|
05
KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT
ATTORNEY CHARLES J. HYNES AND V
ERIZON WIRELESS ANNOUNCE THE DONATION OF 4006 CELL PHONES TO
VERIZON WIRELESS HOPELINE PROGRAM
Brooklyn, October 26, 2009 – Kings County
District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, Special Victims Chief
Wanda Lucibello, and David Samberg, of Verizon Wireless,
announce the donation of 4006 used cell phones to Verizon
Wireless’s Hopeline program. The phones, collected by
Brooklyn District Attorney staff, will be given to Verizon
Wireless, which will have them reprogrammed as Hopeline
phones, with 3000 prepaid minutes. The reprogrammed phones
will be provided to law enforcement and outreach agencies,
who will give them to domestic violence victims. Verizon
Wireless donated 200 Hopeline cell phones to the Brooklyn
District Attorney’s Office today.
Contact: Jonah
Bruno
718-250-2300
04
KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT
ATTORNEY CHARLES J. HYNES ANNOUNCES
THE INDICTMENT OF NYPD OFFICER ANDREW KELLY ON
CHARGES INCLUDING VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER
Brooklyn, October 14, 2009
– Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today
announced the indictment of NYPD Officer Andrew Kelly, on
charges including Vehicular Manslaughter in the Second
Degree, Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence
of Alcohol and speeding.
The indictment charges that Kelly caused an
automobile accident in the early hours of Sept. 27, 2009, in
the vicinity of Avenue N and East 56th St., in
which Vionique Valnord-Kassime was killed.
If convicted, Kelly faces up to seven years in
prison.
An indictment is not proof of a defendant’s
guilt.
Chief of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau Craig
Esswein and Gayle Dampf are prosecuting the case.
Contact: Jonah
Bruno
718-250-2300
03
DA Hynes Joins National Law Enforcement in Speaking Out
Against Youth Violence
Nation's Law Enforcement Leaders Issue New
Plan to Prevent Youth Violence
As community seeks answers to violence, law
enforcement urges focus on at-risk kids
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 -- In the wake of the
beating murder of a 16-year-old Chicago honor student
Derrion Albert and growing national concern about youth
violence, America's law enforcement leaders are calling upon
the nation's elected leaders to get serious about preventing
youth violence. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an anti-crime
organization led by 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs,
prosecutors and violence survivors, released a new plan
detailing the best-proven approaches for reducing youth
violence.
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids members Los
Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Minneapolis Police Chief
Tim Dolan, and Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes,
along with U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (IL-7), held a conference
call today at 11 a.m. (EDT) with reporters to express their
support for evidence-based solutions as a way to prevent
such violent crimes.
The plan details effective interventions for
at-risk kids that cut crime, prevent violence and save
taxpayer dollars, including 1) high quality early education
for at-risk kids from birth to age five, 2) voluntary parent
coaching through home visits for at-risk new parents, 3)
effective after-school programs, and 4) proven interventions
to turn around troubled and delinquent kids.
"It's a lot easier to teach a boy than to
mend a man," said Sheriff Baca, Chair of the Fight Crime:
Invest in Kids Board of Directors. "If we make sure children
have a solid foundation from birth to age five, we can
reduce the likelihood that they'll be doing twenty to life
later on."
High-quality early education programs help
at-risk children succeed in school and avoid delinquency and
criminal activity. A long-term study of a high-quality
preschool in Michigan found that by age 27, at-risk children
who did not participate were five times more likely to be
chronic offenders compared to similar children who did
participate.
Voluntary parent-coaching programs prevent
child abuse and neglect and reduce later criminal behavior.
Survivors of child abuse and neglect are nearly 30 percent
more likely to be arrested for violent crimes as adults,
compared to children who grow up free from abuse and
neglect. Quality home-visiting programs send trained
professionals to help at-risk parents learn about child
health and safety and avoid abuse and neglect. A study of
the Nurse-Family Partnership home-visiting program found
that it cut child abuse and neglect in half among at-risk
families who participated and reduced later arrests of
children by 60 percent.
Between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. on school
days, juvenile crime soars. High quality after-school
programs teach kids skills and values while cutting crime. A
study of Boys & Girls clubs showed that housing projects
without the clubs had 50 percent more vandalism and 37
percent worse drug activity than projects with the clubs.
"After the school bell rings, it's the prime
time for juvenile crime. We need safe and constructive
places for school-age kids to go, so they aren't making
decisions that could land them in a squad car or behind
bars," Chief Dolan said.
Enrolling troubled teens and their parents
in research-based programs can curb delinquent behavior and
prevent repeat arrests. For example, the Functional Family
Therapy (FFT) model provides youth offenders and their
families with access to mental health services instead of
placement in the juvenile justice system. A study of FFT
found that it cuts repeat arrests among juveniles in half.
"There isn't a silver-bullet to prevent
every violent act, but these programs are based on the best
research and focused on the most at-risk kids. Not only will
investing now in what works save a lot of lives, like
Derrion's, but it will save a lot of taxpayer dollars," D.A.
Hynes said.
"A parent living through the violent death
of a child is absolutely tragic. If some good can come of
this, it's that we take immediate action to build safer
communities for the future," said , Chief Operating Officer
of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. "The research overwhelmingly
shows that reaching the most at-risk kids must be part of
our plan for preventing future tragedies."
The law enforcement leaders and crime
survivors of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids are calling on all
federal, state and local officials to implement this
four-part plan to cut crime and violence by investing in
proven programs serving at-risk children and youth. Congress
has opportunities in the coming months to take real steps
forward to reduce youth crime, including through early
learning legislation, home visiting provisions in health
reform, "No Child Left Behind Act" expansion of after-school
availability, and strengthening of federal delinquency
programs.
SOURCE Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
02
KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT
ATTORNEY CHARLES J. HYNES HONORED BY LONG TERM CARE
COMMUNITY COALITION FOR HIS WORK IN NURSING HOME AND
MEDICAID FRAUD
DISTRICT ATTORNEY HYNES
DISCUSSED HISTORY WITH LONG TERM CARE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF THE MEDICAID FRAUD CONTROL UNIT
Brooklyn, October 8, 2009 –
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes was honored
yesterday by the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC)
for his work in nursing home and Medicaid fraud. He was
honored along with two other attorneys who have done
exemplary work in combating Medicaid fraud, Bill Comiskey
and Heidi Wendel. District Attorney Hynes congratulated
LTCCC for their outstanding work in assuring quality care in
the state and its devotion to improving care for the elderly
and disabled. District Attorney Hynes shared the story of
his history with fighting Medicaid Fraud and how his work
resulted in new legislation to end the abuses in nursing
homes, hospitals and adult day care centers.
Attorney Hynes started investigating the abuses
taking place in nursing homes in 1974. It came about when
former Managing Editor of the New York Times Arthur Gelb’s
mother visited several nursing homes to find a new place to
live. After her visits, she relayed her observations of
these nursing homes to her son, revealing appalling
conditions from unsanitary conditions, to patients being
restrained in their wheelchairs with leather belts, to
patients being unattended for long periods of time and
provided inedible food. Gelb gave an assignment to go
undercover into these homes to a reporter named John Hess,
to report the intolerable conditions in many of these
homes. What John Hess found was reported in what became
known as “The Hess Reports”, which soon led to a state-wide
scandal.
Aside from the physical abuses discovered in
these nursing homes, investigative reporters also found that
nursing home owners were getting licenses through political
connections despite the poor conditions that were prevalent
in these places.
As a result, Governor Hugh Carey took action to
put an end to the outrageous conditions in nursing homes
throughout the state. He appointed a Moreland Commission
and Morris B. Abrams as its Chairman. The Commission was
responsible for investigating government agencies using
subpoena powers, conducting public hearings and reporting to
the governor and the legislature, suggesting legislative
changes. In addition, District Attorney Hynes was appointed
as the Nursing Home Special Prosecutor.
Is this role, Mr. Hynes had state-wide
jurisdiction with regional offices throughout the state. He
developed a “team concept”, with investigative teams of
attorneys, investigators and auditors working together to
uncover fraud. They discovered that nursing home operators
throughout the state were bilking the Medicaid system, by
filing false claims for an exorbitant array of personal
expenses, including personal maids and other servants, works
of art, large quantities of liquor, stereo equipment and
other items.
In addition to the financial abuses, they
discovered many cases of patient abuse where patients were
improperly restrained, covered with bed sores, they were
overly medicated, their garments were soaked in urine, they
were given substandard food, and forced to live in unsafe
and unsanitary conditions.
In 1975, Then Special Prosecutor Hynes created a
Patient Abuse unit within his office, staffed by trained
investigators and the office’s first nurse-investigator.
They followed up on individual complaints of abuse and made
unannounced inspections of nursing homes throughout the
state. Conditions started to change in the nursing homes
and the most corrupt nursing home operators were being
indicted.
Eventually, by the end of
1976, the office’s authority was extended to investigate
hospitals, other Medicaid providers and private adult
homes. That same year, Mr. Hynes testified before the U.S.
Senate Special Committee on the Aging about the abuses that
his office had uncovered and urged the federal government to
develop a framework to integrate the states into enforcement
efforts. This led to a new bill in 1977 called H.R. 3,
which strengthened penalties, made major administrative
reforms, and increased disclosure standards. It also
created the concept of federally funded Medicaid Fraud
Control Units.
District Attorney Hynes
recognized another individual who was instrumental in ending
abuse in the nursing homes. It was James Scheuer’s idea to
provide federal reimbursement for state investigations of
Medicaid Fraud. In October, 1977, H.R. 3 was signed by
President Jimmy Carter and enacted into law, and Congress
agreed to fund the new Medicaid Fraud Control Units at a
rate of 90%. It
assured that Medicaid Fraud Control Units would be
adequately supported by the federal government and not
dependent on state budgets.
In late 1978, Mr. Hynes met with the Directors
of 19 other states to form the National Association of
Medicaid Fraud Control Units and he became their first
president.
Nearly 35 years have passed since District
Attorney Hynes got involved, and now 47 states and the
District of Columbia have a certified unit with federal
funding.
Contact: Sandy
Silverstein
(718) 250-2300
01
KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT
ATTORNEY CHARLES J. HYNES ANNOUNCES INDICTMENTS IN
$10,000-PER-DAY CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
THIRTEEN FACE 263 COUNTS
IN THREE INDICTMENTS CHARGING
ID THEFT, CREDIT CARD FRAUD,
AUTO-INSURANCE FRAUD AND
REAL ESTATE FRAUD IN BROOKLYN, QUEENS,
NASSAU COUNTY, NEW JERSEY AND PHILADELPHIA
Brooklyn, October 7, 2009
– Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes today
announced the indictment of 13 people charged, in three
separate indictments, in a wide-ranging criminal enterprise
that included real estate fraud, identity theft and credit
card fraud, and a conspiracy involving automobile insurance
fraud. The indictments are the results of an 18-month, joint
investigation with the U.S. Secret Service.
“Criminals like the bunch charged here today
poison our economy,” said District Attorney Hynes. “The
victims are not faceless corporations, but honest,
hard-working people, who see their insurance premiums and
credit card fees rise because of fraud like this. I’d like
to thank the agents in the Secret Service’s New York Field
Office for the work they did investigating this case with my
detective investigators.”
Brian G. Parr, Special Agent
in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service, New York Field Office,
said, “Identity theft and credit card fraud continue to pose
a threat to our financial payment systems, and in turn, to
the citizens of our community and the banks and businesses
that serve us. The success of this investigation was due in
large part to the collaborative effort between the Brooklyn
District Attorney's Office and the United States Secret
Service.”
The defendants are charged in three separate
indictments.
The first indictment, containing 164 counts
including Enterprise Corruption, charges four defendants –
Ryan Foster, Nathaniel Mahone, Jacques Sylvestre, and Yanira
Santiago – with operating a credit-card fraud and identity
theft ring, which at times netted as much as $10,000 per
day, between 2006 and 2008. They are charged with purchasing
credit card numbers from private Internet sites in Russia
and the Ukraine and using the information to manufacture
fake credit cards in various Brooklyn sites they called the
“lab”. Then the defendants sent hired “shoppers” to stores,
such as Game Stop, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Zales,
Louis Vuitton and Ford’s Jewelers, where they would purchase
items the ringleaders would later sell, according to the
indictment.
The Enterprise Corruption indictment also
charges the defendants with purchasing properties through
mortgage fraud and using the merchandise stolen from home
improvement stores, such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, to
increase the values of the homes. The properties could then
be re-appraised at higher values, and the defendants could
get the mortgages refinanced, according to the indictment.
Another aspect of the scheme involved orchestrating
fraudulent purchases and sales of the properties, by
employing straw buyers and using crooked real estate brokers
and loan officers to help them file false paperwork.
In a second, 97-count indictment, Foster, Mahone,
Sylvestre and nine others are charged with conspiring to
make false accident, vandalism and theft claims on
late-model luxury cars, such as BMW, Land Rover, Lexus,
Mercedes Benz and Cadillac. The indictment charges that the
defendants would remove undamaged interior parts, such as
air bags, dash boards, door panels and seats, and replace
them with damaged parts. Then they would report to police
that the cars had been vandalized near their homes and file
claims with their insurance companies to have the damaged
car parts replaced, according to the indictment. The
investigation revealed that the same damaged car parts were
recycled and used repeatedly in separate claims. The
defendants are also charged with staging accidents and car
thefts to collect insurance payments.
In the third indictment, Sylvestre is charged
with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree and
Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree,
relating to a handgun found in his home during the execution
of a search warrant in October 2008.
Enterprise Corruption is a Class-B Felony, with
a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The top count in
the second indictment, Insurance Fraud in the Second Degree,
carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, and on the third
indictment, Sylvestre faces an additional seven years in
prison.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and
not proof of a defendant’s guilt.
KCDA Detective Investigators Gregory Deboer,
Glenn Kenny and Anabell Talavera investigated the case.
George C. Terra, Assistant Chief of Investigations,
supervised the investigation. Joseph Ponzi is Chief of
Investigations.
Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Blank,
Patricia M. McNeill, Michael Vaccaro, and Michelle A. Malone
are prosecuting the case. Michael Vecchione is Chief of the
Rackets Division.
Contact: Jonah
Bruno
718-250-2300
|
