“If you live here, you’re a New Yorker – period. That’s what IDNYC is all about. For years, we have fought to protect the sanctity of our program and maintain the trust we have built with our immigrant brothers and sisters. Finally, the courts have spoken and our message has been ratified: diversity is not only celebrated in New York City, it’s protected. IDNYC cardholders’ documents are protected as confidential and destroyed.”
Monday, August 5, 2019
Sunday, August 4, 2019
The New York City Council's 3rd Annual Riders Response Transit Tour
NYC Council Member
Ydanis Rodriguez
The New York City Council's
3rd Annual Riders Response Transit Tour
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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez is hosting the Third Annual Riders Respond Transit Tour with NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Wednesday, August 7 and Thursday August 8, 2019.
Throughout the tour, volunteers and elected officials will ride the subway from 6:00am. - 6:00pm! Each day we will be surveying riders and discussing concerns about the status of the stations and the rideability.
Council Member Rodriguez invites you to take the tour with him as a volunteer. Volunteers are needed to help coordinate and conduct the survey over the two day period.
The data that is gathered will be presented at a future Committee on Transportation hearing. Last year, the volunteers were a vital element to the success of the Transit Tour.
Please consider joining us again this year! If you are interested in signing up as volunteer or if you want to learn more, call or email
Kiana Diaz at (646) 670-6901 / KDiaz@council.nyc.gov
, with the Subject: Volunteer: 2019 Transit Tour.
2) You can also Text "TransitTour" to 22828 to sign up to our volunteer list!
If you are Press and would like to join us this year please call or email: Tomas Garita (646)-847-6714 / TGarita@council.nyc.gov
In solidarity,
Ydanis
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Attorney General James' Statement Regarding Yesterday's Two Mass Shootings
Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement regarding yesterday’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, resulting in the deaths of at least 29 individuals:
“In just twenty-four hours, two more communities were brought to its knees, mourning the tragic loss of at least 29 individuals taken far too soon because of gun violence. It is heartbreaking, and it is completely confounding how nothing changes. We have an epidemic of gun violence in this country and a federal government seemingly incapable of any meaningful action to address it. Just as troubling is the fact that people who would do harm to others are emboldened by the hateful, racist rhetoric from the President of the United States, who refuses to acknowledge the power of his words to incite violence. This is a moral moment and we must all unite to stop this crisis.”
Manhattan Doctor Pleads Guilty To Accepting Bribes And Kickbacks From Pharmaceutical Company In Exchange For Prescribing Fentanyl Drug
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that DIALECTI VOUDOURIS, a doctor who practiced in Manhattan, pled guilty today to conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, in connection with a scheme to prescribe Subsys, a potent fentanyl-based spray, in exchange for bribes and kickbacks from Subsys’s manufacturer, Insys Therapeutics. VOUDOURIS pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “As she admitted today, Dialecti Voudouris, a prominent Manhattan oncologist, prescribed her patients Subsys, a powerful fentanyl drug, in exchange for over $100,000 in bribes and kickbacks from the drug’s manufacturer, Insys. Today’s guilty plea – the third in this case – once again demonstrates that when a doctor’s best medical judgment is compromised by bribes, this Office will hold that physician to account, especially when a dangerous opioid like fentanyl is involved.”
According to the allegations contained in the Indictment against VOUDOURIS and filings in related proceedings:
The Insys Speakers Bureau
Subsys, which is manufactured by Insys, is a powerful painkiller approximately 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The FDA approved Subsys only for the management of breakthrough pain in cancer patients. Prescriptions of Subsys typically cost thousands of dollars each month, and Medicare and Medicaid, as well as commercial insurers, reimbursed prescriptions written by VOUDOURIS.
In or about August 2012, Insys launched a “Speakers Bureau,” a roster of doctors who would conduct programs (“Speaker Programs”) purportedly aimed at educating other practitioners about Subsys. In reality, Insys used its Speakers Bureau to induce the doctors who served as speakers to prescribe large volumes of Subsys by paying them Speaker Program fees. Speakers were supposed to conduct an educational slide presentation for other health care practitioners at each Speaker Program. In reality, many of the Speaker Programs were predominantly social affairs where no educational presentation about Subsys occurred. Attendance sign-in sheets for the Speaker Programs were frequently forged by adding the names and signatures of health care practitioners who had not actually been present.
VOUDOURIS’s Participation in the Scheme
VOUDOURIS, a doctor specializing in oncology and hematology who worked at a private medical office on the Upper East Side, received approximately $119,400 in Speaker Program fees from Insys in exchange for prescribing large volumes of Subsys. During a September 2014 dinner with several Insys executives and managers, a senior Insys executive told VOUDOURIS, who had recently been nominated by Insys as a Speaker, that he wanted her to prescribe Subsys to one new patient every day, and that VOUDOURIS would be allocated Speaker Programs if she continued prescribing Subsys. In a conversation with an Insys manager and sales representative soon thereafter, VOUDOURIS was once again informed that Insys expected her to write more Subsys prescriptions. In the months that followed the dinner and this conversation, VOUDOURIS’s Subsys prescriptions rose significantly. By the end of the first quarter of 2015, VOUDOURIS – who had prescribed very minimal quantities of Subsys prior to becoming a Speaker for Insys – was approximately the 10th-highest prescriber of Subsys nationally, accounting for total net sales of Subsys of approximately $581,500 in that quarter alone.
VOUDOURIS, 48, of Queens, New York, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The maximum potential sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge. VOUDOURIS is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Wood on January 3, 2020.
Mr. Berman praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and thanked the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General for its participation in the investigation.
Owners Of Orange County Car Dealership Arrested On Tax And Bank Fraud Charges
Indictment Alleges that Defendants Concealed Millions of Dollars of Business Income and Lied to Lenders
Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jonathan D. Larsen, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CI”), and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the arrests today of MEHDI MOSLEM and SAAED MOSLEM, father-and-son operators of the Exclusive Motor Sports car dealership in Central Valley, New York. The defendants will be presented before United States Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “As alleged, Mehdi and Saaed Moslem defrauded the United States by understating income and inventory of their auto dealership, and they defrauded lenders by overstating their net worth in loan applications. Whether allegedly understating or overstating, father and son were falsifying – and committing crimes.”
IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen said: “Today’s arrests show that underreporting business gross receipts to conceal millions of dollars of income is a serious criminal offense. IRS Criminal Investigation will pursue those individuals who break the law and violate the American tax system.”
FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said: “Lying to financial institutions and skirting the regulations put in place by U.S. tax laws is a violation of federal law, crimes both Mehdi and Saaed Moslem are charged with today. The popular saying about certainties in life omits a third guarantee – when the FBI and IRS catch you engaging in fraudulent behavior and illegal business practices, you will be charged.”
As alleged in the Indictment, which was unsealed today in White Plains federal court:[1]
From 2009 through 2016, MEHDI MOSLEM and SAAED MOSLEM conspired to defraud the United States by concealing millions of dollars of profits relating to Exclusive Motor Sports from the IRS. To falsely lower their business income, MEHDI MOSLEM and SAAED MOSLEM caused their accountant to prepare partnership tax returns that significantly understated Exclusive Motor Sports’ gross receipts and inventory. The fraudulent business income figures passed through to MEHDI MOSLEM’s and SAAED MOSLEM’s personal tax returns filed with the IRS, resulting in a substantial underreporting of the amount of tax due. SAAED MOSLEM then used his fraudulent income tax returns and made other false statements to conceal his assets from creditors when he filed for bankruptcy in 2015.
From 2011 through 2017, MEHDI MOSLEM and SAAED MOSLEM also conspired to defraud multiple financial institutions by submitting falsely inflated net worth statements and fabricated tax returns in connection with loan applications, including for a $1.2 million mortgage on the Exclusive Motor Sports property in Central Valley, on which they later defaulted.
MEHDI MOSLEM, 70, of Central Valley, New York, and SAAED MOSLEM, 35, of Central Valley, New York, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and one count of bank fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. SAAED MOSLEM is also charged with two counts of making false statements to a lender, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, and one count of concealing assets and making false declarations in a bankruptcy case, which carries a maximum sentence of five years. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.
Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the IRS-CI and the FBI.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Indictment, and the description of the Indictment set forth herein, constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.
Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on Shootings in Dayton, Ohio & El Paso, Texas
Governor Cuomo: "Our country is under attack from within, and continuing to ignore what is happening around us will only lead to more bloodshed and more tragedy -- all of it preventable."
"On behalf of all New Yorkers, I'm sorry you live in a country with a Federal Government that allows this to happen and does nothing."
"In the last 24 hours, this nation witnessed two mass shootings that left 29 people dead. Who was protecting the right of those 29 people to live their lives in peace? Where is the outrage?
"Our country is under attack from within, and continuing to ignore what is happening around us will only lead to more bloodshed and more tragedy - all of it preventable.
"This insanity must stop and it must stop now. Those who are unwilling to do anything about it are complicit. I am sick of the excuses. I don't want to hear 'we can't' -- because we know we can, and you just 'don't'.
"In New York we are standing up for sensible gun safety laws to keep our families and children safe and speaking out against the bigotry and hateful rhetoric fueling many of these attacks. Washington must do the same.
"Our hearts break for these families. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I'm sorry you live in a country with a Federal Government that allows this to happen and does nothing."
Street Co-Naming for Gerri Lamb
It was at the Corner of Castle Hill and Lafayette Avenues next to the senior center and NYCHA Houses where Ms. Gerri Lamb was the tenant leader that was chosen to honer her with a street co-naming. Friends and elected officials came out to honor Ms. Gerri Lamb who passed away last year to co-name a street in her honor.
The event was organized by Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. who put forward the street co-naming in the city council. To rename a street the City Council is the last step, and has to approve or deny the street co-naming. Many came out to show their appreciation of all the good things Ms. Gerry Lamb did.
Above - Children from the Kips Bay youth center performed before the elected officials spoke of Ms. Gerri Lamb.
Below - Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. was the first to speak of the good that Gerri Lamb did in her lifetime.
Above - Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark spoke of knowing Ms. Gerri Lamb.
Below - Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. spoke of his interaction with Ms. Gerri Lamb for almost his entire life.
Above - You can see the name of Gerri Lamb being uncovered right under the street sign Castle Hill Avenue.
Below - With the cover fully off the new Street sign you can see Gerri Lamb Way right under Castle Hill Avenue.
A second street sign is given to the family of Ms. Gerri Lamb. The Lamb family is joined by Ruben Diaz Sr., Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and former Deputy Bronx Borough President (a good friend of Ms. Gerri Lamb) Aurelia Greene.
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