oncoming Train

  Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office is launching an inquiry in response to an incident at the Court Street subway station in Queens, NY whereby an individual nearly collided with a moving train because of excessive flooding in the station. In response to a letter from Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, Attorney General James is demanding that New Line Structures and Civetta Construction, the companies responsible for recent construction work at the station, produce relevant documents, including contracts, and that all documents related to work on this station be preserved.

“This is an incredibly dangerous situation that easily could have resulted in the loss of a life, and we need answers,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “These companies are hired to improve conditions without jeopardizing public safety. Yet, I am deeply concerned that instead they may have created a treacherous environment for New Yorkers in this incident. My office is looking into the companies responsible for this work because such dangerous conditions are unacceptable. And I thank Senator Gianaris for his advocacy and partnership in finding and holding accountable those responsible for this hazard.”

“As the MTA struggles to deliver on its mission for New Yorkers, this is another horrible incident that reveals the dangers subway riders face just for trying to move around our city,” said Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris. “In this case, people were nearly killed due to the negligence of a private corporation which must be held to account. In situations like this, too much deference is typically afforded to faceless corporate entities to the detriment of the public and I thank Attorney General James for looking into this deplorable episode, holding these contractors accountable, and seeking whatever remedies are available for the serious damages caused.”

The incident occurred on Wednesday evening during a period of heavy rain in New York City. In a video, viewers can see an individual, who was on the subway platform at Court Square, forced off of his feet by a forceful stream of water gushing across the platform, just as a train was arriving into the station. The individual almost collides with an oncoming train because of the force of the water stream. The water stream can be seen emanating from an area of the platform that is under construction and being managed by New Line Structures and Civetta Construction. 

Attorney General Letitia James Announces Arrests Of NYC Pharmacy Owner And Managers For Stealing Millions From Medicaid

NYC Pharmacy Owner and Pharmacy Managers Face Up to 25 Years in Prison for Defrauding Medicaid in a Kickback and Drug Diversion Scheme

  Attorney General Letitia James announced the arrests of a New York City pharmacy owner and three of her managers for participating in a multi-million dollar Medicaid fraud scheme involving kickbacks and HIV drugs. Pharmacy owner Irina Pichkhadze (Pichkhadze), 34, of Queens; three of her pharmacy managers, Raymond Dieffenbacher (Dieffenbacher), 46, of Queens, Yana Dubrinskaya (Dubrinskaya), 31, of Brooklyn, and Tarlan (aka Boris) Pinkhasov (Pinkhasov), 40, of Queens; her pharmacy, Erri, Inc. d/b/a First Choice Pharmacy (First Choice Pharmacy); and two additional companies, Express Audit Prevention Corp. (Express Audit) and OTC Distributors, Inc. (OTC), were charged with crimes related to defrauding Medicaid out of more than $10 million in a kickback and drug diversion scheme through the First Choice Pharmacy located in Harlem.

“It is disturbing and deeply damaging to our society when health care professionals exploit our most vulnerable patients to steal millions of dollars reserved to provide New Yorkers with essential health care,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “We put our trust in medical providers to serve us with honesty and care, and these individuals took advantage of both that trust and our state. My office will continue to hold accountable those who forsake their professional responsibility to their patients and choose instead to use it to line their pockets with public funds.”

The four individual defendants along with First Choice Pharmacy were all charged today in Supreme Court with the crimes of Grand Larceny in the First Degree, two counts, Health Care Fraud in the First Degree, two counts, and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree. Pichkhadze, Dieffenbacher, and Dubrinskaya were additionally charged, along with Express Audit and OTC, with various counts of money laundering in the first and second degree for allegedly knowingly conducting financial transactions designed to conceal the source of the aforementioned larceny and health care fraud. Lastly, Pichkhadze was charged with two counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree for allegedly possessing two fake Department of State documents used to open bank accounts in connection with the money laundering charges. Pichkhadze, Dieffenbacher, and Pinkhasov were arraigned before Justice Gregory Carro. Dubrinskaya was arraigned before Justice Melissa Jackson. The next court date for all four individual defendants is August 1st.

Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Health Care Fraud in the First Degree, and Money Laundering in the First Degree are all class “B” felonies for which the maximum state prison sentence is 25 years. Money Laundering in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree are, respectively, class “C”, “D”, and “E” felonies carrying maximum prison terms of 15, 7, and 4 years.

In court today, prosecutors from the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) outlined a scheme in which the defendants, acting in concert with each other, allegedly paid or directed employees to pay cash kickbacks to Medicaid recipients in return for each patient’s agreement to fill their HIV prescriptions at Pichkhadze’s First Choice Pharmacy, located at 245 East 124th Street in Manhattan. First Choice Pharmacy in turn billed and eventually received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Medicaid for refills that First Choice Pharmacy either did not dispense to patients, a scheme known as “auto-refilling,” or were predicated on the payment of an unlawful kickback.

State law strictly prohibits all medical providers, including pharmacies, from paying or offering to pay cash kickbacks to anyone in return for the referral of medical services ultimately paid for by Medicaid.   

Prosecutors further alleged today that their investigation found that between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016, Pichkhadze’s First Choice Pharmacy did not purchase sufficient quantities of medication from licensed New York State drug wholesalers to justify the quantities of medication it claimed, through its billing records, to have dispensed to patients. Relying on thousands of false claims for payment filed by Pichkhadze’s First Choice Pharmacy, Medicaid and Medicaid funded managed care organizations (MCOs) in turn paid First Choice Pharmacy and the individual defendants over $10.2 million dollars to which, prosecutors allege, they were not entitled. 

Large sums of that money, prosecutors allege, were then funneled through pass through banks accounts, bearing the names of Express Audit, OTC, Minnesota Independant [sic] Drugs, and Azure Drugs., among others, and disguised as payments to pharmaceutical wholesalers. The latter two accounts were opened as assumed names for First Choice Pharmacy and in effect, prosecutors allege, the defendants funneled money back to themselves under the guise of inventory purchases.

During its investigation MFCU executed a search warrant at First Choice Pharmacy and recovered hundreds of bottles of allegedly adulterated, diverted HIV medication. State law requires pharmacies to only secure medication from licensed pharmaceutical wholesalers.

In conjunction with the criminal case, the Attorney General today also filed a civil asset forfeiture and New York State False Claims Act action against criminal defendants Pichkhadze, Dieffenbacher, Dubrinskaya, Pinkhasov, First Choice Pharmacy, Express Audit, and OTC as well as against three non-criminal defendants, Eduard Yagudayev, Janice Dieffenbacher, and Marina Pichkhadze. The asset forfeiture action and civil recovery action seeks to recover over $22 million dollars in damages from the defendants for defrauding the State Medicaid program.

The charges filed in this case are accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The Attorney General thanks the New York State Department of Health and Office of the Medicaid Inspector General as well as the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) for their assistance in this investigation. The Attorney General also thanks Medicaid MCOs Amida Care and VNS Choice; pharmacy benefit managers CVS/Caremark, Express Scripts, Med Impact, and EPIC; and pharmaceutical wholesalers McKesson and DML Pharmacy Corporation for their cooperation throughout the investigation.

New Yorkers can report suspected fraud to the Attorney General’s toll-free Medicaid Fraud Hotline, at (800) 771-7755 or online at ag.ny.gov/medicaid-fraud/contact

MFCU’s investigation was conducted by Investigator Thomas Dowd with the assistance of Supervising Investigator Dominick DiGennaro and Deputy Chief Investigator Kenneth Morgan. The audit investigation was conducted by Auditor Investigator Lisandra Defex with the assistance of Principal Auditor Investigator Olga Sunitsky, New York City Regional Deputy Chief Auditor Jonathan Romano and New York City Regional Chief Auditor Thomasina Smith.

MTA Bus and Subway Town Hall on Service Improvements?

  Last night the MTA held a Town Hall on service improvements and service cuts. As you can see this scarcely attended meeting was made up of mostly MTA employees. The funny part was that one was able to enter the school, go up to the second floor where the meeting was, but one had to stop and have a metal detecting wand moved over your body before entering the auditorium.

Andy Byford the new Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Transit Authority explained that the system has to be upgraded, and streamlined for better service to its riders. He went over the current system, and explained how new changes would improve service on buses and subways. There will be changes to some bus routes which may include moving buses to different streets to speed up service, cutting down a few stops that are clustered block after block, and new subway signaling.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz was on hand and spoke for a few minutes praising the MTA, hoping what Mr. Byford was saying helps the riding public. Afterwards a question and answer period was done with several MTA executives including Mr. Byford. Questions that were written down were asked and answered, but it seemed two different men interjected after questions were answered. When a woman tried to interject she was told she could not. At that point one could see the two men were MTA employees, and the woman was not. 

I spoke to Tim Minton who said he was the Communications Director for the MTA, and asked him two questions. The first was how was the MTA going to stop the governor, state legislature, or even the mayor from taking any monies currently going to the MTA and moving said monies elsewhere in the budget once congestion pricing begins. I used the example of the lottery where monies that use to for education were moved elsewhere once lottery money went to education. I could not get an answer that the MTA would keep the same current funding streams from the state and city.

My second question which also could not be answered was how was the MTA going to offset the lack of revenue from the Henry Hudson Bridge since it was going to be a free bridge to get Assemblyman Dinowitz to go along with congestion pricing. I said that I was told bus routes in the Bronx would be cut or eliminated to make up the loss in revenue. Again there was no answer. 

Above - Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz speaks at the meeting about how the new changes will improve service, and there will no longer be a toll on the Henry Hudson Bridge.

Below - The panel with Andy Buford answered questions read by the moderator on the left. Certain MTA employees interjected after answers while the public was told they could not.

Second Annual Family Day Event - Today

Blood drive to ease summer blood shortages being held at Van Cortlandt Jewish Center

Van Cortlandt Jewish Center 2019 Summer Blood Drive

  Help stop a potential blood emergency. The Van Cortlandt Jewish Center, 3880 Sedgwick Ave, Bronx, NY 10463 is having a Summer Blood Drive on Sunday, August 4, 2019 from 9:30 AM to 2:00pm in the game room. It is being run by the New York Blood Center.

The summer is always a time when blood banks are low on supplies. You can help by donating. Everyone that gets screened gets a $10 Dunkin’ gift card and high school students, 16 to 19 are eligible for an additional $15 gift card.

To sign up, please call Stu at 646-240-1279. You can also sign up through the form accessible via the VCJC website at https://vcjewishcenter.org/vcjc-blood-drive-august-4/ (https://donate.nybc.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/271054). Sign-ups are preferred, but walk-ins are always welcome.

Donor requirements are – Bring your donor card or ID with photo. Eat well and drink fluids before donating. You must be at least 16 to donate and between 16 and 18 you must have a parental permission on NYBC form. Donors over 76 need a doctor’s note, unless NYBC has a previous note and your health status has not changed. You cannot have had a new tattoo in the past 12 months, unless the tattoo was done in NJ. The minimum weight is 110 pounds.