New York Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

STATEWIDE


ARAB BANK TO PAY $24M PENALTY


The New York branch of Arab Bank will pay a $24 million civil penalty for failing to adequately implement anti-money laundering controls aimed at preventing groups from clandestinely financing terrorist organizations, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced yesterday. The bank had been under investigation for failing to monitor for suspicious activity and/or wire transactions by other banks and customers outside its New York branch.


The bank, based in Jordan, said in a statement that paying the penalty was neither an admission nor denial of wrongdoing and that it cooperated fully with the investigation, which also involved the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Rep. Anthony Weiner, author of the Arab Bank Accountability Act, issued a statement saying, “A fine alone is not enough. The Treasury Department should shut this terror bank down.”


– Special to the Sun


RIDERS FLEE FIRE ON LOW-FARE BUS


A bus that is part of a low-fare fleet connecting Chinatowns in New York and Boston caught fire on a highway, and riders fled just moments before it was engulfed in flames.


The Fung Wah bus was headed down Interstate 91 to New York on Tuesday when the driver noticed smoke from a rear wheel near Meriden, Conn. When the driver pulled over to inspect the problem, passengers scrambled off.


“A minute later, we could have all been dead,” passenger Lisa Holliday, 25, told the Boston Globe. “I’m looking at the back of the bus where we were sitting, and it’s not even there anymore.” No one was injured and no citations were issued. The bus had passed an inspection last October, according to the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy, which inspects commercial fleets.


– Associated Press


BRONX


POLICE FIND MURDERED WOMAN IN VAN CORTLANDT PARK


Police discovered a woman’s burned corpse Tuesday in a wooded area of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. She was murdered before she was set on fire, the medical examiner, Charles Hirsch, ruled yesterday. The body was charred so badly, the examiner could determine neither the woman’s age nor her race, but she did not die of those burns, Dr. Hirsch’s spokesperson, Ellen Borakove, said. The cause of death was “blunt impact injuries to the head,” Ms. Borakove said. The investigation is ongoing.


– Special to the Sun


TWINS ARRESTED FOR DRIVE-BY SHOOTING


Twin 16-year-old brothers were arrested yesterday for a drive-by shooting that police say wounded four people, including a 2-year-old boy, late Saturday night in the Fordham section of the Bronx. Police charged each of the apprehended suspects, Andres and Anthony Esquilin, with attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. The victims of the shooting were the 2-year-old, who was shot once in each foot, a 21-year-old male who was shot in the buttocks and groin, a 32-year-old male who was shot once in each leg, and a 19-year-old male who was shot once in the leg, according to police.


– Special to the Sun


CITYWIDE


CITY REVOKES PERMIT FOR SUBWAY ART EXHIBITION


A month ago, the city issued a permit for an event featuring 20 renowned graffiti artists creating large-scale works on two-dimensional replicas of 1980s subway cars. On Monday, the city’s Community Assistance Unit sent a letter to the event’s host, Marc Ecko LLC, officially revoking the permit. The stated reason was that the permit was issued for an “art/Exhibition” event rather than a commercial event.


The company reapplied under the commercial classification. Yesterday, the city notified the company that unless it could come up with a canvas other than subway car replicas, it could not go forward with the event. The company has already spent more than $50,000 on the subway cars and had invested about $150,000 overall into the event.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


REPORT: SUBWAY SYSTEM UNPREPARED FOR EMERGENCIES


New York’s subway system carries the most riders and has the largest number of employees, but the subway authority’s plans in case of an emergency are the least in-depth compared to any of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s subsidiaries, according to a riders’ advocacy group created to oversee the state authority.


A report published yesterday by the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee of the MTA criticizes New York City Transit for creating an emergency response plan to cover anything from fires to chemical attacks but disbursing it only to upper-level management. That leaves the conductors, train operators, and station agents, who interact with customers, relying on information from their supervisors and training manuals, which vary, the report’s authors said.


– Special to the Sun


COUNCIL OVERRIDES BLOOMBERG VETOES ON FOOD STAMPS


The City Council overrode two Bloomberg vetoes yesterday to ease the food stamp application process and to give tenants the “right of first refusal” to buy their buildings if their landlords decide to sell.


The Tenant Empowerment Act, as it’s called, requires landlords who want to get out of the business of providing subsidized Mitchell Lama and Section 8 housing to allow tenants to match the price they get from another buyer. Meanwhile, a bill sponsored by Council Member John Liu that would increase scrutiny over retailer’s rights to set out stoop shops on sidewalks incited heated debate with some members saying that it was unfairly fast-tracked. The bill was approved, but an unprecedented nine members voted against it and two abstained.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


MANHATTAN


TEACHER ALLEGEDLY CALLING IN SICK WHILE OUT WORKING AS CONDUCTOR


A Manhattan public school orchestra teacher has been calling in sick for two years while she was actually out working as a conductor for the New York Scandia Symphony, according to a report released yesterday by the special commissioner of investigation for the New York City School District, Richard Condon. The assistant principal at the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex clued Mr. Condon into the second career of the teacher, Dorrit Matson. The investigation found that Ms. Matson’s sick days corresponded to days when the symphony had concerts. A check of the symphony’s Web site showed that Ms. Matson founded the symphony in 1988 and is its director and conductor.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


MAN STABBED TO DEATH AFTER ARGUMENT


A verbal argument on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side turned fatal yesterday morning when a thin, 5-foot 8-inch white man with long blond hair stabbed 40-year-old George Drescher once in the chest and fled, according to witnesses at the scene. When Drescher arrived at Bellevue Hospital at 9:30 a.m., he was dead, police said. Drescher, a former resident of 80 Delancey St., accumulated a sizable criminal record of his own before he was murdered. Between 1985 and 2004, he was arrested 16 times for criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct, and theft of service, petty larceny, grand larceny, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and criminal possession of stolen property, police said. Police are searching for the suspect.


– Special to the Sun


TRI-STATE


FBI CHARGES 16 WITH RUNNING SPORTS GAMBLING OPERATION


A four-year investigation into an extortion, loan-sharking, and gambling ring in New Jersey ended yesterday with charges brought against 16 reputed members of the Genovese organized crime family, federal authorities said.


The illegal enterprise, centered on sports gambling, took in millions of dollars for the New York-based Genovese mob, prosecutors said. The operations of the ring were handled at a social club in Hoboken, a business in Jersey City, and a bar in Jersey City, prosecutors said. Fourteen of the suspects were arrested yesterday, in Hudson, Bergen, Monmouth, Ocean, and Atlantic counties and in Staten Island, N.Y.


– Associated Press


BROOKLYN


POLICE ARREST TWO MEN FOR STRING OF SUBWAY ROBBERIES


Two men have been arrested in separate incidents in connection with a string of violent subway robberies, police said. A pair of off-duty police officers arrested William Reyes, 39, after recognizing the suspect from an earlier police sketch given by his victims. Police officers Michael Gaynor and Andrew Mennella of the 70th precinct in Flatbush, Brooklyn, recognized Mr. Reyes at the corner of Cortelyou Road and East 21st Street.


Mr. Reyes was wanted in connection with eight robberies – five of which have occurred at knifepoint in subway stations since April. Mr. Reyes allegedly struck as recently as last weekend when he robbed three people at gunpoint, police said. The other suspect, Charles Maxwell, 26, was sought in connection with a robbery on a subway platform on the J line on the Lower East Side, in which he repeatedly stabbed a woman after the woman screamed when he stole her purse.


– Special to the Sun

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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