Attorney General James And Mayor De Blasio Announce Settlement With Starbucks For Violations Of NYC Paid Safe And Sick Leave Law

Starbucks to create $150,000 restitution fund for all New York City employees whose

Paid Safe and Sick Leave rights they violated and promote public education about the Law

  New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Mayor Bill De Blasio, and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Lorelei Salas announced a settlement with Starbucks, to resolve violations of the New York City Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law.

A lengthy joint investigation that included multiple subpoenas, review of records, and interviews with Starbucks workers, found that Starbucks had an illegal sick leave policy that required employees to find a substitute when they used sick leave and that if an employee failed to find that substitute, it could result in “corrective action, up to and including termination of employment.” During the investigation, Starbucks corrected its policy and is now compliant with the Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law. The settlement requires Starbucks to pay restitution to current and former employees who were impacted by its illegal sick leave policy, to post an educational poster about Paid Safe and Sick Leave in all New York City stores, to notify all current New York City employees that they are covered by the City’s Law and are not required to find a replacement worker to use sick leave, and to submit a compliance report.

“Workers in New York City are entitled to paid sick leave. This settlement should serve as a notice to all employers in New York City that we will always prioritize the rights of workers,” said Attorney General James. “I am confident in the steps that Starbucks has taken to correct their actions, and I thank the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for their partnership on this important issue.”

“In New York City, no corporation is above the law,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “In partnership with Attorney General James, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found widespread violations of our Paid Safe and Sick Leave law, and thanks to their investigation, workers will now be able enjoy the rights they are entitled to and get the restitution they are owed.”

“It is frustrating that a major corporation like Starbucks with over 8,000 employees in New York City had an illegal sick leave policy to begin with,” said DCWP Commissioner Lorelei Salas. “But we appreciate that they corrected the policy, have agreed to compensate the employers who were negatively affected, and will be taking additional steps to help ensure all New Yorkers know about their rights. New York is committed to protecting workers and we want this case to be a message to all employers: no one is above the law. We will pursue any employer that violates their workers’ rights.”

Under the settlement, Starbucks must:

• Pay restitution to affected workers.
  o   Starbucks must hire a third-party claims administrator to create and maintain a restitution fund for any current or former covered employees. Covered employees worked 80 hours or more at Starbucks stores in New York City between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2016 and were required to find a replacement in order to use sick leave and/or were disciplined for not finding a replacement to use sick leave. In the upcoming months, Starbucks must retain the independent claims administrator and notify all covered employees about submitting a claim for restitution. Employees will have 90 days from the mailing of the initial notice to submit a claim. Starbucks must make an initial payment of $150,000 to the fund but if funds are exhausted, it is responsible for any unpaid claims.                                                                                                         
  o   Starbucks must also pay $26,000 in restitution to DCWP, which will distribute to 23 workers identified during the investigation.          
                             
• Post an educational poster about the NYC Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law in all of its New York City stores. The posters must be posted within 45 days in a prominent, public location where all workers and customers can easily see it.             
                                         
• Distribute a plain language notice about its sick leave policy to all current employees. The notice must state that they are covered by the NYC Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law and are not required to search for or find a replacement worker to use sick leave.                          
                                                                                                           
• Maintain a compliant sick leave policy and submit a compliance report to DCWP and the AG within six months. Any future violations will be subject to increased fines.

Under New York City’s Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law, employers with five or more employees who work more than 80 hours per calendar year in New York City must provide paid safe and sick leave to employees. Employers with fewer than five employees must provide unpaid safe and sick leave. All covered employers are required to provide their employees with the Notice of Employee of Rights that includes information in English and, if available on the DCWP website, the employee’s primary language. Employers must provide the notice on the first day of an employee’s employment. Employers must have a written sick leave policy that meets or exceeds the requirements of the Law.

Safe and sick leave is accrued at a rate of one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per calendar year, and begins on the employee’s first day of employment. Employees can begin using accrued leave 120 days after their first day of work. For employers who do not frontload safe and sick leave on the first day of a new calendar year, employees must be able to carry over up to 40 hours of unused safe and sick leave from one calendar year to the new calendar year.

If the need to use sick leave is foreseeable, employers can require up to seven days advance notice to use safe or sick leave. If the need is unforeseeable, employers may require notice as soon as practicable. Employers can require reasonable documentation for more than three consecutive workdays as safe or sick leave but it is illegal to require that documentation specify the reason for using safe or sick leave. Employers may not engage in or threaten retaliation against employees, which includes firing and any act that punishes an employee for or is likely to deter an employee from exercising his or her rights under the Law.

Employers and employees can visit nyc.gov/workers or call 311 (212-NEW-YORK outside NYC) for more information including the required Notice of Employee Rights, one-page overviews for employers and employees, and the complaint form. DCWP also developed tools to help employers keep track of employees’ hours worked and safe and sick leave used, as well as model forms for verification of authorized safe and sick time used, safe and sick time.

Lithuanian Man Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison For Theft Of Over $120 Million In Fraudulent Business Email Compromise Scheme

  Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that EVALDAS RIMASAUSKAS, a Lithuanian citizen, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for participating in a fraudulent business email compromise scheme that induced two U.S.-based Internet companies (the “Victim Companies”) to wire a total of over $120 million to bank accounts he controlled.  RIMASAUSKAS previously pled guilty to one count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, who imposed today’s sentence.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  “Evaldas Rimasauskas devised an audacious scheme to fleece U.S. companies out of more than $120 million, and then funneled those funds to bank accounts around the globe.  Rimasauskas carried out his high-tech theft from halfway across the globe, but he got sentenced to prison right here in Manhattan federal court.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment to which RIMASAUSKAS pled guilty, court filings, and statements made in public court proceedings:

From at least in or around 2013 through in or about 2015, RIMASAUSKAS orchestrated a fraudulent scheme designed to deceive the Victim Companies, including a multinational technology company and a multinational online social media company, into wiring funds to bank accounts controlled by RIMASAUSKAS.  Specifically, RIMASAUSKAS registered and incorporated a company in Latvia (“Company-2”) that bore the same name as an Asian-based computer hardware manufacturer (“Company-1”), and opened, maintained, and controlled various accounts at banks located in Latvia and Cyprus in the name of Company-2.  Thereafter, fraudulent phishing emails were sent to employees and agents of the Victim Companies, which regularly conducted multimillion-dollar transactions with Company-1, directing that money the Victim Companies owed Company-1 for legitimate goods and services be sent to Company-2’s bank accounts in Latvia and Cyprus, which were controlled by RIMASAUSKAS.  These emails purported to be from employees and agents of Company-1, and were sent from email accounts that were designed to create the false appearance that they were sent by employees and agents of Company-1, but in truth and in fact, were neither sent nor authorized by Company-1.  This scheme succeeded in deceiving the Victim Companies into complying with the fraudulent wiring instructions.

After the Victim Companies wired funds intended for Company-1 to Company-2’s bank accounts in Latvia and Cyprus, RIMASAUSKAS caused the stolen funds to be quickly wired into different bank accounts in various locations throughout the world, including Latvia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Hong Kong.  RIMASAUSKAS also caused forged invoices, contracts, and letters that falsely appeared to have been executed and signed by executives and agents of the Victim Companies, and which bore false corporate stamps embossed with the Victim Companies’ names, to be submitted to banks in support of the large volume of funds that were fraudulently transmitted via wire transfer.

Through these false and deceptive representations over the course of the scheme, RIMASAUSKAS, the defendant, caused the Victim Companies to transfer a total of over $120,000,000 in U.S. currency from the Victim Companies’ bank accounts to Company-2’s bank accounts. 

    RIMASAUSKAS was arrested by Lithuanian authorities in March 2017, pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant, and was extradited to the Southern District of New York in August 2017.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Daniels ordered RIMASAUSKAS to serve two years of supervised release, to forfeit $49,738,559.41, and to pay restitution in the amount of $26,479,079.24.

Mr. Berman praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and thanked the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office and the Economic Crime Investigation Board of Vilnius County Police Headquarters, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Latvia, and the International Assistance Group at the Department of Justice, Canada, for their assistance in the investigation, arrests, and extradition, as well the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs.

First question Michael Beltzer, Samelys Lopez a member of the Liberal Party

Michael Beltzer, Rudy Giuliani, Anthony Rivieccio, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, and the Democratic Socialist of America Michael Beltzer first question for Samelys Lopez-- Please explain this photo taken from Ms. Lopez's Facebook page.

The Liberal Party also suffered allegations of corruption and of abandoning its liberal roots in favor of a system of patronage and nepotism – Harding relatives were given appointments in the Giuliani administration, and it was argued that it was a quid pro quo deal, since Giuliani is not generally considered a "liberal" by New York City standards. In 1999, The New York Observer called it an "ideologically bereft institution more interested in patronage than in policy."[4] In 2009, Raymond Harding pleaded guilty to having accepted more than $800,000 in exchange for doing political favors for Alan G. Hevesi, a New York politician who was a frequent Liberal Party endorsee.[5]

(as found on the Wikipedia website the explanation of the Liberal Party December 17, 2019).

WHO IS THIS?

It is a picture of Congressman Adriano Espaillat in Washington D.C. wearing a cowboy hat similar to Ruben Diaz's own trademark. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or is Congressman Espaillat getting ready to welcome 15th Congressional candidate Ruben Diaz to Washington?

DOI AND SCI RELEASE STATEMENT OF FINDINGS ON JOINT INVESTIGATION INTO DELAYS AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION’S INQUIRY OF EDUCATION STANDARDS AT HASIDIC YESHIVAS

 Margaret Garnett, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), and Anastasia Coleman, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District (“SCI”), issued a statement of findings today on their agencies’ joint investigation into the process of the New York City Department of Education’s (“DOE”) inquiry into whether the education provided at certain Hasidic Yeshivas is “substantially equivalent” to the education provided in City public schools. A copy of DOI and SCI’s statement of findings is attached and can also be found at DOI’s and SCI’s websites at the following respective links: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doi/newsroom/press/2019/december.page https://nycsci.org/press-releases/

 The joint investigation concluded that political horse-trading between the Mayor’s and State legislators’ representatives unquestionably occurred. According to the investigation, the representatives agreed in 2017, as part of a multi-pronged effort, to delay an interim report of the DOE’s findings in an attempt to secure support for extending mayoral control of the City’s schools. However, the investigation also found that this agreement had no substantial effect on the inquiry’s conclusion or the progress of the inquiry, which was mired in delays for several years because of a variety of factors, including conflicts with the yeshivas and their counsel and a generally accommodating approach taken by DOE to that conflict. Further, the evidence uncovered during this joint investigation did not demonstrate whether the Mayor had personally authorized the agreement to delay the DOE report; however, the totality of the evidence did indicate the Mayor was aware that the offer to delay had been made.

 DOI and SCI found no evidence of any violations of relevant laws or regulations and did not identify any criminal conduct in connection with the release of DOE’s interim report.DOI and SCI found no evidence of any violations of relevant laws or regulations and did not identify any criminal conduct in connection with the release of DOE’s interim report.

BRONX MAN, HIS MOTHER INDICTED IN MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOT

Enlisted Undercover Cop to Kill Man to Keep Him from Testifying Against the Son, Who Had Allegedly Shot Him in Dispute

 Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man and his mother have been indicted for conspiring to kill a man to prevent him from testifying against the son, who allegedly had shot and wounded the man during a dispute. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendants allegedly enlisted an undercover detective who was posing as a hitman, to allegedly kill a victim who survived being shot five times. The defendants paid $1,000 to the “hitman” as a down payment on the murder. These defendants allegedly tried to silence a victim and subvert our criminal justice system in the most heinous way.” 

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Candido Lizarro, AKA Candido Lizarra, 26, of 1010 East 170th Street, was indicted on Attempted Murder in the second degree, first-degree Assault, two counts of second-degree Assault, third-degree Assault, first-degree Criminal Use of a Firearm, second-degree Criminal Use of a Firearm, second-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon, Criminal Possession of a Firearm, and fourth-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon. Both Lizarro and Annette Spann, 45, of 1010 East 170th Street, were indicted on three counts of second-degree Conspiracy and three counts of second-degree Criminal Solicitation. Spann was arraigned today before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary and bail was set at $150,000 bond or $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond partially secured at ten percent. Lizarro was arraigned on December 13, 2019 before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Torres and remanded. They are due back in court on February 19, 2020.

 According to the investigation, on September 2, 2019, Lizarro allegedly shot a man five times in the back in the lobby of a NYCHA building at 1010 East 178th Street because of a dispute. The victim survived his wounds. 

 According to the investigation, Lizarro fled the state and began communicating with the undercover detective through texts, saying things such as, “I need this done man,” and that if it weren’t for the surviving victim “I wouldn’t be in the jam right now…”

 On November 14, 2019, Lizarro made a video call to Spann and the undercover during which Spann can be seen counting out $1,000 in 10 one-hundred-dollar bills. Spann also described specific places the intended target frequented.

 District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Ravi Narayan from Firearms Investigations Unit, Detective Victor Cardona and Police Officer John Uske from Brooklyn North Field Intelligence Unit, Detective Randy Kyrk from Bronx Warrants Squad and Detective Andrew Nash of the 48th Precinct Detective Squad.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.

Bronx Democratic Party - Save The Date For Our First 2020 DEMS TALK

Happy Thursday, As this year comes to an end, we couldn't be more excited about the new and familiar faces we've seen at each of our DEMS TALK. We hope to continue this momentum well into the new year. Save the date for our first 2020 DEMS TALK: Tuesday, January 21 at 6:30PM. Bronx Dems Headquarters 1534 Boone Avenue The Bronx, NY 10460 Sincerely, The Bronx Democratic Party

THE NEW YORK STATE FILM AND TELEVISION DIVERSITY CREDIT SIGNED INTO LAW BY GOVERNOR CUOMO

The bill passed by Assembly Member Marcos A. Crespo and Senator Robert Jackson promoting minority writers and directors within the New York State Film and Television Industry (A.6683B / S.5864-A) was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. This chaptered law will support a study of the disparity of diverse writers and directors in film industry and incentivize companies participating in New York's film tax credit program to hire more women and minority television writers and directors.

In his approval memorandum, Governor Andrew Cuomo wrote, “The bill would create a tax credit for qualified production companies that employee women and minority writers and directors who work on television programs by a allowing a new refundable tax credit for television writers’ and directors’ fees and salary costs. The bill advances a laudable goal and builds on the success of New York’s Film Tax Credit.”

Assembly Member Marcos A. Crespo said, “The New York State Film and Television Tax Credit has proven to be an extremely successful program as it has expanded the growth of the film and television industry in New York State.  Although it has fostered tremendous economic opportunities what it has failed to do is open doors for the incredibly innovative and creative minds of women and people of color throughout our neighborhoods such as a South Bronx. With this legislation, we will ensure that this growing industry also allows for the participation of this talent pool. It is important that the stories we hear and watch on screen reflect the true diversity of all communities in NYS and the nation. I am proud to have carried this legislation. Thank you to the advocates for their passion and efforts and to the Governor for signing this bill into law.”

State Senator Robert Jackson said, "I'm proud to have the Governor's signature on this bill. By encouraging greater racial and gender diversity among writers and directors of TV shows, we are doing important work upstream to make sure that we have relevant, culturally sensitive, and powerful portrayals on-screen that reflect the diversity of our city, our state, and our country."

Neil Dudich, Eastern Executive Director of Directors Guild of America, said, "We commend Governor Cuomo for signing this important bill into law, encouraging television employers to discover the full range of New York's talented directors and writers. We are incredibly grateful to the bill's sponsors Assemblyman Marcos Crespo and State Senator Robert Jackson for taking a stand on this important issue, to our partners in this effort, the Writers Guild of America, East, and to New York’s broader labor and film community who provided their support. For years the DGA has pushed the industry to adopt more diverse and inclusive hiring practices, and we will continue to fight for fairness for all directors.”

The television production industry continues to grow in New York thanks to the success of the New York State Film Tax Credit.  According to the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, the 2015-16 television season saw 52 prime time television series produced in New York City, an increase of 13% over the previous television season. Shows for broadcast, cable, and digital networks are increasingly choosing New York as the location to film.