THE NEW YORK HISPANIC CLERGY ORGANIZATION ANNUAL BANQUET

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

By Former NYC Councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz 

You should know that during the month of October when we celebrate The Hispanic Heritage Month, The New York Hispanic Clergy Organization will be honoring six (6) Distinguished Hispanic Ministers during the celebration of this year’s Annual Banquet.

 

You should also know that The New York Hispanic Clergy Organization is composed of 150 Clergy Members within the Tri-State Area of New York.  We have proudly served The Hispanic/Latino Community for 35 years.  Our mission is not limited to only humanitarian efforts but is extended to educating the Christian Hispanic Community in the social/political process that affects our families, and society.

 

Every year since the inception of The NYHC Organization we have proudly held an Annual Banquet to honor and recognize Men and Women who have distinguished themselves serving in their respective ministries. This year’s honorees are Apostol Gladys Paulino, Rev. Abner Rivera, Rev. Angel G. Santiago, Rev. Percido Garces, Rev. Marcos Fuchu, and Bishop Dr. Roberto B. Amoros.

 

More than six hundred (600) will be attending this year’s event which is scheduled to take place on Saturday October 22, 2022, from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. at Maestros Catering Hall 1703 Bronxdale Avenue in the Bronx New York.

 

For more information, please call Rev. Samaris Gross at (347) 613-1491.  I am Rev. Ruben Diaz, and this is what you should know.

Attorney General James, Comptroller Lander, and 32BJ SEIU Recover $3 Million from Real Estate Developer for Underpaying Workers

 

Heatherwood Underpaid Workers at Buildings in Brooklyn and Queens Despite Receiving 421-a Tax Credits

Workers Will Receive More Than $723,000 in Unpaid Wages and Benefits

New York Attorney General Letitia James, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and 32BJ SEIU recovered $3 million from a luxury residential property developer for denying workers prevailing wages and benefits. Heatherwood Communities LLC (Heatherwood) received tax exemptions on two of its New York City rental properties located in Queens and Brooklyn under the city’s 421-a program, but failed to pay prevailing wages and benefits to building service employees, as required under the tax credit program. As a result of today’s agreement, Heatherwood will return $723,324, the full amount owed plus interest, to 24 workers and pay a penalty to New York City and New York state for violating the conditions of the tax credit program.

“Workers are the backbone of New York, and they deserve fair pay and benefits for their hard work,” said Attorney General James. “These individuals worked day and night to make ends meet but were denied their hard-earned money. Paying workers fair wages and benefits is not a luxury, it’s the law and Heatherwood cheated these workers and taxpayers. Today, two dozen workers will get back wages they earned but were unjustly denied. I thank Comptroller Lander and 32BJ SEIU for their collaboration on this effort to hold bad actors accountable and protect everyday New Yorkers.”

“Together with Attorney General James and 32BJ SEIU, we are sending a strong message today: New Yorkers have zero tolerance for developers who cheat New York and its workers out of their hard-earned wages,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Not only did Heatherwood reap tax benefits under false pretenses, they denied hardworking New Yorkers the compensation they were due for their labor. I’m grateful to the staff of our Bureau of Labor Law for their diligent work to ensure that these workers will get the money they are owed, to 32BJ SEIU for sounding the alarm on Heatherwood’s violation of our prevailing wage standards, and to the partnership of the Attorney General to ensure this wrong was righted.” 

“This $3 million settlement’s importance goes beyond the dollar amount,” said Kyle Bragg, President, 32BJ SEIU. “We are sending a clear message to owners and developers like Heatherwood that they cannot enjoy the benefits of our city’s tax exemptions if they can’t meet their basic responsibilities to their workers. 32BJ SEIU thanks Attorney General James and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander for their partnership in this crucial fight. Together, we have won a crucial victory for not only our members but working people across the state.”

“This settlement means so much to me and my fellow workers,” said Elizabeth Hernandez, a worker at a Heatherwood building. “All we were demanding was the pay Heatherwood owed. As important as this money is to me and others, it’s about more than that. We stood up against Heatherwood because what they were doing was wrong. All workers deserve dignity and respect. I want to thank God, 32BJ SEIU, Attorney General James, and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander for standing with us in this fight!”

“I am a working person, and I expect my employer to pay me what was promised,” said Francisco Giuliano, a worker at a Heatherwood building. “Underpaying workers is not just wrong. It throws lives into chaos. The money I am receiving will provide me with financial stability and justice. I want to thank Attorney General James, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and 32BJ SEIU for ensuring that companies like Heatherwood can’t act like they are above the law.”

“I have two children and am single,” said Katherine Bustamante, a worker at a Heatherwood building. “By underpaying workers and denying us benefits, Heatherwood made it harder for us to provide for our families. I want to thank God, Attorney General James, New York City Comptroller Lander, and 32BJ SEIU for fighting for working parents like me. Thanks to this money, I will be able to support my kids.”

An investigation led by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that over the course of two years, Heatherwood failed to pay building service workers prevailing wages and benefits at one building in Queens and one in Brooklyn. The buildings — 27 on 27^th in Long Island City and 568 Union in Williamsburg — boast yoga areas, furnished rooftop terraces, fitness centers, children’s playrooms, and even a movie theater in one building.

Heatherwood applied for partial tax exemptions under New York’s 421-a tax incentive program administered by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Under the 421-a tax credit program, developers are granted tax breaks, with certain conditions, on new multi-unit residential buildings. To qualify, any project receiving the tax exemption must be subject to local rent stabilization laws, and for buildings with at least 30 units, developers are required to either set aside a number of affordable housing units or pay prevailing wages to building service workers. Developers are required to comply with prevailing wage rules, which determine the wage and benefits payable to building service workers according to schedules issued by the New York City Comptroller.

As part of its applications for the tax exemptions, Heatherwood told HPD that it would pay its building service employees prevailing wages. At the time, the prevailing wages plus benefits amounted to a range, depending on seniority and title, of roughly $22 to $26. Heatherwood paid janitorial and concierge workers at 568 Union Avenue only between $9 and $14 per hour without benefits, and paid workers at 27-03 42nd Road only between $8.50 and $15, also without benefits. These amounts were roughly 41 percent of what workers should have received.

As a result of today’s agreement, Heatherwood will return $723,324.33, which includes 16 percent interest, to 24 workers, and pay the city $1,146,196 and the state $686,527 in penalties. Heatherwood is also required to continue paying building service employees the prevailing wage.

The Comptroller’s Office will notify workers of this agreement and issue their checks.

This case was brought pursuant to the New York False Claims Act (NYFCA), by a whistleblower suing on behalf of New York state. As the whistleblower who alerted OAG to this situation, 32JB SEIU will receive a percentage of the proceeds paid as part of the settlement.

The City of New York Announces Successful Sale of $1.35 Billion of General Obligation Bonds, Including its First Social Bonds

 Rendering of a project being financed by the City’s first-ever social bonds (107 affordable units at 1510 Broadway in Brooklyn).

Social bond proceeds will finance over 3,000 units of affordable housing in New York City.

The City of New York (“the City”) announced the sale of $1.35 billion of General Obligation Bonds, comprised of $950 million of tax-exempt fixed rate bonds and $400 million of taxable fixed rate bonds designated as Social Bonds. Proceeds of the tax-exempt bond sale will be used to fund capital projects. The taxable fixed rate Social Bonds will fund affordable housing. The Social Bonds received a second party opinion from S&P Global Ratings affirming alignment of the bonds with the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Social Bond Principles.

During the retail order period for the tax-exempt bonds, the City received just under $690 million of orders from retail investors, of which over $490 million was usable. During the institutional order period, the City received approximately $6.0 billion of priority orders, representing just over 13.1x the bonds offered for sale to institutional investors.

“This announcement shows that we are able to tap into the growing investor demand for socially sustainable investments. Increasing the supply of genuinely affordable housing is both a critical priority for the City of New York and the results of yesterday’s sale show that it is an attractive investment for socially conscious investors,” said Comptroller Lander.

Strong investor demand for the tax-exempt bonds resulted in yields being reduced by 2-7 basis points from 2024 through 2039, and by 11-15 basis points in 2040 through 2047. Final yields ranged from 3.12% in 2024 to 4.39% in 2047.

During the order period for the taxable Social Bonds, the City received indications of interest totaling $1.88 billion, representing 4.7x the bonds offered. Of those orders, more than $380 million from 10 investors were identified as being entered for Social Bond-specific accounts.

Given investor demand for the taxable bonds, the yield was reduced by 10 basis points to a final yield of 5.263% for the term bond maturing in 2052.

The proceeds of the sale of the taxable social bonds will be dedicated solely to reimburse City spending on affordable housing projects, supporting the creation of over 3,000 homes under the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) Extremely Low- and Low-Income Affordability (ELLA) program, Supportive Housing Loan Program (SHLP), and Senior Affordable Rental Apartments (SARA). Read the announcement for additional details.

The tax-exempt fixed rate bonds were underwritten through a syndicate led by book-running lead manager Citigroup, with BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan Securities, Jefferies, Loop Capital Markets, Ramirez & Co., RBC Capital Markets, Siebert Williams Shank, and Wells Fargo Securities serving as co-senior managers. The taxable fixed rate social bonds were underwritten through a syndicate led by joint lead managers Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

Bank CEO Sentenced To 14 Months In Prison For Taking Bribes In Connection With Loans Guaranteed By The Small Business Administration

 

 Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that defendant EDWARD SHIN, a/k/a “Eungsoo Shin,” was sentenced to 14 months in prison for his role in defrauding a Pennsylvania-based bank (the “Bank”) while serving as its CEO.  SHIN was convicted after a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan on all counts, which charged SHIN with taking bribes in connection with the Bank’s issuance of loans that were guaranteed by the United States Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and with causing the Bank to issue SBA-guaranteed and commercial loans to companies in which SHIN had a secret financial interest.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As CEO, Edward Shin was entrusted with stewardship of a Pennyslvania-based bank.  Instead of promoting and protecting the bank’s interests, Shin used the bank as his own piggy bank, stealing from it to line his pockets and the pockets of his corrupt friends.  For violating the trust placed in him, Shin will rightly serve prison time.”

According to the allegations contained in the Criminal Complaint, Indictment, and evidence adduced during trial:

The SBA helps Americans start, build, and grow businesses by guaranteeing certain loans made by banks to help those businesses succeed.  Between 2009 and 2013, the Bank offered a range of financial products, including SBA-guaranteed loans to small businesses in the New York-New Jersey area, which the Bank could extend only on the condition that all aspects of those loans complied with SBA regulations and SBA’s standard operating procedures.  In particular, SBA regulations and procedures prohibited bank officers, including SHIN, from receiving any payments in connection with SBA-backed loans and prohibited banks from extending such loans to any institution in which a bank officer held an interest.

Notwithstanding these regulations, SHIN, then the CEO of the Bank, secretly solicited and received bribe payments in connection with SBA-guaranteed loans issued by the Bank and caused the Bank to extend SBA-guaranteed and commercial loans to companies in which SHIN had secret ownership interests.  Specifically, when the Bank issued business loans that did not involve the use of any actual broker, SHIN nonetheless arranged to have his longtime friend, a real estate and loan broker (the “Broker”), inserted unnecessarily into the transaction solely to generate a broker fee that could be shared with SHIN; in fact, the Broker did no actual work to earn a commission on those transactions but split the “broker’s fee” with SHIN as an illegal kickback.

SHIN also arranged for the Bank to issue SBA-guaranteed loans to several businesses in which he secretly retained an ownership interest, in violation of SBA regulations and procedures.  For example, in or about June 2010, the Bank issued an SBA-guaranteed loan for approximately $950,000 to a business in New York, New York.  Although documents submitted to the Bank for purposes of securing the loan did not mention SHIN’s financial interest, the business was secretly operated as a partnership between SHIN, the Broker, and another individual.  The loan ultimately went into default status, resulting in a loss to the Bank of approximately $591,278.60.  On another occasion, in or about 2013, the Bank issued an SBA-guaranteed loan for approximately $1,050,000 to a business in New York, New York.  Again, even though the business was secretly operated as a partnership between SHIN and another family member of SHIN’s, the documents submitted to the Bank for purposes of securing the loan did not mention SHIN’s financial interest nor the family member’s relationship to SHIN.

SHIN, 59, of Ambler, Pennsylvania, was convicted at trial of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud affecting a financial institution, one count of conspiracy to commit bank bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit loan fraud, another count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and one count each of bank bribery and embezzlement of funds by a bank officer.  In addition to the prison terms, Judge Cronan sentenced SHIN to three years of supervised release and ordered SHIN to pay forfeiture in the amount of $5,506,050 and a $600 special assessment fee.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations, the SBA Office of the Inspector General, and the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. 

MAYOR ADAMS’ STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT BIDEN’S MARIJUANA REFORM ANNOUNCEMENT

 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today released the following statement after President Joseph Biden’s marijuana reform announcement:

 

“For too long, underserved communities — particularly communities of color — have faced disproportionate rates of drug-related incarceration, and I applaud President Biden for taking these tremendous strides toward finally delivering equity to those disproportionately harmed by the ‘War on Drugs.’ No one should be in prison solely due to a marijuana possession conviction, and a review of the outdated federal classification of marijuana is long overdue. The actions taken by the president today get the ball rolling on righting these decades-long wrongs.”

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE RESPONDS TO FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKING PARTS OF NEW YORK'S GUN SAFETY LAW

 

"This ruling comes as little surprise in a country so deeply invested in carnage capitalism that common sense gun safety laws are seen by some as a greater threat than bullets. After a conservative Supreme Court rejected New York’s basic standards of safety this summer, New York passed legislation specifically tailored to meet the Court’s ruling – but even a modest effort at saving lives is too much for the conservative movement in a country with a demonic obsession with guns.

"In light of this ruling, it is harder today to drive past Times Square than to bring a gun into it. Blocking this law clears the way for more guns to flow through the iron pipeline and onto our streets. Just over a week ago, twenty-three people were shot in our city over a three day period. Until and unless this decision is overturned, New Yorkers are less safe, and our government is failing to protect them."

BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO 21 YEARS IN PRISON FOR FATAL SHOOTING OF MAN AFTER DISPUTE

 

Defendant Pleaded Guilty to First-Degree Manslaughter

 Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for fatally shooting a man at the entrance of an apartment building after a dispute.

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant initially got into a fight with a group of people. After they dispersed, he went to a building where the opposing group retreated to and opened fire. He shot the victim—who was not part of the fight—four times, killing him and putting all surrounding neighbors at risk.”   

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Tujuan Ford, 25, last of 654 Beck Street, was sentenced today to 21 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio. The defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree Manslaughter on September 14, 2022. 

 According to the investigation, in the early morning hours of June 30, 2019, Ford got into a fight with a group of individuals outside a food truck on Southern Boulevard and East 149th Street in the Bronx. The victim, Alberto DeJesus, 22, was present with the group but not part of the fight. After it broke up, DeJesus went to a nearby apartment building at 1044 Avenue Saint John and was shot at by Ford. DeJesus went into the lobby of the building where he collapsed. The attack was captured on surveillance video. DeJesus died at NYC Health + Hospitals Lincoln.

 District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Frankie Soler of Bronx Homicide.

Justice Department Announces Filing of Statement of Interest in "Ghost Gun" Litigation

 

 Breon Peace, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), in partnership with Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), and Brian M. Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, filed a Statement of Interest today in The City of New York v. Arm or Ally, LLC, to express the Justice Department’s views on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)’s regulations concerning unfinished frame and receiver kits. 

In the lawsuit, the City of New York alleges that multiple firearm businesses have sold tens of thousands of illegal, unfinished frames and receivers to New Yorkers.  These frames and receivers, which are classified as firearms, were then converted into unserialized, untraceable handguns and assault-style weapons, known as “ghost guns.”  Ghost guns contribute to the ongoing plague of gun violence.

The Department of Justice’s Statement of Interest informs the Court that the United States has serious concerns about the proliferation of untraceable firearms easily assembled from firearm parts kits and unfinished frames and receivers.  The Statement of Interest makes clear that ATF has long held that the sale of all components necessary to produce a functional firearm are, and always have been, classified as the sale of a firearm under the Gun Control Act of 1968.  Additionally, the Statement of Interest informs the Court of ATF’s authority to promulgate a rule updating its definition of “frame or receiver” and other statutory and regulatory terms.  

Mr. Peace stated, “Ghost guns are a major contributor to the ongoing plague of gun violence.  The United States will continue to employ every means available, including civil tools, to keep ghost guns and other illegal firearms out of the hands of criminals and reduce the risk of gun violence.  The United States filed a Statement of Interest in this important litigation to ensure that the Court is informed of the federal government’s views of pertinent firearms statutes and regulations.”

Mr. Williams stated, “This Statement of Interest reflects the Department of Justice’s commitment to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to combat the growing problem of ghost guns.  This Office is determined to prevent criminals from accessing untraceable firearms easily assembled from firearms parts kits and unfinished frames and receivers.”

“Ghost guns have for years helped fuel an escalating trend of firearms-related violence,” ATF Special Agent in Charge DeVito said.  “The updated federal regulations are an important step in abating that trend in our local communities.  Today’s filing sends a message that the United States will do its part, using all available means, to support our local partners in their own efforts to curb the flow of these dangerous weapons to the criminal element and violent offenders.”       

For the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the filing of this Statement of Interest is part of EDNY’s larger Civil Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence.  The EDNY’s Civil Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence was created earlier this year in recognition of the President’s directive to take a whole-of-government approach to combat the epidemic of gun violence and ensure public safety, and complements the EDNY’s Criminal Division’s successful efforts to reduce the scourge of gun-related crimes.  The EDNY’s Civil Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence aims to collaborate with federal, state, and local officials, as well as community stakeholders, to address the root causes of gun-related crime, and supports reform efforts made across the government.  In July 2021, the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York also joined a cross-jurisdictional strike force to help reduce gun violence by disrupting illegal firearms trafficking in key regions across the country.