100PercentBronx

Monday, November 7, 2022

State Office for the Aging Honors 94 Older Adults for their Volunteerism on Older New Yorkers’ Day

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November 4 virtual event recognizes special class of volunteers who join 1 million of their peers in collectively contributing more than 495 million hours of volunteer service

The New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) recently honored 94 older adults for their volunteerism in every region of the state as part of NYSOFA's annual Older New Yorkers' Day celebration.

The November 4 program is available to watch and share at any time on YouTube. In it, NYSOFA and guests recognize the exceptional talents and generosity of older adults nominated by New York's network of 59 county-based Area Agencies on Aging.

NYSOFA's Older New Yorkers’ Day award program book, available on NYSOFA’s website, includes profiles of all awardees. It describes the many ways that each awardee uniquely contributes through civic organizations, charities, in schools or libraries, on behalf of health and human services organizations or other non-profits, through acts of kindness to their friends and neighbors of all ages, and so much more. Please read the program book to find awardees from your region, organized alphabetically by county.

As a group, older New Yorkers age 55 and over contribute more than 495 million hours of volunteer service each year at an economic value of $13.8 billion. The 94 volunteers recognized during NYSOFA’s 2022 Older New Yorkers’ Day program live in 55 counties. Collectively, they represent 5,500 years of life experience and have volunteered for a combined 2,568 years of service.

“The word 'volunteer' cannot capture fully the accomplishments of this group of incredible individuals,” said NYSOFA Director Greg Olsen in his prepared remarks. “Older adults impress us all with their commitment to a greater good and a greater cause. You tell the real story of what’s good about people, what’s good about New York. Through your deeds and actions, time and again, you show us how valuable you all are to those you touch, to those you serve, to the families and communities and lives you make better.”

Olsen also emphasized that the example set by these 94 volunteers is vital to overcoming ageist stereotypes that one-dimensionally cast older adults as frail or a burden on society – “a misnomer to say the least,” he said.

Olsen added: “Individuals of all ages sometimes need assistance, but older adults as a whole consider themselves healthy, remain active and engaged and are a very important part of the local, regional, state and national economies as well as the ability of community organizations to operate. Further, they give a tremendous amount of their time to hundreds of civic groups and organizations that are critical in delivering direct services and supporting local agencies.”

Further Background About Older New Yorkers’ Day

Each year, since 1963, federal, state and local governments recognize Older Americans Month in May. In May 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul marked the occasion with a proclamation designating May as Older Americans Month in New York “in honor of individuals age 60 and over who contribute to the social, economic, and cultural vibrancy of our state,” calling upon communities across the state to “promote the value and contribution of older adults through age-friendly systems and supports that provide for needs across the age spectrum.”

New York State goes a step further, additionally holding a special observance of Older New Yorkers’ Day by collecting nominations of exceptional older adults from county-based offices for the aging. While traditionally held in May, Older New Yorkers’ Day has recently been held in November as a virtual event, due to COVID-19. The November program coincides with National Family Caregivers Month as a special spotlight on the contributions of older adults.

Resource Links

Visit the 2022 Older New Yorkers’ Day webpage.
Download the 2022 Older New Yorkers’ Day Program Book.
Download remarks by NYSOFA Director Greg Olsen.
Watch the program on YouTube.

U.S. Attorney Announces Historic $3.36 Billion Cryptocurrency Seizure And Conviction In Connection With Silk Road Dark Web Fraud

In November 2021, Law Enforcement Seized Over 50,676 Bitcoin Hidden in Devices in Defendant JAMES ZHONG’s Home; ZHONG Has Now Pled Guilty to Unlawfully Obtaining that Bitcoin From the Silk Road Dark Web in 2012

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Tyler Hatcher, the Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office (“IRS-CI”), announced today that JAMES ZHONG pled guilty to committing wire fraud in September 2012 when he unlawfully obtained over 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road dark web internet marketplace. ZHONG pled guilty on Friday, November 4, 2022, before United States District Judge Paul G. Gardephe.

On November 9, 2021, pursuant to a judicially authorized premises search warrant of ZHONG’s Gainesville, Georgia, house, law enforcement seized approximately 50,676.17851897 Bitcoin, then valued at over $3.36 billion. This seizure was then the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice and today remains the Department’s second largest financial seizure ever. The Government is seeking to forfeit, collectively: approximately 51,680.32473733 Bitcoin; ZHONG’s 80% interest in RE&D Investments, LLC, a Memphis-based company with substantial real estate holdings; $661,900 in cash seized from ZHONG’s home; and various metals also seized from ZHONG’s home.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “James Zhong committed wire fraud over a decade ago when he stole approximately 50,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road. For almost ten years, the whereabouts of this massive chunk of missing Bitcoin had ballooned into an over $3.3 billion mystery. Thanks to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work, law enforcement located and recovered this impressive cache of crime proceeds. This case shows that we won’t stop following the money, no matter how expertly hidden, even to a circuit board in the bottom of a popcorn tin.”

IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher said: “Mr. Zhong executed a sophisticated scheme designed to steal bitcoin from the notorious Silk Road Marketplace. Once he was successful in his heist, he attempted to hide his spoils through a series of complex transactions which he hoped would be enhanced as he hid behind the mystery of the ‘darknet.’ IRS-CI Special Agents are the best in the world at following the money through cyberspace or wherever our financial investigations lead us. We will continue to work with our partners at the US Attorney’s Office to track down these criminals and bring them to justice.”

According to the allegations contained in filings in Manhattan federal court and statements made during court proceedings:

ZHONG’s Scheme to Defraud

Silk Road was an online “darknet” black market. In operation from approximately 2011 until 2013, Silk Road was used by numerous drug dealers and other unlawful vendors to distribute massive quantities of illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services to many buyers and to launder all funds passing through it. In 2015, following a groundbreaking prosecution by this Office, Silk Road’s founder Ross Ulbricht was convicted by a unanimous jury and sentenced to life in prison.

In September 2012, ZHONG executed a scheme to defraud Silk Road of its money and property by (a) creating a string of approximately nine Silk Road accounts (the “Fraud Accounts”) in a manner designed to conceal his identity; (b) triggering over 140 transactions in rapid succession in order to trick Silk Road’s withdrawal-processing system into releasing approximately 50,000 Bitcoin from its Bitcoin-based payment system into ZHONG’s accounts; and (c) transferring this Bitcoin into a variety of separate addresses also under ZHONG’s control, all in a manner designed to prevent detection, conceal his identity and ownership, and obfuscate the Bitcoin’s source.

While executing the September 2012 fraud, ZHONG did not list any item or service for sale on Silk Road, nor did he buy any item or service on Silk Road. ZHONG registered the accounts by providing the bare minimum of information required by Silk Road to create the account; the Fraud Accounts were merely a conduit for ZHONG to defraud Silk Road of Bitcoin.

ZHONG funded the Fraud Accounts with an initial deposit of between 200 and 2,000 Bitcoin. After the initial deposit, ZHONG then quickly executed a series of withdrawals. Through his scheme to defraud, ZHONG was able to withdraw many times more Bitcoin out of Silk Road than he had deposited in the first instance. As an example, on September 19, 2012, ZHONG deposited 500 Bitcoin into a Silk Road wallet. Less than five seconds after making the initial deposit, ZHONG executed five withdrawals of 500 Bitcoin in rapid succession — i.e., within the same second — resulting in a net gain of 2,000 Bitcoin. As another example, a different Fraud Account made a single deposit and over 50 Bitcoin withdrawals before the account ceased its activity. ZHONG moved this Bitcoin out of Silk Road and, in a matter of days, consolidated them into two high-value amounts.

Nearly five years after ZHONG’s fraud, in August 2017, solely by virtue of ZHONG’s possession of the 50,000 Bitcoin that he unlawfully obtained from Silk Road, ZHONG received a matching amount of a related cryptocurrency — 50,000 Bitcoin Cash (“BCH Crime Proceeds”) — on top of the 50,000 Bitcoin. In August 2017, in a hard fork coin split, Bitcoin split into two cryptocurrencies, traditional Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (“BCH”). When this split occurred, any Bitcoin address that had a Bitcoin balance (as ZHONG’s addresses did) now had the exact same balance on both the Bitcoin blockchain and on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. As of August 2017, ZHONG thus possessed 50,000 BCH in addition to the 50,000 Bitcoin that ZHONG unlawfully obtained from Silk Road. ZHONG thereafter exchanged through an overseas cryptocurrency exchange all of the BCH Crime Proceeds for additional Bitcoin, amounting to approximately 3,500 Bitcoin of additional crime proceeds. Collectively, by the last quarter of 2017, ZHONG thus possessed approximately 53,500 Bitcoin of total crime proceeds (the “Crime Proceeds”).

The Government’s Seizure of Forfeitable Property

On November 9, 2021, pursuant to a judicially authorized premises search warrant (the “Search”), IRS-CI agents recovered approximately 50,491.06251844 Bitcoin of the Crime Proceeds from ZHONG’s Gainesville, Georgia, house. Specifically, law enforcement located 50,491.06251844 Bitcoin of the approximately 53,500 Bitcoin Crime Proceeds (a) in an underground floor safe; and (b) on a single-board computer that was submerged under blankets in a popcorn tin stored in a bathroom closet. In addition, law enforcement recovered $661,900 in cash, 25 Casascius coins (physical bitcoin) with an approximate value of 174 Bitcoin, 11.1160005300044 additional Bitcoin, and four one-ounce silver-colored bars, three one-ounce gold-colored bars, four 10-ounce silver-colored bars, and one gold-colored coin.

Beginning in or around March 2022, ZHONG began voluntarily surrendering to the Government additional Bitcoin that ZHONG had access to and had not dissipated. In total, ZHONG voluntarily surrendered 1,004.14621836 additional Bitcoin.

Forfeiture Actions

In connection with ZHONG’s guilty plea, on November 4, 2022, Judge Gardephe entered a Consent Preliminary Order of Forfeiture as to Specific Property and Substitute Assets/Money Judgment forfeiting ZHONG’s interest in the following property:

ZHONG’s 80% interest in RE&D Investments, LLC, a Memphis-based company with substantial real estate holdings;
$661,900 in United States currency seized from ZHONG’s home on November 9, 2021;
Metal items, consisting of four one-ounce silver-colored bars, three one-ounce gold-colored bars, four 10-ounce silver-colored bars, and one gold-colored coin, all seized from ZHONG’s home on November 9, 2021;
11.1160005300044 Bitcoin seized from ZHONG’s home on November 9, 2021;
25 Casascius coins (physical Bitcoin) with an approximate value of 174 Bitcoin, collectively, seized from ZHONG’s home on November 9, 2021;
23.7112850 Bitcoin provided by ZHONG on April 27, 2022;
115.02532155 Bitcoin provided by ZHONG on April 28, 2022; and
4.57427222 Bitcoin provided by ZHONG on June 8, 2022.

Today, in United States v. Ross Ulbricht, S1 14 Cr. 68 (LGS), the Government filed a motion for entry of an Amended Preliminary Order of Forfeiture, seeking to forfeit approximately 51,351.89785803 Bitcoin traceable to Silk Road, valued at approximately $3,388,817,011.90 at the time of seizure, as follows:

50,491.06251844 Bitcoin seized from ZHONG’s home on November 9, 2021;
825.38833159 Bitcoin provided by ZHONG on March 25, 2022; and
35.4470080 Bitcoin provided by ZHONG on May 25, 2022.

ZHONG, 32, of Gainesville, Georgia, and Athens, Georgia, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge. ZHONG is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Gardephe on February 22, 2023, at 3:00 p.m.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation’s Western Cyber Crimes Unit of the Los Angeles Field Office. Mr. Williams also thanked the Athens-Clarke County Police Department in Athens, Georgia, for its support and assistance with the case.

From Former Democratic NYC Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. A Message to Voters in the Bronx and New York City

You should know that finally, this Tuesday, November 8^th the long-awaited elections will take place in the State of New York.

This Tuesday at 9:00 pm the doors of all polling precincts will close, and by 11:00 pm New Yorker’s will know if the "Accidental Governor” Kathy Hochul, will officially be elected Governor (given that she became Governor by default and not by the vote of the people) or if Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin gives us the upset of the year becoming New York State’s next Republican Governor.

This Tuesday we will also know if the millions of dollars spent on the reelection campaign by the Socialist Congress woman, Alexandria Ocasio Cortes, gets to keep her congressional seat representing the 14^th district in the Bronx and part of Queens. In the event AOC is reelected, it will be interesting to see by how many votes?

You should know that AOC’s Republican challenger, Tina Forte, has campaigned with limited resources and has been slowly winning the hearts of voters and perhaps could cause a political embarrassment for "AOC".

I urge you to vote, and choose wisely, but as for me and my house we will be casting our votes, crossing over to the Republican Column voting from top to bottom Republican. We will do it for the love of our State, Community, Family, Faith, and for the least of these, the children, and the elderly. So, get out there and VOTE!

I am Rev. Ruben Diaz, and this is What You Should Know.

Early Voting Check-Ins - November General Election 202

October 29, 2022 - Day 1

Manhattan - 16,314
Bronx - 5,282
Brooklyn - 12,688
Queens - 10,599
Staten Island - 4,826

Total Number of Early Voting Check-Ins 49,709

*Unofficial as of Close of Polls

October 30, 2022 - Day 2

Manhattan - 32,020
Bronx - 9,149
Brooklyn - 26,878
Queens - 20,079
Staten Island - 9,029

Total Number of Early Voting Check-Ins 97,155