3rd Annual Yemini-American Parade in Morris Park

 

The 2019 Yemini-American Parade was a huge success, and people were looking for even more the next year, but due to COVID-19 the 2020 Yemini-American parade was a parade of cars with no one marching. 

With the city and country opening up for the July 4th celebration, it was decided to have the third Annual Yemini-American Parade across Rhinelander Avenue, as was done in 2019. The parade began at Mathews Avenue and went to White Plains Road, but this year it turned left at White Plains Road, going to Morris Park Avenue. At Morris Park Avenue the parade went to Hunt Avenue to finish up on Rhinelander Avenue in front of the Bronx Muslim Center. 

The parade was led by two NYPD horses and the NYPD marching band in a show of support for the Bronx Muslim community. Next came the elected officials led by Councilwoman, and future Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Congressman Ritchie Torres, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, Bronx Community Board 11 Chair Al D'Angelo, future City Councilwomen Amanda Frias and Marjorie Velazquez, other community leaders, along with hundreds of Yemini-American marchers happy to be there dressed in traditional Yemen attire.  

Two NYPD horses led the Third Annual Yemini-American parade, followed by the NYPD marching band in a show of support for the Bronx Yemini community.

The marchers stop for a moment as the Yemen flag is unveiled in front of them. (L - R) are Community Board 7 District Manager Ischia Bravo, Allerton Merchants Association President Gene De Francis, Congressman Ritchie Torres, CB 11 Chair Al D'Angelo, Ardmir Malziu Representing Councilman Mark Gjonaj, Bronx DA Darcel Clark, Future Bronx BP Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, State Senator Gustavo Rivera is behind Councilwoman Gibson, as is future City Council members Amanda Frias and Marjorie Velazquez, also in the back is John Doyle of Jacobi Hospital.                       

The high point of the parade was when the marchers turned onto White Plains Road, where Yahay Obeid, a leader of the Yemini-American community in full Yemen attire stood for this photo.

A drone was taking pictures of the event. It is owned by Mr. Yahay Obeid. 

 After the parade members of the Yemini-American community gathered in the street to continue the very successful Third Annual Yemini-American event.  

155 Days and Counting

 

I had fun up in the Bronx last week, I played Basketball with some good youths at Belmont Park while Councilman Oswald Feliz watched us. I played Volleyball with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and he plays to win. I cut a ribbon with Councilman Salamanca to a new affordable housing building. I broke ground With State Senator Jamaal Bailey and Assemblyman Dinowitz for a new science lab at Bronx Science High School. With Chancellor Porter I visited Lehman High School to watch students get vaccinated against COVID-19. My only regret is that I didn't get to participate in the Yemini_American Parade yesterday.

It's back to work at City Hall with my only worry until January 1st, is getting the public schools open in September without any problems. If only you stubborn people would get vaccinated we can stop this rise in COVID-19. It was not opening up by July 4th for the holiday. By the way we are changing our indicators today so the public won't know the real problem the city is in with the Delta variant of the virus. 

U.S. Promoter of Foreign Cryptocurrency Companies Pleads Guilty for Role in Multimillion-Dollar Securities Fraud Scheme

 

 A California man pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of New York for his participation in a coordinated cryptocurrency and securities fraud scheme through purported digital currency platforms and foreign-based financial accounts. 

As part of his guilty plea, John DeMarr, 55, of Santa Ana, admitted that he conspired with others to defraud investor victims by inducing them to invest in their companies, “Start Options” and “B2G,” based on materially false and misleading representations. Start Options purported to be an online investment platform that provided cryptocurrency mining, trading and digital asset trading services. B2G was purportedly an “ecosystem” that would allow users to trade B2G tokens, provide digital wallet staking and trade digital and fiat currencies “on a secure, comprehensive platform.” Both Start Options and B2G, however, were fraudulent. 

As part of the conspiracy, in approximately December 2017, DeMarr and others began offering securities in the form of investment contracts to U.S. and international investors through the Start Options website. Investments were accepted in Bitcoin, U.S. dollars or Euros. To participate, investors had to deposit their funds for a specified contract period, after which they were told that they could withdraw their money at a significant profit. 

According to court documents, DeMarr and others falsely claimed that investor funds would be invested in digital asset mining and trading platforms that would earn them massive profits. In truth, however, the money was never invested and was instead diverted to accounts controlled by DeMarr and others and used for various personal expenditures, including the purchase of a Porsche, jewelry, and to remodel DeMarr’s home in California. 

Similarly, Start Options also claimed to feature celebrity endorsements to promote its securities offerings. For example, Start Options falsely represented that a professional athlete had endorsed Start Options when, in fact, the athlete was not involved with Start Options and his name and likeness were used without his consent. Based on this and other fraudulent promotional materials, investors sent millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and fiat currency to financial accounts, including cryptowallets, controlled by DeMarr and others in the U.S. and abroad. 

In late January 2018, rather than permitting Start Options investors to withdraw money from their accounts after the requisite time period, DeMarr and others required investors to roll over their accounts into an unregistered “initial coin offering,” or ICO, of B2G, the second of the two fraudulent companies in which DeMarr was involved. Among other fraudulent misrepresentations, DeMarr and others falsely told investors that the ICO would raise capital for the company to build an “ecosystem” that would allow users to trade B2G tokens, provide digital wallet staking, and trading. In truth, investors never actually received any digital tokens, and funds from the offering were not used to develop the B2G platform.

As part of the conspiracy, DeMarr and others also paid various promoters, including an actor famous for martial arts films made in the 1980s and 1990s, to serve as a promoter and celebrity spokesperson, falsely claiming that B2G could generate an “8000%” return for investors within one year, and that he was a participant in the ICO. DeMarr and others also created false press releases and whitepapers about B2G, fabricated B2G account statements and refused to allow investors to withdraw their money. 

DeMarr pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 4, 2022. DeMarr faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis of the Eastern District of New York, Assistant Director in Charge Kristi K. Johnson of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner of the IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Los Angeles Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI and IRS-CI are investigating the case.

Mark Levine - Today at 5:00 pm: Better Understanding the Risk of Delta

 

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Today at 5:00pm: Better Understanding the Risk of Delta   with Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr Register HERE Join City Council Member Levine today for a live-streamed Q&A with Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr - an international expert in epidemiology - to take your questions on the Delta variant, the current state of NYC’s vaccination efforts, and other important Covid related topics. You must register before the event HERE or by visiting https://bit.ly/3BLzK3o.

Governor Cuomo Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress During COVID-19 Pandemic - AUGUST 1, 2021

 

93,818 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.  

"This virus has always been unpredictable, and in the face of the Delta variant, our hard-won progress is only as good as our determination to build on it," Governor Cuomo said. "The vaccine is free, safe and effective - and our strongest weapon in this ongoing fight. If you are still unvaccinated, you remain vulnerable and it is critical that you get your shot as quickly as possible."   

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

·     Test Results Reported - 93,818

·     Total Positive - 2,516

·     Percent Positive - 2.68%

·     7-Day Average Percent Positive - 2.40%

·     Patient Hospitalization - 738 (+39)

·     Patients Newly Admitted - 139

·     Patients in ICU - 152 (+16)

·     Patients in ICU with Intubation - 52 (+0)

·     Total Discharges - 186,895 (+105)

·     Deaths - 9

·     Total Deaths - 43,089

·     Total vaccine doses administered - 22,295,684

·     Total vaccine doses administered over past 24 hours - 40,880

·     Total vaccine doses administered over past 7 days - 262,950

·     Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose - 72.5%

·     Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series - 66.9%

·     Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 75.4%

·     Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 68.6%

·     Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose - 60.7%

·     Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series - 55.7%

·     Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 63.1%

·     Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 57.1% 

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Forfeiture Of Oil Tanker Used To Violate Sanctions Against North Korea

 

 Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mark J. Lesko, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, 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 entry of a judgment of forfeiture regarding the M/T Courageous, a 2,734-ton oil products tanker used to make illicit deliveries of petroleum products through ship-to-ship transfers with vessels flagged in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK” or “North Korea”) and direct shipments to the North Korean port of Nampo.  Payments to purchase the Courageous, to obtain oil for supplying to North Korea using the Courageous, and to procure necessary services for the Courageous were made using U.S. dollars through unwitting U.S. banks, in violation of U.S. law and United Nations Security Council resolutions.  On April 23, 2021, a civil forfeiture action was filed against M/T Courageous.  Criminal charges of conspiracy to evade economic sanctions on the DPRK and money laundering conspiracy are pending against the alleged owner and operator of the Courageous, KWEK KEE SENG, a Singaporean national who remains at large.  U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni issued today’s judgment of forfeiture. 

The M/T Courageous

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “Today’s judgment reflects that the sanctions-evading ship, the Courageous, has been forfeited to the United States and will no longer be used to enable North Korea’s pattern of evading the global community’s prohibitions on support for that regime.  Thanks to the extraordinary cooperation between U.S. and Cambodian law enforcement authorities, the Courageous is permanently out of service.”

According to documents filed in the civil forfeiture action and the allegations contained in the criminal complaint filed against KWEK KEE SENG in Manhattan federal court:[1]

Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) and the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 (“NKSPEA”), the DPRK and individuals or entities that the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) has determined are involved in the facilitation of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are prohibited from engaging in transactions with U.S. persons or using the U.S. financial system.  The United Nations Security Council has similarly imposed economic sanctions on North Korea, prohibiting among other things the conduct of ship-to-ship transfers with DPRK-flagged vessels and the provision of petroleum products to the DPRK.

KWEK and his co-conspirators engaged in an extensive scheme to evade these U.S. and U.N. sanctions by using vessels under their control to covertly transport fuel to North Korea, thereby providing a critical resource for the North Korean government and for DPRK-based companies.  One of those vessels was M/T Courageous – formerly known as the Sea Prima – which was purchased by KWEK through front companies in order to further KWEK and his co-conspirators’ scheme to evade sanctions and launder money.  Among other things, for a four-month period between August and December 2019, M/T Courageous illicitly stopped transmitting information regarding its location, during which time satellite imagery shows that M/T Courageous both engaged in a ship-to-ship transfer of more than $1.5 million worth of oil to a North Korean ship, the Saebyol, which had been designated by OFAC, and traveled to the North Korean port of Nampo.  KWEK and his co-conspirators took additional steps to hide the scheme by (1) operating a series of shell companies, (2) lying to international shipping authorities about M/T Courageous’s dealings with North Korea, and (3) falsely identifying M/T Courageous as another ship in order to evade detection.

In furtherance of the scheme, KWEK and his co-conspirators arranged for a variety of payments denominated in U.S. dollars that were processed through U.S.-based correspondent accounts to purchase oil – including more than $1.5 million to purchase the oil that was transferred to the Saebyol, over $500,000 to buy M/T Courageous, and thousands more dollars to procure necessary services for M/T Courageous and another vessel, including registration fees, ship materials, and salary payments for crewmembers.  KWEK and his co-conspirators overseas sought to conceal these sanctions-evading transactions by, among other things, using front companies to disguise the nature of the transactions; disguising location information for vessels carrying illicit shipments; and conducting ship-to-ship fuel transfers on the open sea in an attempt to hide their counterparties, such as the Saebyol. 

Cambodian authorities seized M/T Courageous in March of 2020, and held the vessel pursuant to a U.S. seizure warrant, which was issued under seal on April 2, 2020.  On April 23, 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a civil forfeiture complaint against M/T Courageous and the case was subsequently assigned to Judge Caproni, who issued today’s judgment of forfeiture.

Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI and its New York Field Office, Counterintelligence Division.  Ms. Strauss also thanked the FBI Legal Attaché Office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section’s Program Operations Unit, and Office of International Affairs; the United States Coast Guard; the Cambodian Ministry of Justice; and the Cambodian National Police, for their assistance.

The charges in the complaint against KWEK are merely accusations, and KWEK is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.         

[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the criminal complaint filed against KWEK and the description of that complaint set forth herein constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation as against KWEK.

Councilman Mark Gjonaj's NYC Moving Forward Week in Review - 7/30/2021

 

Dear Friends,

I hope you and your families are doing well, as COVID-19 continues to spread in New York and new variants are a cause for concern, it's absolutely important that everyone who hasn't gotten vaccinated yet does so immediately. Vaccines remain a critical and safe tool in protecting you and your community. Now New Yorkers can get $100, free tickets, memberships or gifts for getting vaccinated against COVID19. These giveaways will be available for a limited time. Please encourage everyone to get vaccinated and find a vaccination site near you: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/coronavirus/vaccines/covid-19-vaccines.page

This week we passed landmark legislation to bring much needed reforms to the David-versus-Goliath relationship that third-party delivery platforms have with locally owned restaurants. The four bills passed into law of which I am a lead sponsor include: legislation to prohibit the listing of restaurants without their consent on delivery platforms; a bill requiring transparency in the listing of app-generated phone numbers for restaurants and that a restaurant’s official number also be present; a bill to permanently prohibit erroneous charges to restaurants from supposed phone orders; and finally a bill extending a cap on the commission and miscellaneous fees these apps are allowed to charge restaurants. 

With August right around the corner we are looking forward to three more Summer Concerts to mark the end of summer, bring music and entertainment to our neighborhoods with local artists in our District. 

Our Mobile District Office Hours at the local libraries are the perfect opportunity to connect with constituents, hear from them and address their issues. This week we were in City Island and this upcoming week Team Gjonaj is looking forward to visit with constituents at the Allerton Library.

Please remember we are here for you, contact my office with issues or concerns at 718-931-1721 or email at MGjonaj@council.nyc.gov.

Sincerely,

NYC Councilman Mark Gjonaj

District 13, Bronx

City Island Music in the Park Series

Free Contactless Helmet Fitting & Distribution Event

Free Mammograms in District 13

156 Days and Counting

 

Everybody in the Bronx loved me, and we were not wearing any masks either. I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine so my expert doctors are advising me as to what I have to do about COVID-19 as not to catch the virus. 

At least I did not go into the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx where the infection rate is growing like a California wildfire. I stayed mostly in the South Bronx, and the closest I got to Throggs Neck was Lehman High School. 

If my City Hall in the Bronx did not end on Friday I may have marched in the Yemeni American Parade, so let me give a shout out to the Yemen community in Morris Park, and to Yahay Ahmed Obeid.