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August 17, 2010
Atlantic Yards Nexus of Scandals
mole333's blog via The Daily Gotham
Look at what Marty Markowitz, Bruce Ratner, Bill de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg and Bertha Lewis, to name a few, have brought to Brooklyn. Atlantic Yards seems to be bringing some real sleaze to our city, though not much in the way of real, long-term jobs or affordable housing.
Barclay's, the company that bought naming rights to Bruce Ratner's arena, has just been fined for more than a decade of illegally doing business with the likes of Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma. From BBC News:
Barclays Bank is to pay $298m (£190m) to settle criminal charges that it violated US sanctions in dealings with Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Burma.
The bank was charged with breaching the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act in dealings between 1995 and 2006...
Barclays has agreed to pay $149m to the US government and a separate $149m in a deferred prosecution agreement with the district attorney in New York.
Yep...Marty Markowitz, Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, Bruce Ratner, Bertha Lewish and all those other Atlantic Yards shills have given prominent place in our community with a company that was guilty of "Trading with the Enemy." Will these people look with pride at the "Barclay's Arena" knowing that Barclay's broke the law to do business with the brutal dictators of Libya, Sudan and Burma and the religious zealots of Iran? Is that what we want here in Brooklyn?
...Of course not all the corruption that surrounds Bruce Ratner and Atlantic Yards was imported. Ratner did plenty of sweetening the pot for local politicians. Remember how RIGHT after Ratner's brother donated to Brooklyn Party Boss Vito Lopez we saw Vito Lopez introduce a bill offering Ratner $300 million MORE taxpayer money?
Posted by eric at August 17, 2010 11:42 AM