Time is running out, less than 200 days left for me as your mayor. what else can I do to leave my mark on New York City? I know, let me fire Police Commissioner Shea, and blame him for the rise in crime. It is going to get worse now that the governor has said we hit the 70% level. I just hope there is a city to give to the next mayor, whomever he or she may be.
“Roberto Clemente State Park is a true treasure of The Bronx and a real amenity for the residents of the surrounding community,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “Throughout the pandemic, we saw how essential it was for Bronx residents to have access to parks and outdoor spaces and I am thrilled to see this park reopen better than ever. I am always happy to support this park and its continued renovation. Since taking office in 2009, I have provided this park with $2.5 million in capital funding, including $1 million for the renovation of the south playground. It is important that we invest in parks and public spaces for our borough, and I have been proud to partner with Commissioner Kulleseid, Council Member Gibson and Omni New York on the continued revitalization of this wonderful community space.”
“It has been an honor during my tenure in the New York City Council to support efforts to invest, restore and revitalize Roberto Clemente State Park for the residents of the West Bronx,” said Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson. “I am thrilled that this summer our families will be able to take full advantage of the new playground equipment, adult fitness stations, community garden, enhanced athletic fields, and other amenities offered as part of the $1.35 million renovation of the park. COVID-19 has highlighted the need for open green spaces and I am incredibly grateful that Roberto Clemente State Park will offer that to New Yorkers across the borough. I want to thank Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Omni New York LLC and all the advocates that pushed for these investments to rebuild our park, and I look forward to our continued partnership.” She presented a check for $500,000.00 to finish the work on the playground.
Assemblywoman Latoya Joiner also spoke about the playground. The South Playground, originally built in 1973 as an adventure playground, has been closed for nearly 20 years due to unsafe conditions. The renovated playground features new playground equipment, playground safety surfacing, modern climbing structures, adult fitness stations, shade trees and a community garden area. The playground is situated along the park's main esplanade close to the Riverpark Towers, and its improvement will enhance the connection between the park and its largest residential neighbor.
The playground reflects the same aesthetic utilized along the newly reconstructed and adjoining esplanade – and will enhance the patron experience along the entire western edge of the park. The $1.35 million project was funded through a $1 million grant from Bronx Borough president Ruben Diaz, $500,000 from Council Member Vanessa Gibson and the final $100,000 from Omni New York LLC.
Councilwoman Vanesa Gibson and Althea Stevens candidate to replace Gibson try the new Adult fitness equipment The revitalization of the South Playground builds on the $100 million transformation of Roberto Clemente State Park that began under Governor Cuomo in 2011. Other improvements across the park include replacement of the bulkhead, rehabilitation of the main esplanade, renovation of the aquatic center, new and enhanced athletic fields, installation of a floating dock for waterfront access, revitalized basketball courts, and reconstruction of the north shoreline revetment.
Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that JEFFREY GOLDSTEIN, a doctor who practiced in New York, New York, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 57 months in prison for conspiring 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. GOLDSTEIN previously pled guilty, on August 16, 2019, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman, and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Jeffrey Goldstein, an Upper East Side Manhattan doctor, prescribed Subsys, a powerful fentanyl opioid, in return for nearly $200,000 in bribes from the drug’s manufacturer, Insys Therapeutics. Goldstein put his own patients at risk in order to satisfy his own greed, and will now spend time in federal prison for recklessly prescribing this highly addictive and powerful opioid. This sentence sends a loud and clear signal to the medical community that if you take bribes in return for prescribing, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and risk significant prison time.”
According to the allegations contained in the Indictment against GOLDSTEIN 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 GOLDSTEIN.
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.
Goldstein’s Participation in the Scheme
GOLDSTEIN was a doctor of osteopathic medicine who owned a private medical office on the Upper East Side. GOLDSTEIN received approximately $196,000 in Speaker Program fees from Insys in exchange for prescribing large volumes of Subsys. After GOLDSTEIN began prescribing a competitor painkiller, Insys pressured him to stop doing so and switch patients back to Subsys, which GOLDSTEIN did.
GOLDSTEIN also received other items of value from Insys in order to induce him to prescribe. For example, Insys employees took GOLDSTEIN and Todd Schlifstein, who co-owned a private medical office with GOLDSTEIN, to a Manhattan strip club where Insys spent approximately $4,100 on a private room, alcoholic drinks, and “lap dances” for GOLDSTEIN and Schlifstein. GOLDSTEIN also arranged for Insys to pay for the annual holiday party for his private medical office.
In 2014, GOLDSTEIN was approximately the fifth-highest-paid Insys Speaker nationally. He was the sixth-highest prescriber of Subsys in the last quarter of 2014, accounting for approximately $809,275 in overall net sales of Subsys in that quarter.
In addition to the prison sentence, GOLDSTEIN, 51, of New Rochelle, New York, was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $196,600.
GOLDSTEIN was one of five Manhattan doctors convicted for participating in the Subsys bribery conspiracy. Todd Schlifstein was convicted upon a guilty plea and sentenced by Judge Wood on October 28, 2019, principally to a term of two years in prison. Alexandru Burducea was convicted upon a guilty plea and sentenced by Judge Wood on January 27, 2020, principally to a term of 57 months in prison. Dialecti Voudouris was convicted upon a guilty plea and sentenced by Judge Wood on March 5, 2020, principally to time served. Gordon Freedman was convicted following a jury trial in December 2019 and is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Wood on July 8, 2021.
Ms. Strauss praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and thanked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General, for its participation in the investigation.
AG James Submits Congressional Testimony in Support of Women’s Health Protection Act
New York Attorney General Letitia James continued her leadership in the fight to safeguard the health care and reproductive rights of patients across New York and the rest of the nation. Leading a coalition of 16 attorneys general from across the nation, Attorney General James submitted testimony into the congressional record, urging passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which would protect a woman's constitutional right to access an abortion by prohibiting unnecessary restrictions — passed at the state level — that undermine the availability and safety of health care services.
“As states continue to pass constricting laws that seek to unconstitutionally restrict women’s reproductive rights, we are urging Congress to take federal action and codify every woman’s right to access an abortion into law,” said Attorney General James. “Roe v. Wade may have been fought nearly 50 years ago, but the war on women’s reproductive freedoms continues today. It’s time for our federal leaders to finally stand up for women’s health nationwide and take legislative action to prevent these unconstitutional infringements. This is about protecting women’s health, protecting their bodies, and protecting their choices.”
“The United States has never been closer to losing the fundamental right to access abortion than right now,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO, Center for Reproductive Rights. “State legislatures have passed so many restrictions that abortion is already out of reach for many people. The WHPA is the answer to these politically motivated, unconstitutional restrictions. We are so grateful to New York Attorney General Letitia James and to the many other state attorneys general who have joined her in calling for the passage of this crucial legislation. The time for Congress to act is now.”
Attorney General James leads the coalition in arguing that while legislators in many states may claim that the laws they are enacting are being passed to promote women’s health, the reality is that these laws are simply designed to restrict access to abortion services and, most often, lead to worse health outcomes for women. These include laws requiring physicians to have admitting privileges at hospitals and setting arbitrary requirements at women’s health clinics for the size of procedure rooms and corridors. The proliferation of these restrictions has negatively impacted women’s health — disproportionately affecting low-income communities and communities of color, while simultaneously creating a lack of national consistency that strains states’ health care systems. Most importantly, any law that imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy is unconstitutional.
The Women’s Health Protection Act targets these onerous state laws that have been adopted in a concerted strategy to restrict access to abortion across the nation. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Texas law that required abortion providers to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital failed to advance women’s health and posed an undue burden on women seeking an abortion. Additionally, last year, Attorney General James led a coalition of 22 attorneys general in helping win another victory in June Medical Services v. Gee, in which the Supreme Court held that a similar law in Louisiana was unconstitutional.
As more states try to pass new laws that restrict women’s reproductive freedoms with medically unnecessary restrictions, new court challenges continue to be filed — a process that can often take years. That’s why Attorney General James and the coalition are today urging Congress to pass the WHPA to ensure that such restrictions are not imposed in the first place.
The consequences of these laws are already evident across the country. Research from 2017 found that 38 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 44 live in counties without a single abortion clinic. Additionally, as of June 2019, six states have only one abortion clinic remaining. As providers close due to the impact of medically unnecessary restrictions, women are likely to be forced to travel farther and make greater sacrifices to obtain access to care. Unfortunately, however, these burdens often fall disproportionately on lower-income women who cannot afford to travel, take time off from work, or find childcare while they visit their nearest provider.
The coalition goes on to assert that laws aimed specifically at restricting abortion providers have proved, time and time again, to lead to worse health outcomes for women, including:
The widely known negative effects of laws targeting abortion providers undermines any argument that such laws are intended to promote women’s health.
The coalition finally argues that without the WHPA, a lack of consistency in access to abortion services will lead to unnecessary strain on the states’ health care systems. Many women will cross state lines, if they have the means to do so, when abortions are unavailable in the states where they live. In the wake of recent abortion restrictions, some states have experienced a substantial influx of out-of-state patients seeking abortions as a result of reduced access in their home states, as has happened in the past. In fact, in the nearly three years between New York state’s liberalization of its abortion laws in 1970 and 1973 — when the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade ruled that the right to choose was constitutionally protected — close to 350,000 women came to New York from other states where abortions were entirely or largely unavailable. Medically unnecessary restrictions targeting abortion providers create a disservice to women’s health and safety and pose challenges for states that aim to provide a full range of reproductive health services.
Today’s action is just the latest in a long list of measures Attorney General James has taken to protect patients’ reproductive freedom since taking office. Earlier this month, Attorney General James and a coalition of attorneys general helped score a major victory in the case Reproductive Health Services v. Parson, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction enjoining a Missouri law that, among other things, banned abortions after as early as eight weeks into pregnancy. In January 2020, Attorney General James and the coalition filed an amicus brief in the case, challenging the constitutionality of several, recently-enacted abortion bans in the state of Missouri.
Technical Support Scheme Deceived More Than 7,500 Victims Across the United States and Canada, Many of Whom Are Elderly, into Paying for Phony Computer Repair Services
Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ROMANA LEYVA pled guilty today to participating in a conspiracy that for several years exploited elderly victims by remotely accessing their computers and convincing victims to pay for computer support services they did not need, and which were never actually provided. In total, the conspiracy generated more than $10 million in proceeds from at least approximately 7,500 victims. LEYVA pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to intentionally damage victims’ computers, before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty, to whom her case is assigned.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “As she admitted today, Romana Leyva was a leader of a conspiracy that caused pop-up windows to appear on victims’ computers – pop-up windows that claimed, falsely, that a virus had infected the victims’ computers. Through this and other misrepresentations, this fraud scheme deceived thousands of victims, including some of society’s most vulnerable members, into paying a total of more than $10 million. Leyva now awaits sentencing for her crimes.”
According to the allegations contained in the Superseding Information, court filings, and statements made during plea proceedings:
From approximately February 2015 through December 2018, LEYVA was a member of a criminal fraud ring (the “Fraud Ring”) based in the United States and India that committed a technical support fraud scheme that exploited elderly victims located across the United States and Canada, including in the Southern District of New York. The Fraud Ring’s primary objective was to trick victims into believing that their computers were infected with malware, in order to deceive them into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for phony computer repair services. Over the course of the conspiracy, the Fraud Ring generated more than $10 million in proceeds from at least 7,500 victims.
The scheme generally worked as follows: First, the Fraud Ring caused pop-up windows to appear on victims’ computers. The pop-up windows claimed, falsely, that a virus had infected the victim’s computer. The pop-up window directed the victim to call a particular telephone number to obtain technical support. In at least some instances, the pop-up window threatened victims that, if they restarted or shut down their computer, it could “cause serious damage to the system,” including “complete data loss.” In an attempt to give the false appearance of legitimacy, in some instances the pop-up window included, without authorization, the corporate logo of a well-known, legitimate technology company. In fact, no virus had infected victims’ computers, and the technical support phone numbers were not associated with the legitimate technology company. Rather, these representations were false and were designed to trick victims into paying the Fraud Ring to “fix” a problem that did not exist. And while the purported “virus” was a hoax, the pop-up window itself did cause various victims’ computers to completely “freeze,” thereby preventing these victims from accessing the data and files in their computer – which caused some victims to call the phone number listed on the pop-up window. In exchange for victims’ payment of several hundreds or thousands of dollars (depending on the precise “service” victims purchased), the purported technician remotely accessed the victim’s computer and ran an anti-virus tool, which is free and available on the Internet. The Fraud Ring also re-victimized various victims, after they had made payments to purportedly “fix” their tech problems.
LEYVA’s roles in the scheme included (1) creating several fraudulent corporate entities that were used to receive fraud proceeds from victims, (2) recruiting others (including through misrepresentations) to register fraudulent corporate entities that became part of and facilitated the activities of the Fraud Ring, and (3) assisting others in setting up fraudulent corporate entities and bank accounts, including coaching them to make misrepresentations to bank employees where necessary. As she acknowledged as part of her guilty plea, LEYVA was a leader or organizer in this conspiracy.
LEYVA, 37, of Las Vegas, Nevada, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison; and one count of conspiracy to intentionally damage a protected computer, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The statutory maximum sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as LEYVA’s sentence will be determined by the judge. LEYVA’s sentencing is scheduled for September 15, 2021, at 12:00 p.m.
Ms. Strauss praised the New York Office of Homeland Security Investigations’ (“HSI”) El Dorado Task Force, Cyber Intrusion/Cyber Fraud Group, for its outstanding work on the investigation. Ms. Strauss also thanked the New York City Police Department for its assistance on this case.
Statewide 7-Day Average Positivity is 0.40% -- Record Low for 19 Consecutive Days, Has Declined for 72 Consecutive Days
Statewide Positivity is 0.35%
83,989 Vaccine Doses Administered Over Last 24 Hours
9 COVID-19 Deaths Statewide Yesterday
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress combatting COVID-19.
