Economy class suit at 15 Broad against converter Shaya Boymelgreen

The glamorous apartment tower at 15 Broad St., home to celebrities and Wall Street moguls, is also full of dangerous glitches, unfinished work and funny smells, according to a $20 million lawsuit just filed against converter Shaya Boymelgreen and his Africa Israel International Investments.

The 330-unit address, known as "Downtown by Starck" after interior designer Philippe Starck formed it out of two adjoining buildings, including the landmarked former home of JPMorgan, has been one of the city's most heavily-hyped condo conversions.

Now, the suit -- filed by the four members of the 11-person condo board who are not controlled by Boymelgreen and by some apartment owners -- claims he reneged on certain promises to buyers, including a movie theater that can't be used at all because it falls short of Building Dept. code.

They claim he left the place overlooking the New York Stock Exchange "rife with defects" including "abject" lack of fireproofing, conditions in violation of Building and Fire codes, water leaks and insulation so poor that "noise and odors easily travel from one apartment to the next."

The suit also claims Boymelgreen deliberately failed to make improvements required to receive a permanent certificate of occupancy. According to the complained, this strategy was designed to let Boymelgreen remain in control of the board even though he no longer owns any units -- which he's allowed to do until a permanent C of O is issued.

It says Boymelgreen "has the audacity to use its control of the condo's board . . . as leverage to pressure its unit owners into accepting conditions that are far less than what the sponsor and its associates promised them."

The plaintiffs' lawyer, Steven D. Sladkus of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, said, "One would expect that when one spends millions of dollars on an apartment, one should get a first-class building."

But Laurie Golub, general counsel for Africa Israel USA, called the suit "wholly without merit" and "commenced by certain owners in a calculated attempt to maximize leverage over the sponsor during ongoing negotiations. We will aggressively defend this action."

Natalie Portman and Mariah Carey have reportedly rented apartments in the building.

A recent Times story about media entrepreneur Claude Grunitzky's loft there called 15 Broad St. "one of the more opulent places to hang one's hat" in town. The Observer last summer re ported that Exis Capital Manage ment founder Adam Sender bought three units for $8.3 mil lion in 2007.

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It soon will be check-in time again on Eighth Avenue.

The sale of the giant Milford Plaza Hotel to Highgate Holdings and Rockpoint Group just closed for what a reliable source termed "more than $230 million" -- higher than earlier reports predicted. We first reported in July that Philip Milstein's Ogden CAP Properties had put the shuttered, 1,300-room Eighth Avenue inn on the market.

The buyers said last night they'll perform a "far-reaching upgrade" to the Milford Plaza's infrastructure and public space, completely renovate guest rooms and develop "complementary" restaurant and retail components.

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Madison Capital has quietly taken control of two prominent buildings -- 655 Fifth Ave. and 100 Broadway -- from Hiro Realty in a structured transaction that values them at $200 million, sources said. But the deal is a bit of a mystery.

Madison Capital, which boasts a $900 million portfolio of 16 city properties, snatched up the two semi-trophies last month. Madison's Web site describes its takeover of 655 Fifth as a "long-term investment." The East 52nd Street mini-trophy is home to retailer Ferragamo, which leases the whole building.

The 100 Broadway tower is a landmarked, 350,000 square-foot prewar office building between Pine and Wall streets. It's 70 percent occupied, including a huge Borders bookstore. Madison says it plans to reposition the address through capital investment and aggressive leasing.

But how exactly did Madison get hold of them?

Hiro, a once-mighty Japanese company, seems to be under strain in New York. Last week, we reported that an expected 240,000 square-foot lease by A&E at Hiro's 150 E. 42nd St. fell through when A&E changed its mind at the last minute.

At 100 Broadway and 655 Fifth, sources said, Madison Capital controlled the debt and Hiro turned over the deeds in lieu of foreclosure.

Madison Capital managing director of acquisitions David Steinberg did not respond to detailed messages left at his office.

Hiro's lawyer, Marty Polevoy of DLA Piper, didn't get back to us either

Rabbi Pleads "Stupid" For Trying To Blackmail Steve Cohen Because He's "Rich" And "Jewish"

A Brooklyn rabbi ran an unholy scam on a $16 billion hedge fund -- because he knew that its founder was "Jewish and . . . rich," a prosecutor told jurors yesterday.

Rabbi Milton Balkany demanded $4 million from SAC Capital Advisors founder Steven Cohen by threatening that a prison inmate he was counseling would go to the feds with insider-trading allegations against the firm, Manhattan federal prosecutor Jesse Furman said.

Balkany -- whose "statements were lies, pure and simple," according to Furman -- was videotaped pocketing checks from an SAC lawyer and saying "that Mr. Cohen and SAC were in the clear," Furman said in the extortion trial's opening statement.

Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman countered that Balkany -- who won dismissal of an earlier fraud case by paying back $700,000 in misspent government grants -- had merely engaged in a "stupid plan" to help two cash-strapped Orthodox schools in Brooklyn.

He added that the feds and SAC lawyers used "scripted" conversations to "keep [Balkany] coming back and talking, so that, eventually, they'd conclude he committed a crime."

"You want to find him guilty for using bad judgment?" Brafman asked. "For that, we plead guilty today."

Orthodox Jews Closer To Getting Controversial Hampton's Boundary

WEST HAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. — The fear on Main Street in Westhampton Village just got more intense.

"I'm one of the fearful," admitted shop owner, Jim Flood, to PIX 11 News.

Flood is feeling uneasy because Verizon and LIPA have granted the East End eruv Association approval to use utility poles, to set an Orthodox religious boundary to accommodate members of the Hampton Synagogue.

"The majority of the people in this community don't want an eruv," said Westhampton Beach Mayor Conrad Teller.

An eruv is a boundary that allows Orthodox Jews to push a stroller or carry things on a public street that are normally prohibited on the sabbath.

"I feel that it could change the demographics of the town. This could become another Lawrence or Cedarhurst and just ruin the chemistry of this village, ruin the business climate and the desire to live here," said Flood.

A Catholic, Flood shares the same fears as many of his fellow shop owners and neighbors regardless of religion -- including the group Jewish people opposed to the eruv.

"We are Jewish people. We don't want to be delineated from the rest of the community," said Arnold Sheiffer

People who support the eruv, say fears the village will become a strictly orthodox enclave are nonsense.

The village plans to challenge the approvals, citing the same ordinances that prohibit missing dog and yard sale signs from being posted on utility poles should apply to the eruv.

"Somebody is trying to say they can circumvent our rules," said Teller.

 

US issues mail advisory, tightens cargo scrutiny

WASHINGTON -- Two mail bombs intercepted in Britain and Dubai contained enough packed explosives to cause "significant" damage to the planes carrying them, German officials said Monday, a grim warning as investigators tried to trace bomb parts and scanned for more hidden explosives possibly sent from Yemen.

Authorities believe Yemeni-based terrorists sent two mail bombs addressed to Jewish synagogues in Chicago last week, but the devices appear to have been aimed at blowing up planes in flight.

While officials caught two bombs in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, U.S. officials warn there may be more in the system.

Yemeni security officials said Monday that a leading al-Qaida militant in Yemen who surrendered to Saudi Arabia last month provided information that helped in thwarting the mail bomb plot.

But he had been captured in Yemen and turned over to Saudi Arabia before the packages were shipped and likely would not have known the tracking numbers. Officials have said the tip that came in just before the plot unraveled was specific enough that it identified the tracking numbers.

The mail bombs intercepted last week contained 10.58 ounces (300 grams) and 15.11 ounces (400 grams) of the explosive PETN, a German security official said Monday. The official, who briefed reporters in Berlin on condition of anonymity in line with department guidelines, said that if the bombs had gone off the explosive effect would have been "significant." The detonation mechanism was very sophisticated, said the official, who declined to elaborate.

By contrast, the bomb that failed to explode last Christmas Day on a Detroit-bound airliner used 80 grams of PETN.

One of the packages transited through a UPS hub at Germany's Cologne airport before being intercepted at its next stop in England. The device had already left Germany when an alert from Saudi authorities was received in the early hours of Friday.

Another package was intercepted in Dubai.

A second German official said that authorities in Berlin don't yet know whether the bombs were supposed to be, or could have been, activated in the air or at their destination in the United States.

Both officials said that Germany received its information on the bombs from authorities in Dubai and Britain.

"Depending on where it is placed on the plane and if it breached the exterior wall, it could bring the plane down," said Leo West, former FBI explosives expert, who worked many major bomb cases including the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. "It would be a sizable explosion. In a plane it doesn't really take a whole lot at a high altitude."

Bombs experts say the key is the altitude of the plane when the bomb goes off. The chances of the plane surviving a blast increase at lower altitude. At a higher altitude, the plane is pressurized and a little hole can easily become a big hole, bomber experts say.

An official United Arab Emirates security source said that authorities are tracing the serial numbers of a mobile phone circuit board and computer printer used in a mail bomb sent from Yemen and found in Dubai last week.

Yemeni officials also said that Jabir al-Fayfi, a Saudi militant who had joined al-Qaida in Yemen, informed Saudi officials about the plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. Several tribal leaders with knowledge of the situation, who similarly spoke on condition of anonymity, also confirmed al-Fayfi's role.

U.S. officials have said an alert from Saudi Arabia led to the interception Friday of two explosive devices hidden in packages addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, on planes transiting in Britain and Dubai. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the terror group's affiliate in Yemen, is suspected in the attempted bombing.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Watan on Monday cited Saudi security officials saying that the kingdom gave U.S. investigators the tracking numbers of the packages.

The UAE security official told The Associated Press Monday the emirates are sharing the bomb part serial numbers with the United States, Yemen and other countries involved in the probe in an effort to track the bombs' origins. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

In the U.S., counterterrorism officials warned local law enforcement and emergency personnel to be on the watch for mail with unusual characteristics that could mean dangerous substances are hidden inside.

The FBI and Homeland Security Department cautioned that foreign-origin packages without return addresses and excessive postage require a second look, according to an advisory sent to local officials around the country that was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

Major cargo firms have already suspended shipments from Yemen and on Monday, Germany's aviation authority said the country has extended its ban on cargo aircraft from Yemen to include passenger flights from Yemen amid the current terrorist threat.

Authorities in the UAE discovered the powerful explosive PETN in a shipment that arrived at Dubai airport on a Qatar Airways passenger flight last week. The same explosive is the hallmark of a series of recent terror attempts by al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula, the militant faction suspected in the mail bomb plot.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the suspected bombmaker is a 28-year-old Saudi named Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, thought to be in Yemen. Al-Asiri has been previously tied to a failed bombing attempt last Christmas Day on a Detroit-bound plane and an earlier failed attempt to kill a Saudi counterterrorism official. Both attempts used PETN.

The UAE security source said Monday that a green mobile phone circuit board, but no SIM card, was connected to the HP printer head, which in turn was linked to the explosives. The security source said investigators are examining the circuit board to determine whether it had been used before in the hope it might provide clues to who sent the bomb.

Yemeni authorities hunted suspects linked to AQAP, but released a female computer engineering student arrested Saturday, saying someone else had posed as her in signing the shipping documents.

A Yemeni security official said that security authorities are still hunting for a young woman who is believed to have dropped off the mail bombs at a shipping point in the capital, San'a. An anti-terrorism official told The Associated Press that the young woman acted as a "middleman" with the group.

Investigators were still trying to figure out if other devices remained at large. Deputy national security adviser John Brennan, appearing on a round of television news shows Sunday, said that "it would be very imprudent ... to presume that there are no others (packages) out there."

Area Synagogues On Alert After Cargo Plane Terror Plot

NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) – New York area synagogues were on heightened alert Monday, and some New York City apartment buildings were taking the extra precaution of not accepting package deliveries at all. This was all in response to Friday’s discovery of an international terror plot from Yemen targeting synagogues in Chicago, CBS 2HD’s Derricke Dennis reports.

“When something like this happens, it’s an awakening call to all of us saying the threat of radical Islam is not over, and will not be over, and we’ve got to be on alert all the time,” said State Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Hikind, a prominent member of Brooklyn’s Jewish community, said it’s no longer a question of if synagogues would be struck by terrorists, but when.

The Secure Community Alert Network, or SCAN put New York synagogues on alert Monday, sending out a communique saying they are “advised to immediately be on the lookout for the delivery of any large packages if opened, that may contain printers, printer cartridges, cell phones or timers.”

The same packaging was involved in Friday’s terror.

“I told my staff, my wife is the head of a Jewish organization, I told her on Friday, I said ‘Don’t open anything. Be extra careful, because that’s the reality of life. That’s the world we’re living in, we’re living in a world where there are enemies of America that want to kill us,” Hikind said.

The heightened security has area Jews feeling terrorized themselves. “We’re very scared and we tried to pray to God to watch on us,” said Moshe Blumenberg of Borough Park.

Area Jewish organizations said they were particularly concerned about their mail, especially packages.

Members said holes in the screening of international cargo make them vulnerable to anything coming through the mail.

There were reports that 15 Central Park West was diverting packages but a UPS driver told 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa that he had just delivered something to the building without any problems.

Why Is Hamodia Promoting Intermarriage?

Sounds crazy, right? Hamodia, the newspaper of “Torah Jewry,” promoting intermarriage, how can that be?!?!? As much as it pains me to write this letter, I feel that I have an obligation to do so. You see, I am a Rebbe in yeshiva. I spend my life trying to instill in my talmidim yiras shomayim. I don’t make a lot of money and as you can see from this letter; my English is okay, but not great. However, every week I scrape a couple of dollars together to buy a weekly edition of Hamodia. Why? Because Hamodia promises me that it is a quality newspaper that only brings a Torah hashkofah into my home. Well, I won’t be fooled by that false promise again.

Let me explain. This week, as I was reading my copy of Hamodia and as my older son was enjoying the magazine, I came across a photo announcing “Yeshivos Thank Assemblyman,” where three prominent rabbonim were photographed supporting Steven Cymbrowitz – a renowned yid Assemblyman who is now intermarried to a Hispanic Catholic woman. If that wasn’t bad enough, a few pages later Hamodia’s star interviewer – Yosef Rappaport – spent a full page interviewing Anthony Weiner, another renowned yid Congressman who is now intermarried to a Muslim Arab woman.

So let me get this straight: chas v’shalom Hamodia should ever show a picture of a woman, even a little girl, but they will promote politicians who have intermarried? Hey, you’ll tell me, they have NO CHOICE. After all, these are the politicians we are stuck with. Normally you may be right. However, this is the final newspaper before Election Day and both of these politicians are being challenged by better candidates. Cymbrowitz has a frum yungerman running against him – Yosef Hayon and Weiner has a conservative Republican running against him – Bob Turner. So why not profile them instead?

Even worse, standing in the Hamodia picture with Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz were three prominent members from our community.

Why on earth would three prominent rabbonim stand with a man who has intermarried in the heart of our frum community? What kind of message does it send to their talmidim that when a yid becomes a successful elected official the first thing the yid does is go and marry a shiksa?

If that wasn’t outrageous enough, Hamodia played into the propaganda by allowing Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is still in his shona rishona with his Muslim Arab wife, to be photographed with a yarmulke on at the Hamodia offices. In my yeshiva we have an apt description for this: “Kusher Chazer Feesel.” And please spare me about him NOT being Jewish. One of the parents in my yeshiva has known Weiner since he was a kid. I’m told definitively that both of his parents are 100% Jewish (apparently they have mezuzah’s all over their home, made a bar-mitvzah for all of their kids and even sat shiva, nebach, for one of their sons who died at an early age).

Enough is enough. Hamodia owes all of us an apology. Until they publicly apologize, I won’t buy another Hamodia and encourage you to do the same. From now on it’s only Yated Ne’eman in my home.

Sincerely,

A.S.

Yeshiva World News.

NEW FIGHTS IN NEW SQUARE - ORTHODOX COMMUNITY

California Prop. 19 vote on legalizing marijuana could be the start of something big .

If Proposition 19 passes in California tomorrow and it is no longer illegal to sell, possess or grow marijuana, we may have begun ascending a slope less slippery than opponents of legalizing drugs might think.

American states spend an estimated total of $50 billion a year on our penal system. If Proposition 19 decriminalizes marijuana in California, the entire country will see how much money can be saved with laws based less on puritanical superstition than on facts.

Then there's the issue of tax revenues: federal and state tax revenues for alcohol sales exceed $5.6 billion. Imagine if Prohibition were still in place, and what that would mean for our tight budgets.

An economist at Harvard recently estimated that a marijuana tax could bring in between $2 billion and $6 billion per year. I'm sure we'd find something to do with that money.

Of course, the radical idea of legalizing drugs would take deep thinking, heavy number-crunching and political cooperation beyond any that we can presently imagine. But that does not make it impossible.

Liberals and conservatives would have to come together in the interest of reducing criminal activity and bolstering the economy. The result of such cooperation - legalized drugs - would bring in tax money to pay for, among other things, drug addiction treatment.

But those stumbling into the whirlpool of addiction would amount to no more than the percentage of alcoholics who always arrive when liquor is available and who are, in the end, a small portion of those who drink. Remember that supporters of Prohibition felt that absolute decay and disorder were not far away as long as liquor could be bought in stores.

That didn't come about. Nor will any such thing when drugs are made legal.

During Prohibition, bootlegging bankrolled organized crime. But while the rise and fall of the bootlegger is an iconic image, it was not until the class film "The Godfather" that a connection was made between organized crime and drug sales. In a meeting of Mafia bosses, one gangster says of drugs: "In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people, the colored. They're animals anyway, let them lose their souls."

That is not what happened at all. Drugs stayed nowhere. They spread across the country and have now become established as part of leisure entertainment. In fact, the trade is driven by casual users, not addicts. Casual users work everywhere from Wall Street to Main Street and are not known among those in law enforcement for committing the kinds of violent crimes we see from desperate and ruthless addicts.

A coalition made up of those with nerve and imagination can deal with everything that will be arrayed against them. Most of the opposition to legal drugs is supported by melodramatic images of addled addicts dominating our streets and making it unsafe to ever leave home.

But things are different than when Prohibition made it possible for untaxed empires to be created from beer and bloodshed. Now, so many live on medicines prescribed by their doctors that we know pharmaceutical substances are not automatically evil.

And if legislators were to make it clear to our largest pharmaceutical companies how many billions could be made if they took over products now driven by crime, the money necessary to fight off fear-mongering campaigns would become available. There is that much profit to be had.

Legality would shatter drug cartels and take illegal employment from all of the young people who work for drug dealers like insects inside of an anthill of corruption.

I believe it's coming. The passage of Proposition 19 could begin the ball rolling. If not then, soon. Never is not an option.

Ex-bodyguard: Porn-crazed attorney had a stable of boy toys

It was supposed to be a dream gig for the newly retired NYPD cop.

Instead, decorated former Detective John Brandt says in a blockbuster new lawsuit, his role as head of security for a well-heeled Manhattan lawyer was nothing but a nightmare -- with his boss laying naked in bed in front of him watching porno flicks and shelling out money to a flock of young Latino boys.

"I got to the point where I just couldn't do it anymore," Brandt, 43, of Floral Park, LI, told The Post of his time with high-powered lawyer Roy Adams, 70.

Brandt, a retired detective with the NYPD's elite Major Case Squad, recently sued Adams -- who works for the tony firm Constantine Cannon -- in federal court in Central Islip for unspecified damages related to his alleged bizarre, 18-month stint as the lawyer's security chief and driver.

Brandt -- who had worked on such high-profile cases as the Imette St. Guillen murder -- first met Adams through mutual police pals in the late '90s.

As Brandt neared his 20-year mark with the NYPD, Adams began to lobby him to retire and work for him, the suit states.

Brandt said Adams promised him the same pay he was receiving as a detective -- more than $130,000 annually, according to the lawsuit.

Brandt, a married dad of two, left the force in June 2008 and began working for Adams.

But his optimism began to wane on one of his first assignments -- picking up Adams from his Upper East Side apartment and ferrying him to a meeting.

Brandt arrived to find Adams' apartment walls completely covered with paintings and pictures of nude men, according to the suit. And when the lawyer beckoned Brandt to his room, the ex-cop found his new boss naked in bed watching pornography, the papers state.

As part of his job, Brandt was ordered once a week to bring a large envelope full of cash to a young Latino man in Adams' apartment, according to his suit. The man would then disperse the dough to a group of about 20 other young Latinos, referred to by Adams as "The Boys," who would provide "'round-the-clock personal services," the suit states.

Brandt says in his suit that the payments were drawn from a nonprofit group Adams presided over called the Fund for Children of the Americas that purported to assist orphans in Latin America.

At one point, Adams even started to try to fondle Brandt, the suit says.

Neither Adams nor reps for Constantine Cannon returned calls for comment.

Adams' lawyer, Alan Serrins, said, "What you have here is a disgruntled former employee who is simply seeking money."

As Child Predator Tries Again, Police Get Strong New Lead

 


ELMONT, N.Y. — Police who have been on the hunt for a man who tries to lure boys into his car get a break in the case, but it comes as the predator makes a third attempt in as many weeks to pursue a victim.

Nassau County Police detectives now have surveillance video of a late-model, dark-colored SUV driving down Surprise Street in Elmont. That's where the first incident took place on October 13th at around 7:15 p.m. at the intersection of Doherty Avenue. Investigators say the man slowed down and asked a 14-year-old boy to get in his car.

The second incident occurred six days later, six blocks away from the first, on Benson Ave. That's where, on October 19th, the man asked a different 14-year-old boy to enter his dark SUV.

Then, this past Saturday, back on Surprise St., one block from the first attempt, at the intersection of Hill Avenue, he tried again.

Police describe the man as a dark-skinned African-American in his 20's to early 30's with a small goatee and a beard, and short hair driving a small, box-like SUV with tinted windows. According to police, the victims also reported that he spoke in an effeminate tone.

In both cases the victims ran away from the man and contacted police. No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-244-TIPS.