GUILTY AS HELL
Rivera (D-Bronx) stands accused of using her tax-funded nonprofit as a personal ATM, establishing a pattern of racketeering, conspiracy and collusion.
Rivera calculatedly used the non-profit: (1) to wine, dine and weekend w/ her lovers, (2) to bed down w/ tax-paid employees, (3) to give non-profit monies to her son and other relatives, and, (4) to illegally siphon off tax-free non-profit tax revenue for her election campaigns.
Rivera steered hundreds of thousands of tax dollars ostensibly to "help the poor" in the poverty-stricken Bronx slum---to the non-profit Bronx Council for Economic Development, controlled and funded by the Rivera crime family.
From all the investigative reporting to date, we know the Rivera family is a collusive, tight-knit coterie of political operatives in the crime-laced latino uderworld.
Naomi's son GianCarlo Fret, 29, raked in tens of thousands of tax dollars in non-profit jobs----and pocketed suspiciously odd amounts from non-profit coffers that appear to be supporting a "habit."
Giancarlo was a $22,335 “student assistant” at the NY Dept of State in 2008 and part of 2009.
At that time, the NY State Dept was run by Lorraine Cortez-Vazquez, a former president of the Bronx-based non-profit Hispanic Federation. The non-profit Federation scored an astounding $22 million in public funds (what they admit to). Cortez-Vasquez was also a board member of Naomi's non-profit---the do-nothing Bronx Council for Economic Development.
Naomi Rivera paid-off her son's live-in girlfriend, Ebony Rubio; Rivera hired Rubio as a "constituent liaison" in her tax-funded legislative office, paying Rubio up to $27,063 a year between 2008 and 2010, records show.
Rubio also got a suspicious-sounding $700 in 2007 from Rivera’s campaign war-chest and another $60 in 2008 from the Democrat party’s treasury controlled by Naomi's father, Jose Rivera (also a state legislator and Dem party boss).
State legislator Jose Rivera gave his grandson an odd-sounding $1,675 in "consulting" fees between June and July from the non-profit Bronx Democratic Trustees Committee, controlled by Jose Rivera.
Giancarlo also got a financial windfall as a $10.34 an hour “temporary clerk” at the non-profit Bronx Board of Elections from 2004 to 2005; his uncle, Naomi's brother, Joel, is married to Valerie Vazquez, director of communications and public affairs for the non-profit NYC Board of Elections.
Rodney now works as special assistant for the state’s Dept of Environmental Conservation,
Another brother Joel, 27, is the majority leader of the New York City Council and the chairman of the council’s Health Committee.
Mother Blanche Rivera is the district manager of Community Board 6 in the Bronx.
Father Jose Rivera is a state assemblyman, representing District 78 in the Bronx, and was once Bronx Democratic Party chairman.
Brother Rodney Rivera lied in bankruptcy filing, records show. Rodney lied, he told the federal government he was flat broke and jobless when he filed for bankruptcy in 2004 — even though he had a $46,000-a-year, taxpayer-funded govt job with Nassau County, according to public records.
In his June 14, 2004, Chapter 7 filing, Rodney Rivera was deeply in debtand looking to wipe out $25,398--consumer debt that stuck the rest of with his bills. Rodney falsified federal documents, and lied to bankruptcy court, stating he was “unemployed. He checked “none” on a form where debtors are required to list gross income earned for the two years prior to the filing. Using his political connections, three months earlier, Rivera, 42, had landed a govt job, records show.
On March 15, 2004, Rivera was making $48,000-a-year as assistant to the Director of Constituent Affairs in then-County Executive Tom Suozzi’s office, according to records obtained by media.
Rivera — whose sex-starved, scandal-scarred sister, Naomi, is under investigation by federal, state and city authorities is suspected of misusing public funds. Rodney could be prosecuted for committing several felonies by deliberately making false statements or omitting crucial financial information in bankruptcy papers.
In his bankruptcy filing, the married father of three claimed to live a stunningly economical life, with no monthly living expenses — no rent, mortgage, utility, phone, medical, dental, transportation, insurance or clothing costs.
His only monthly financial obligation, Rivera claimed, was a $350 car payment. His only asset, he declared, was $500 in clothing.
Rodney Rivera’s wife, Jessica Letterel-Rivera, filed her own individual petition the same day as her husband, to get out from under $25,841 in consumer debt. She, too, claimed to be broke and unemployed, with no assets and no income for at least 2 1/2 years. She listed her monthly expenses as $250 for electricity and heat, $98 for her home phone, $52 for a cellphone, $1,000 for food and $630 for her car and auto insurance.
The couple’s Elmont, LI, home is owned by Rivera parents---his politically powerful dad, state Assemblyman José Rivera, and his mother, Blanche, district manager of Community Board 6 in the Bronx. Between the two filings, the couple listed $51,239 in debt. Both claimed to have no cash, nothing in the bank, no retirement or investment funds and no furniture, computers or other household items.
Rodney Rivera owed nearly $5,000 to Sam Ash and another music store, $14,000 on a Mitsubishi car loan and more than $6,000 to Discover and another credit card for “consumer goods.” His wife’s debts included nearly $10,500 to Discover, $4,400 to another credit card, $7,700 to Mitsubishi, $126 to BP/Amoco and $71 to America Online. Both bankruptcies went through in October 2004.
Rodney Rivera continued to work for the Nassau County Executive’s Office — with a salary hike to $62,400 — until the end of January 2007, records show, when he then got a job with the county’s Office of Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs. In September that year, he got a $65,000-a-year job gathering newspaper clippings for the state Senate’s Democratic Conference but was fired in April 2010.
Rodney now works as special assistant for the state’s Dept of Environmental Conservation, raking in a $74,000 salary. Neither he nor his bankruptcy lawyer, Nancy Martorelli, returned media calls.
GUILTY AS HELL
“Dirty Dems”
Isn’t that redundant?