Brooklyn, NY – As the probe into Mayor de Blasio’s longtime friend and donor, Yitzchok (Isaac) Leshinsky and his former nonprofit, Housing Bridge, continues, de Blasio has said he will return campaign contributions totaling over $20,000 dating back to 2007 that he received from Leshinsky for his City Council and Mayoral runs.
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The move comes after separate investigations by the New York State Attorney General and the New York City Department of Investigation into compensation and loans Leshinsky received on top of his annual salary. Housing Bridge had been approved for $260 million in City contracts to provide transitional housing to New York’s homeless, but much of the money seems to have been misappropriated according to a report by DNAInfo.com (http://dnain.fo/1V0C1gP).
Leshinsky resigned from his CEO post in 2015. Yet, records indicate that the Department of Homeless Services continued to grant contracts to Housing Bridge despite its financial irregularities.
“From what I’ve heard so far, that firm has been addressed very vigorously,” de Blasio said. “The CEO has been removed, and we are working now to take steps to get resources back from that company.”
Leshinsky declined to be interviewed for the article, but Senator Ruben Diaz, who previously decried the close relationship between Leshinsky and de Blasio, as well as the secrecy surrounding how shelter providers are paid, said, “I’m sorry that this happened. It’s a mess,” he said. “And I’m sorry for the homeless. They’re always the ones that are going to pay the price.”
hopefully Leshinsky will end up behind bars where he deserves to go for geneva.
Comrade Mayor has some capitalist tendencies he must eradicate
Ganev!!!!!!!!
DeBlasio was happy to take the money, and then happily gave contracts to them, all the while turning a blind eye. As soon as it becomes all over the news and everyone else finds out, he says he’ll give the money back.
DeBlasio should be locked up too.
Nobody wins here, what a shame but unfortunately he did not think of the ramifications a criminal act would do to his family. Instead he got pulled by kovod and wealth. It’s happened to many regardless of religious affiliation. We should feel sympathy for him but he should still be prosecuted and I’m sure the ballei chasodim in the community will help out his family. Unfortunately, there are many many people in his neighborhood who are suffering (financially) in silence because they are doing the right thing but they go unnoticed. He should have listened to Rabbi Avigdor Miller ztz”l tapes for personal guidance.
#6 , we need Preet Bharra. DOI is appointed by de blasio so they’re hacks, AG Schneiderman wont go after a Democrat. Preet please look into this theft of our tax dollars for a blatant quid pro quo.
“but much of the money seems to have been misappropriated according to a report by DNAInfo.com”
Hmmm, much of the money seems to imply that it is more than half. Even the allegations in the DNA report, which are only allegations at this point, is not near anything like that.
Not one of the more respectable members of the Rav Avigdor Miller’s ztl family. Did Leshinsky not listen to his grandfather’s shiurim on bitachon?