The former owner of a successful Harlem restaurant whose shenanigans opened the door to the feds’ now-closed probe into Mayor Bill de Blasio begged for leniency at his sentencing Friday by casting blame on Jona Rechnitz, a de Blasio donor-turned-government cooperator.
Mayor de Blasio donor once discussed someone putting a “bullet” in the head of a Harlem restaurateur who owed him money, new court papers charge.
A Diamond District jewelry dealer says the NYPD unfairly yanked his gun permit over the bribes-for-weapons scandal turning him into “a classic crime victim in the making” because he “routinely carries … a king’s ransom” through the city “with absolutely no protection.”
The feds’ key witness in the NYPD bribery probe has high-tailed it out of New York a month after it surfaced that he allegedly lured some deep-pocketed pals into yet another Ponzi scheme.
The government’s public-corruption cases involving two NYPD cops and a city union official could be in trouble thanks to the feds’ star witness.
New York – A former Manhattan restaurant owner, charged in a case that emerged from a federal corruption investigation of the New York Police Department, has pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme after reaching a deal with federal prosecutors.
The government’s key witness in multiple corruption probes was a part-time “loan shark” who made money doling out predatory loans, court documents alleged on Tuesday.
The NYPD cops accused of providing favors in exchange for bribes are gearing up for a massive motion to dismiss their case — citing the same US Supreme Court ruling that helped save Mayor de Blasio from prosecution and which could force new trials for disgraced politicians Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos.
Manhattan federal prosecutors continue to investigate a public official with ties to real-estate-investor-turned-government-snitch Jona Rechnitz, unsealed court documents show.
Jona Rechnitz, the government key cooperator in an NYPD-corruption probe, told the feds that his former businessman pal Jeremy Reichberg was with him every step of the way as he bribed city officials.