Congressman Grace Meng with her father after he was sentenced to jail. When the father was arrested by the FBI for offering to use political connections to get criminals off the hook, she said, "I am independent of my father, always have been always will be." Yet, he seemed to be a major factor in her political career and she had called him her 'moral compass' while she was running for Congress. Now out of jail, this criminal has access to a daughter who can do his bidding.
Many of my students tell me they have heard that New York City and New York State are very corrupt but they want examples. Well, I can always tell them my personal example of an experience of corruption I had with a politician who is now a Congressman - someone who makes the laws in Washington D.C.
This story not only demonstrates corruption but points to why it exists and why it is not being changed in New York City or New York State. Basically this person is openly supported, for some reason, by the New York Times, which has written glowing articles about her instead of doing hard, real journalism about her.
Here's my story of how I learned that my Congressman is a crook:
In 2010 I felt compelled to report the activities of a Korean company I was working for, in New York City, to the Korean press.
All my allegations were true and verified –
among them was the fact that vulnerable young female performers were placed (for housing) in
illegal units above a business in rooms the City of NY classified as ‘perilous
to life.’ Bloomberg (God bless him) went after this company big-time and they
were forced to pay over $30,000 to the city in fines and ultimately moved back
to Korea.
Here's one posting from the City of New York about a $10,000 fine:
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/ECBQueryByNumberServlet?requestid=2&ecbin=34979692J
Here is a story about NINE building code violations: http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20121017000844
These girls were not given health insurance by their company and the
journalist for the newspaper discovered that the performers were brought into
the country under the wrong visa and that the president of the company openly admitted
it was ‘illegal’ to do this.
To me, this looks like felony visa fraud and I am concerned about the fact that the US government never prosecuted this company for what seems to be visa fraud to me. As you'll read, this company's law firm seems to have had political connections - could it be that if you have political connections you can even get away with visa fraud?
Apparently afraid I was going to release more info, the
company hired a law firm which sent me an intimidating letter demanding a
retraction of undisclosed defamatory content. I didn’t see any defamatory
content and they didn’t specify anything specific. My impression was that these
were bullies trying to shut me up.
A Korean-American journalist, however, told me that this
firm was ‘politically connected’ and knew the governor (Patterson). Because I
had received some of Meng’s political mail, I thought I could count on her for
help.
She immediately got back to me and promised assistance.
Nothing ever happened. I waited weeks. She did nothing. I wrote to her and she never did anything constructive about this.
Months later, unbelievably, I learned that
MENG WORKED FOR THE LAWFIRM THAT HAD THREATENED ME.
Basically I was being
threatened by my own State Representaive and my State Rep didn’t see fit to
mention this.
So the clients of this firm violated almost every housing code in
the books, putting girls in harm’s way through illegal construction, and they
seem to have violated visa laws – via their own admission.
My State rep
blithely accepted this? Because she was getting money from the law firm that represented this company? I went from thinking Meng would be my knight in shining
armor to realizing there was another shady person in Albany.
But it gets weirder. After I discovered - accidentally - that she worked for the firm, the firm changed her status on their web page (I have screen shots).
Meng went from being a "Partner" in the firm to just being "Of Counsel". Meng wrote to me denying, in writing, that she was nothing more than 'Of Counsel'.
When this happened, I had no idea where to turn. I contacted Albany and nobody there wanted to help (since Albany is the most corrupt legislature in America - still being run by Sheldon Silver at the time, who will soon be doing time in a country club prison of his choice).
Frankly, the thought that Meng is in the Congress turns my stomach. It's like having Blajojevich in the Congress again. What further turns my stomach is that there seems to be a concerted PR effort to portray her as something she is not.
And the corruption is, basically, piling up.
When she ran for Congress, for instance, her chief opponent was a Jewish politician. Suddenly, a Jewish guy affiliated with Meng also filed papers to run in the same election. His last name would easily be recognized by Jewish folks as being a Jewish name.
So the strategy seemed to be that the group of Jewish voters in that district would split their vote into two and if all the Asian people in Meng's district voted for her, she would win. This is a form of racism and it was political corruption basically. Did the New York Times expose this? No. Other papers exposed this and then the Times wrote this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/nyregion/gottlieb-quitting-house-race-in-queens.html?_r=0
Our system is badly broken if this can happen. Meng is a nightmare for democracy.
Furthermore, after her father was arrested for a major crime, she wrote a letter to the judge asking for leniency, and her father received (from Loretta Lynch) an amazingly light sentence.
Now her BROTHER has been arrested! Can we count on Meng and Lynch working out a nice sweetheart deal for this guy as well? If he is found guilty, what will his sentence be - free tennis lessons at the Rancho Dinero Super-Minimum prison?
Daniel Gauss
