DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

But for months, Mr. Santos has denied any criminal wrongdoing, even as he has admitted to lying about going to college and working for prestigious Wall Street firms. When he appears before a judge on Wednesday, Mr. Santos will hear the government’s case against him. Shortly thereafter, prosecutors will argue for the terms of release they believe to be appropriate to ensure that Mr. Santos returns to court. It is not yet clear whether Mr. Santos will lodge a plea or if he will be asked to do so in a subsequent hearing. Court records show that Mr. Santos spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name at a store near Rio de Janeiro.

☆ Hochul Acknowledges She Didn’t Vet Adviser Accused of Sexual Harassment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Nicholas Fandos | Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kathy Hochul acknowledged on Thursday that she had not scrutinized the background of a longtime political adviser when she hired him to run her 2018 re-election campaign for lieutenant governor of New York, just months after he was fired for sexually harassing colleagues at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C.Ms. Hochul said that she had seen no reason to vet the adviser, Adam C. Sullivan, because he had already managed her 2011 congressional race. In the absence of a thorough background check, the governor said she had no knowledge of the accusations against him until The New York Times reported them this week, long after Mr. Sullivan had risen to become one of her most trusted counselors. “To ask for a résumé and go through a whole new process later for campaigns, that wasn’t what I was doing,” Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, told reporters of her 2018 hiring decision. “Had I known what I knew now, there would be a very different circumstance.”The remarks were part of Ms. Hochul’s first extended account of her dealings with Mr. Sullivan, 43, whose close ties with the governor threaten to cast a cloud over her promises to clean up Albany after her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo, resigned amid his own sexual harassment scandal.

☆ Hochul’s Ex-Adviser Has History of Sexual Harassment Complaints
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Nicholas Fandos | Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Driscoll did not lodge a formal sexual harassment complaint until mid-July that year, when a woman she supervised came to her recounting a similar experience. A human resources specialist investigated, found the claims credible and in the last days of July, the Hub Project quietly fired Mr. Sullivan. The two had worked together before: In 2011, he helped Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, win a special election for Congress, and she later recommended him for the job at the Hub Project. It is not clear what Mr. Sullivan told her about his time at the Hub Project. Ms. Hochul cut ties with him on Sunday, when she said that she was surprised and disappointed to learn of the behavior described by The Times.

☆ Gov. Hochul Severs Ties With Top Political Adviser in Face of Backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Nicholas Fandos | Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A top political adviser to Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York abruptly informed colleagues that he would resign on Sunday, citing a New York Times report that called into question his political counsel and described a toxic work environment under him. The adviser, Adam C. Sullivan, was not a paid employee of the state but had been the de facto head of Ms. Hochul’s political operation, overseeing her 2022 campaign. She had also deputized him to help steer the state Democratic Party. In an email Sunday to colleagues, including the party’s chairman, Mr. Sullivan apologized for his behavior and said he and Ms. Hochul agreed he should relinquish his responsibilities.

☆ George Santos, Instead of Shrinking From the Spotlight, Steps Into It
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Nicholas Fandos | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If it is an unorthodox, and perhaps still futile path, Mr. Santos has few other options. His local Republican Party has banned him from its events, and pushed other civic organizations to blackball him, too. Representatives for New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, said he has yet to seek to work with them. “I have no doubt that he will be a one-term congressman,” said Representative Anthony D’Esposito, a fellow New York Republican who, like Mr. Santos, flipped a Democratic-leaning suburban district on Long Island last November. Mr. D’Esposito said he had gone out of his way to make sure his name did not appear on letters or bills with Mr. Santos, and bemoaned the constant churn that seemed to follow his colleague, and overshadow his own work.

☆ He Calls the Shots for New York’s Governor. He Lives in Colorado.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Nicholas Fandos | Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But Mr. Sullivan often insisted that crime was a losing issue for Ms. Hochul. Mr. Sullivan declined to comment on campaign strategy. He and Ms. Hochul have stood by its chairman, Jay Jacobs, who has become a punching bag for Democrats, especially on the left. Mr. Sullivan’s allies say he and Ms. Hochul want to strengthen the party, but they could only describe vague plans. “I don’t think he has any agenda other than the governor being successful.”Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

☆ As New York Boosts Tax Breaks for Movies, Some Critics Pan the Program
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dana Rubinstein | Nicholas Fandos | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four years ago, Amazon pulled the plug on its plans to build a headquarters in New York City, amid left-wing outrage over a $3 billion public subsidy package. But New York has hardly cut the company off: Amazon’s film and TV arm has received more than $108 million in state tax credits since then, and the left has raised nary a peep. Kathy Hochul is pushing to expand the program by nearly 70 percent, using the proposed state budget to shower as much as $7.7 billion in tax credits on the industry over the next 11 years. As it now stands, the subsidy is the most generous of any offered by the state, according to an analysis by Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group. The proposed expansion to $700 million a year from $420 million has drawn stern rebukes from a range of critics who argue the decades-old program has consistently been a bad deal for taxpayers.

☆ The Obscure G.O.P. Bookkeeper at the Center of the George Santos Mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Grace Ashford | Nicholas Fandos | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The degree to which Ms. Marks was aware of Mr. Santos’s numerous biographical deceptions is not clear. In May 2021, Red Strategies USA was born. The placements cost $3,800, though Mr. Hafizi paid Red Strategies $12,000, according to a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement. Red Strategies was not the only company Mr. Hafizi patronized that was tied to Ms. Marks, who was also his treasurer. By then, Ms. Marks and Mr. Santos were just a few weeks from an unlikely upset victory that would alter the course of their careers.

☆ Hey, New Yorkers: Meet Your Neighborhood’s New Congressional District
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Denise Lu | Nicholas Fandos | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The district this neighborhood falls in now has a very different shape from the district before. Mr. Biden won the old district by 69 points in 2020; if the election had been held in the new district, he would have won there by 56 points. Vote margin in 2020 election by precinctBiden Trump +75 +50 +25 0 +25 +50 +75 pts. 2020 (12th District) 2022 (14th District)Old Astoria has long been linked across the East River to some of Manhattan’s wealthiest and whitest neighborhoods, including the Upper East Side, home to the 12th Congressional District’s longtime representative, Carolyn B. Maloney. The new 14th District is much less affluent, more progressive and more Hispanic than the one Old Astoria had been voting in.

Search resuls for: "Nicholas Fandos"

9 mentions found