New York launches probe into allegations of Kushner Cos. harassing tenants

[Julian Englis]

Source: CNN

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is launching an investigation to determine if White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's family real estate company harassed tenants at a Brooklyn waterfront property so that they would leave their rent-stabilized apartments, officials said on Monday.

The announcement by the Democratic governor comes after tenants at the Austin Nichols House on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg filed a lawsuit and said the company started major construction that released dangerous toxins in the air. They charge that the building was unlivable for tenants, with excessive noise and vermin running rampant, officials said.

"Governor Cuomo has zero tolerance for tenant abuse of any kind and we will aggressively take on landlords who try to intimidate people out of their homes," said New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas.
Twenty current and former tenants of the property filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $10 million in punitive damages plus whatever a jury decides for compensatory damages.

"To circumvent New York City rent regulation laws it appears Kushner Companies commenced a deliberate campaign to systemically harass tenants out of their apartments using illegal and hazardous construction practices," said Aaron Carr, head of the nonprofit watchdog Housing Rights Initiative that was separately investigating the matter.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/16/politics/new-york-investigation-kushner-companies-tenant-harassment/index.html

[Wwcd]

1. They will all fall before our nation does.

I hope they lose it all.

They should have stayed out of politics.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Correct, hope so too, and correct again. 3 for 3. . . . nt

[neohippie]

3. might as well add this too

Kushner's company filed false documents, kind of like on his security clearance, to evade regulations


https://wtop.com/national/2018/03/ap-exclusive-kushner-cos-filed-false-nyc-housing-paperwork/

A New York City council member launched an investigation Monday into the Kushner Cos.’ routine filing of paperwork falsely claiming zero rent-regulated tenants in its buildings, saying that the deception should have been uncovered long ago because the documents are online for all to see.

Councilman Ritchie Torres said the city’s buildings department should have spotted the wrong numbers because they were contradicted by tax documents filed with another city agency.

“The scandal is not only the deception of Kushner Cos., the scandal is the dysfunction of the city bureaucracy,” said Torres, chair of the city council’s investigations committee. “The right hand of city government didn’t know what the left hand was doing.”

The Associated Press reported Sunday that a tenants’ rights watchdog found that the Kushner Cos. had filed more than 80 construction permit applications for 34 buildings across the city between 2013 and 2016 stating it had no rent-regulated tenants. But tax documents showed more than 300 rent-regulated units.

Asked about the Kushner Cos. documents Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that “if it proves to be true that they lied to evade regulation, they have a problem on their hands.”