Storm over Sandy Storm Money

Back on 19 August 2013, this blog weighed in on the entitlement mentality vis-à-vis victims of Superstorm Sandy and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).  Included in the blogpost was mention of "the broader issue of the government throwing out so many dollars with so few strings attached, and then wondering why so many people are defrauding it."

Well now, FEMA seeks recoupment of funds improperly paid (which means, in addition to outright willful fraud, duplicated funds paid to the extent that private insurance policies also gave coverage).

Included in the 19 August 2013 blogpost was mention of "the broader issue of the government throwing out so many dollars with so few strings attached, and then wondering why so many people are defrauding it."

I applaud FEMA's purported efforts at recoupment, but FEMA is still encouraging affected homeowners to file claims.  My only qualm is the effective usurious interest rate FEMA intends to slap on the affected payees.  There is a mixed message here. 

Removed as I now am geographically, economically, and socially from the situation (other than having some former clients who were affected), I do not now attempt to prognosticate the success or failure of FEMA's declared recoupment program.  However, one can easily see political officeholders at various levels trying to call off FEMA on that one; nor would I rule out a race-based distinction in enforcement efforts, brought about at the behest of the White House.

Sandy Victims Victimizing the Public

We had some damage from fallen trees and wind and the like from Superstorm Sandy.  I say "Superstorm" because Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York's duly elected Chief Executive, declared that because Sandy had weakened to the level of a tropical storm before it made landfall, it was not an official hurricane and the insurance companies could not treat it as such.

Following the storm, Long Island and other storm-hit areas of the country were invaded by various itinerant insurance adjusters, building contractors (or, for that matter, demolition contractors), utility workers, and other opportunistic enterprisers who, to their credit, were, for the most part, actually ready, willing and able to bust their baytzim for long hours to earn a living, and who temporarily augmented the resident cadres of such laborers.

A group of men whose ability to wield their chainsaws was far greater than their ability to speak English hooked up with my backyard neighbor, who walked around the block to knock at my door to implore me to give the impromptu work crew access to my back yard so that they could completely and safely (relatively speaking) remove the tree that I had not until then realized had fallen into my yard.

No Problem!  And while they were here, would they be able to remove the heavy 40-foot tree that had fallen onto my wife's car?  With my neighbor aiding in bridging the gap between Inglés y Español, we agreed on the dinero and about 45 minutes later, my wife's care was relieved of the weight of one large Douglas Fir tree, and my wallet relieved of the burden of carrying around three hundred dollars.  They carted away the branches and logs in the deal, so I really couldn't complain.  The matters of removing the stump, replacing the shingles on the roof and the gutters, and removing some other trees which fell down without damaging anything more than other trees and bushes had yet to be attended to.

The insurance adjusters arrived at my house.  I use the plural because the damage to the car was covered by our automobile policy with one insurance carrier, and the trees and house were covered by our homeowner's policy with another carrier.  My wife had intended to keep her car until it hit 100,000 miles, but, with the big dents (and, as it turned out, frame damage), she added the insurance proceeds to the trade-in at 78,000 miles and got herself a new car.

As for the homeowner's policy, I showed the adjuster what happened.  He asked if there was any food spoilage from the power outage.  I told him that as the storm was approaching Florida, I took the precautions of adding lots of ice packs, and we did not open the freezer during our almost 2 days without power, so none of the food in our freezer went bad.

The adjuster told us that we probably could get away with declaring $200 - $300 of food spoilage.  I told him that we were declaring zero, because that is what our food spoilage was.

Understand that I am no great fan of the insurance companies, but for $300 I have no intention of letting my good name go bad.  I am now litigating a case worth far, far more than the $300 phantom food spoil, and have been engaged to write a legal memo for another attorney in another matter which will probably get me about $500, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions at stake in that litigation (and there may be some criminal prosecutions coming out of that one as well).  How did I get those cases?  The first one is from a long-time client who trusts me.  The second was on account of a recommendation from another attorney with whom I have not spoken in almost 10 years (I'll have to give him a call and thank him once I collect my fee, which should be in the next week or two).

It all comes down to my good name and reputation!

Superstorm Sandy did highlight some very positive qualities in lots of people.  People who were willing to work, people who were out there helping those in need, people who were more concerned for their good names and reputations than in making a few dirty dollars.

Unfortunately, not everyone gave due deference to the public weal.  Caterina Curatolo, who owned two houses in Queens which she did not see fit to properly keep up, and which were relatively unaffected by Superstorm Sandy, allegedly posed as a homeless storm victim and sponged hotel housing and debit cards, living the good life.   Turns out that Queens Beep Helen Marshall had named Caterina as a distinguished Queens resident back in 2004.

My record for predicting criminal sentences will not get me a job in London's High Street betting parlors any time soon, and my contact in the New York Attorney General's office is, as usual, limiting her remarks to those set forth in the official press releases.  Whether Caterina does or does not get any jail time will be left to the bookies in Queens, London, and everywhere in between.  I do believe, however, that I can safely predict that Caterina will be liquidating one or both of the homes she owns in order to pay her legal expenses.

But then, there is the broader issue of the government throwing out so many dollars with so few strings attached, and then wondering why so many people are defrauding it.

Another Rabbi Behaving Poorly

Here we go again!  Another rabbi behaving poorly.

New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman (who reportedly goes into rage mode when referred to as "Eric Schneiderman" without the initial "T") has just announced the court-ordered temporary (for now) shutdown of 19 charities operated out of Brooklyn by one Rabbi Yaakov Weingarten.

[It is with profound shame that I now admit to having personally donated to a few of those charities, albeit only in the two figure range.].

The problem was that the 19 charities, mostly purporting to aid needy causes in Israel, did not send any appreciable amounts of money to those causes.  Instead, during the past 5 years, there have been questionable expenditures from the charities' bank accounts amounting to millions in the aggregate.  These include utility bills, dental care, video rentals, mortgage payments, and an Atlantic City casino trip.  And let us not forget some significant home improvements to the house owned by Weingarten's wife.

While there are no sure things here, there may well be some criminal charges in the coming weeks or months.  And it is very tempting to speculate as to what excuses and/or mitigational assertions might be tendered by Weingarten and/or his supporters and sympathizers.

Two issues that have not been so visibly addressed in the Jewish blogosphere are the following:

A.  The modus operandi of the charities has been for various individuals to make telephone solicitations, often but not always falsely claiming that a pledge allegedly made by the recipient of the telephone call has yet to be fulfilled.   There were several telephone callers involved, each using their personal cell phone or some other "boiler room" phone bank.  Query:  What did the individual callers know and when did they know it?  How knowingly complicit were they in Weingarten's scams?  How much did they benefit?

B.  The standard line used by the insular religious Jewish community whenever one of theirs gets foul ink in the press is that he (or sometimes, she) is an aberration.  I once heard a certain spokesman reply to a query by a reporter regarding some poor behavior by a high school student, to the effect that the insular Jewish community has 1 or 2, the Catholic schools have 10, and the public schools have 100 such bad actors.  This, perhaps, has some validity, though the exact statistics may not be so exact.

But be that as it may, I have to wonder whether Weingarten is the only player in his league.  One key reason my wife and I do not live in such communities (and have taken pains to avoid locating ourselves in such communities) is the degree to which everyone insinuates themselves into everyone else's personal business.  Therefore, if Weingarten is living such a charmed lifestyle, it surely has been noticed.  And neighbors and friends desirous of such a life would naturally attempt to emulate Weingarten's means of supporting such a modus vivendi.

And how could a major trip to an Atlantic City casino escape notice?

If Weingarten and his cohorts were not shunned by the community, then it would not astonish me in the least if there are a few more just like him.

A little more than a year ago, I publicly stated at a certain conference that I expected some sort of financial scandal to arise involving some charitable organizations within the insular religious Jewish community.  Painful as it is, I must now thank New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman for vindicating me from the naysayers at that conference.

What's the Retribution About This Time?

The news media and the blogs are all awash about a tragic automobile crash in Brooklyn which claimed the lives of an expectant couple, and, ultimately, the baby.  The couple, Nachman and Raizel Glauber, were members of the insular Satmar Jewish community.  I did not know them, but am most empathetic with the families and the community, notwithstanding my considerable differences with the Satmars.  It was a horrible tragedy.

It has become fashionable amongst the insular Chassidic Jewish communities for various individuals, groups and/or rabbis to proclaim, whenever tragedy strikes, that it was Divine Retribution for some sort of failing within the community.  The shortcoming that seems to be popular these days is tznius, or modesty.  Various pronouncements, which will not now be stoked by a hyperlink from this posting, have been read and heard that such and such a tragedy occurred because the women of the Jewish community are not fully covering their bodies, wearing provocative clothing, and/or talking with a less than modest demeanor.

But if the principle of "Mida K'Neged Mida" (English equivalents:  Measure for measure, every action has an opposite reaction, et cetera) is truly to apply, I can think of a few issues with an even closer connection than the dress and demeanor of the women.

First of all, according to the news reports, Raizel Glauber was thrown from the vehicle by the impact.  Whenever I see a report of someone being thrown from a vehicle in a crash situation, I think "Seatbelt" (or rather, the non-use thereof); and my hunches prove correct a goodly majority of the time.  There seems to be a disproportionate incidence of seat belt non-usage among the insular Jewish communities; indeed, I have had more than one past occasion to threaten some rabbis and children of rabbis with expulsion from my car for their obstinate balking at my orders to buckle up.

My Dad, whose profession required him to know and apply the laws of physics, regularly educated all of his children about various common phenomena from a physics standpoint, not the least of such being the acceleration of an automobile and the effects upon the objects therein, inanimate and otherwise.  And he would not put the car into gear until everyone was buckled up.  I acquired that habit from him.

But there is another "Mida K'Neged Mida" connection here.  Takia Walker, the owner of the speeding BMW that crashed into the livery cab in which the Glaubers were riding, has been arrested on insurance fraud charges in connection with her acquisition of the vehicle.  Insurance fraud is known to occur amongst the Satmar community, and it is condoned by the communal norms and attitudes a bit too much.

No human being truly knows G-d's plans, and how He runs this world.  It is possible (and, I believe, quite likely) that every action or inaction by a human being has its consequences in a system of what ultimately amounts to perfect justice.  So if you tell me that such and such a tragedy occurred because a woman's hemline was four inches above her ankle instead of the standard three, please consider that there are other possible causes, including but not limited to noncompliance with the law.

Meting Out Meter Justice

Headline in yesterday's (7 March 2010) New York Daily News on page 37:

"Queens Center Mall Steers Shoppers to its Garage with Bogus Signs on Parking Meters" [Also reposted here].


The first sentence of the article: "Parking attendants at a Queens mall have been caught red-handed posting phony no-parking signs on street meters that lure drivers into their garage."


Not a bad scam! If the shoppers believe that parking is prohibited on the street, and there is a parking garage right there, then lots of shoppers will park in the parking garage and pay for the privilege, in this case more than they would pay if they used the municipal parking meters on the street.

A spokeswoman for the Mall said that the signs were intended to "facilitate traffic flow." Indeed! Facilitate traffic flow right into the mall's parking garage, no doubt.

This, of course, is tantamount to an admission that mall personnel were behind the unauthorized (read "illegal") cordoning off of the parking meters.

And the Queens DA's mouthpiece will neither confirm nor deny that they are on the case, but that a criminal complaint had not, as of the moment, been filed.

My take on it:

Both the City of New York and the Queens Center Mall have reason to want to put this matter behind them. The DA's office can easily get a criminal conviction against the Mall, but would have to really line up lots of ducks and witnesses to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt with respect to any individual. New York City (which technically is a quasi-separate entity from the County of Queens, which is the District Attorney's district) needs the money that wasn't deposited in its meters. Indeed, the NYPD's metermaids and metermen have, of late, seemed to show their faces (and ticket pads) on the street with greater frequency than in the recent past.

Moreover, there are questions as to whether society would be best served by putting one or two or three more people into prison for this nonviolent crime. If it's about money and not blood, then New York City and the Queens DA's office want to find some economical strategy.

I have no inside info on this (my contact in the Queens DA's office is scrupulously adhering to the "no comment" policy), but one possible scenario is that there are ongoing negotiations for a corporate misdemeanor and/or civil penalty entailing little or no jail time, but the transfer more than a few dollars into the city's seriously depleted coffers.

Humanitarian Aid without Voodoo

Been out of town on a very frustrating excursion, but now I am back and mostly caught up on my work -- for now.

The big news item, of course, is the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti. Seems that Fat Al Sharpton is going to Haiti tomorrow (Martin Luther King Day) for a "Mercy Mission." If his past activities in America are any indication, one can presume that he will be organizing the rioting and looting down there.

This whole Haiti thing presents a dilemma. On one hand, I do wish to help those disaster victims who are in need. But Haiti is, and always has been, a corruptocracy run by one greedy despot or another. If I donate money to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake, it is unlikely that any more than a few cents out of each hundred dollars will actually go towards helping the victims. Virtually all of that money will likely go into the pockets of the Haitian corruptocrats, whether as embezzled funds or outright bribes. And, based upon prior performance during Hurricane Katrina, I do not trust the American Red DoubleCross.

The solution: ZAKA, the Israeli rescue organization, has sent a delegation to Haiti. Unfortunately, the ZAKAniks have had to deal with many victims of terrorism in Israel. The upside of this is that they have developed much expertise and know-how in aiding victims such as those left in the wake of the quake. And if I support ZAKA, I know that my donations really will be used to help victims. In fact, ZAKA has already pulled off some rescues.

Donation checks can be sent to:

American Friends of ZAKA
1303 53rd St. #170
Brooklyn, NY 11219

[Write "Zaka Haiti Fund" in the Memorandum line of the Check.].


ZAKA's website also has a special secure Haiti Emergency donation webpage for those who use credit cards.

The Wal-Mart Bargain

The 20 November 2008 Wal-Mart stampede in Valley Stream, New York has, of course, kept the legal profession quite occupied. Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice has reached a settlement agreement with Wal-Mart.

Thus far, I give Ms. Rice high marks on the deal. The public is getting much more from Wal-mart than would be possible under a successful criminal prosecution. Wal-Mart is increasing its safety policies and procedures, thereby raising the bar for all such retailers. Victims of the stampede can, if they so choose, be compensated without resorting to the courts.

It's a good deal, BUT …

The program is only as good as its gatekeepers. Specifically, Ms. Rice's office has placed ads such as the one in the 9 May 2009 Newsday (page A 38), addressing "Anyone Present at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart Store on November 29, 2008, between 2:30 - 6:00 A.M."

Query: How many of those who will respond to the advertisement were, in fact, actually at Wal-Mart at the time? And how many of those who were will exaggerate their losses?

Observation: To get a claimant's affidavit, DA's website provides that one can "Download PDF English" or "Descarga PDF Español."

Query: How many of those who will be claimants, bona fide and otherwise, should not have been in America in the first place, let alone at the Wal-Mart?