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March 12, 2011
KRUGERPALOOZA Part II
The Media continues to cover Atlantic Yards boosters-for-a-price State Senator Carl Kruger and lobbyist Richard Lipsky as well as their Forest City Ratner connection.
The New York Times, In a Series of Phone Calls, an Ear Into a Federal Corruption Case
This article focuses on the personalities of Kruger and Lipsky. Lipsky comes off as somewhat annoying and Kruger as someone who likes to be sure he gets paid. The article ends with this exchange between Bruce Bender, a Forest City Vice President and Kruger in which Bender proclaims his love for Kruger and Kruger returns the affection with a bouquet of taxpayer dollars.
On Dec. 28, other Senate Democrats may have been cleaning out their desks, since Republicans were about to assume the majority. But Mr. Kruger had his own mode of preparing for a transition into the minority, the complaint says.
Bruce Bender, an executive with the development company Forest City Ratner, was pressing him for $15 million in state funding for three Brooklyn projects. Mr. Kruger learned that he would be able to obtain only $4 million for the company.
“This is bad,” Mr. Bender said, pressing Mr. Kruger for more.
Mr. Kruger said he would get back to him. Half an hour later, he checked with his aides, found out he had $500,0000 left over at his own discretion, and told them to give it to the company for a project at Prospect Park.
“I love you,” Mr. Bender said a few minutes later, when Mr. Kruger said what he had done. “I really do, actually.”
Mr. Kruger was feeling bighearted. “The couple of bucks that I had, I don’t know what the hell to do with it anyhow,” he said. “Take it. Come Monday, I won’t have it. So take it and enjoy it.”
Capital, The cost of doing business with (or near) Carl Kruger
The other client of Lipsky's mentioned in the complaint, Real Estate Firm #1, has a vice president for government affairs who is quoted from several conversations on the Kruger wiretap. Kruger's promise to this vice president of an additional $500,000 in state funding for a project is a major element of the prosecution's case. It is abundantly clear that Real Estate Firm #1—which is described as having hired Lipsky since 2005, has a four billion dollar mixed-use project in Brooklyn, and is developing another project in Kruger's own neighborhood of Mill Basin—is Forest City Ratner, the developer of Atlantic Yards.
Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Forest City Ratner, did not deny that Forest City Ratner is the development company that the complaint mentions but does not name.
"Lipsky's contract was terminated today," he said.
He also tacitly acknowledged that Forest City's executive vice president for government and public affairs, Bruce Bender, is the one the complaint quotes on Kruger's tapped phones.
"It's no surprise that the person in charge of government affairs speaks with elected officials about projects," DePlasco said.
NoLandGrab: We're not f*ing surprised.
WNYC, Lobbyist Lipsky’s Blog: ‘We’re Certainly on Suspension.’
Normally, we at No Land Grab feel bad when a fellow blogger has to step away from the keyboard for an extended period of time, but but not so much in this case when the blogger ins question is the well-compensated lobbyist-for-Ratner Richard Lipsky.
Richard Lipsky, the connected lobbyist who was charged in the federal corruption investigation that also ensnared two legislators, ran a blog for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance. A post on Wednesday morning about a Wall Street Journal article about food cart permits concluded, “This is an area that is replete with corruption.”
About twenty-four hours after that post went up, Lipsky was surrendering to the feds.
That post will be his last, for now. Reached by phone, Lipsky said he’s been advised by lawyers not to comment. But when asked about the future of his blog, he said, “I don’t know yet. We’re certainly on suspension.”
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Along with the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, Lipsky’s clients included Atlantic Yards Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner, Keep NYC Congestion Free, Willets Point United, and Tuck-It-Away, a self-storage company with an unfortunate name, given the current circumstances.
The Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Yards Efforts in View In Kruger Case
That sucking sound you hear from Prospect Heights is Bruce Ratner continuing to siphon taxpayer money for a private development -- with public benefits to arrive by ...?
The wide-ranging federal complaint that accused state Sen. Carl Kruger and others of corruption on Thursday also shed light on the persistent attempts by one of New York City's biggest real-estate developers to secure more government subsidies for its signature project.
In a December 2010 conversation caught on wiretap, Mr. Kruger told a staff member that an executive at Forest City Ratner Cos. had asked him for $9 million in additional state aid for the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, where a Nets basketball arena is under construction.
The request for the money—which would help fulfill Forest City Ratner's obligation to rebuild the Carlton Avenue Bridge—was not fulfilled, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
But it illustrated the company's scramble to round up money for the project, even as construction of the centerpiece arena is under way.
The Yarn Monkey Chronicles, Motes Balaclava and a Great Unmasking in Gotham
This blog post combines artistic knitting with politics as the author reacts to the recent indictments.
This particularly turns my stomach as the trail leads directly to Atlantic Yards Developer, Forest City Ratner. So many dirty hands have passed through this deal, yet FCR remains virtually Teflon of bribery charges, even as their vice president of governmental affairs and public relations, Bruce Bender, is sourced in a taped $9 million covert conversation with Kruger. FCR has recently retired the service of their lobbyist Richard Lipsky effective since hearing the news of his arrest. Even as I look out my Prospect heights window, I see the traffic and congestion that leads to the arena, a reminder of how we have all been mired in this dirty deal. After the Ridge Hill bribery incident, will Bender and FCR be spared to gallows again?
Yonkers Tribune, Bruce Ratner - The Teflon Don By Hezi Aris
This is the second time in less than two years that Forest City Ratner has been a protagonist in a corruption case. Similar to the relationship between a “john" and a “prostitute," FCR has not been charged; escaping further scrutiny as is so often the case with a “john.”.
The corruption charges accusing Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat, alleges he was the recipient of over $1 million in bribes in exchange for influencing state matters. Mr Kruger is also said to have received money from Forest City Ratner’s Bruce R. Bender, vice-president of governmental affairs and public relations,” and FCR’s lobbyist Richard Lipsky, among other clients.
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It seems Forest City Ratner president Bruce ratner IS the new “Godfather.”
At issue now is whether the Godfather is the" whore" or the "john." Either way, they are using/spending taxpayer money, your money.
Posted by steve at March 12, 2011 5:43 PM