“Politicians and diapers are often full of the same thing.”

— Anonymous

A criminal enterprise in government involves the use of political power or influence for illegal private gain, often through corruption and organized crime. This can manifest itself as embezzlement, extortion, exploitation of seniors or the disabled, and stealing from the disadvantaged or those without power or influence. Other forms of corruption may facilitate criminal activities like drug trafficking, money laundering or bribery in multitudinous forms. It can even involve the state itself acting against the public interest, potentially with impunity or the sanction of local courts. 

However, this concept is not limited to government alone. The Real Estate industry in New York City, for example is rife with corruption and distortion of the courts, lawyers and the laws that govern rental property. I experienced this myself when my landlord, a family of thieves, took over the ownership.

After bilking the former owners they proceeded to litigate every regulated tenant out of their homes using legal ploys which the court and expensive lawyers assisted. The City agencies, HPD, Buildings Department, all helped further the travesty. I spent everything I had to keep a roof over my family’s head — as the fraudulent litigation by Polish immigrant Mark Ramer sadistically continued for 7 years — pursuing me even while I was behind bars — after helping the convicted criminal DA Thomas Spota prosecute. This was all done in order to take advantage of luxury decontrol. Ramer spent half a miilion dollars to evict me and my family using money from the abused tenants.

This is what a modern day criminal enterprise looks like.

In the Hamptons, the current winner of the “Most Corrupt Hampton Village” award is Westhampton Beach. It should not surprise anyone at the explosion of real estate developments there. The infusion of cash by developers is astounding. Condos are proliferating. Of course, Affordable Housing in this Village and in the Town of Southampton is a rarity. No “Little people allowed here” except to clean toilets. In fact, my attempt at creating new affordable housing forced the Town and DA to imprison me for providing it.

Now that the former Mayor of Westhampton, Maria Moore, has arranged everything as she has moved on and is now the Southampton Town Supervisor and the Westhampton Mayor Ralph Urban is a real estate agent with the Zoning Board beholden and developers like Rubio among the Trustees — million dollar deals will proliferate. The inside deals will now roll on and bullshit will be spread around while the transactions proliferate — aided by Anthony Pasca as Village Attorney in the tradition of Goebbels, interpreting laws for the rich and powerful using lies and deceit. The new Hamptons.

The tradition of corrupt Southampton Town Supervisors and their cabal — like “Skip” Heaney, who worked with Town Attorney Joe Lombardo, convicted former DA Thomas Spota, now out of prison, and Thalia Stavrides, his prosecutor — remains intact.

Meanwhile the multi-Billion dollar Preservation Fund continues to bilk New Yorkers as a legal slush fund for local politicians to dip into when they need cash to pay off a cooperative friend — or friendly collaborator.

“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” Honore deBalzac

“Laws are like spiderwebs: they catch the weak and poor, but the rich can rip right through them.” Anarcharsis 6th century BC