Somebody Call The FBI: They Broke The Law
How Keen Equities LLC, South Blooming Grove Mayor George Kalaj, and Assistant TO the Mayor, Joel Stern, are all linked together in a criminal conspiracy.
Do you know what 18 U.S.C. §1346 says?
Of course not. Most of you reading this are completely normal people with active social lives.
So before we get into this, I need to explain what this law is, and why it’s important to understand what is happening in South Blooming Grove.
Honest Services Fraud is a federal crime, as explained in 18 U.S.C. §1346. It’s defined as:
“Honest services fraud is defined in federal statute 18 U.S.C. §1346 as a scheme to defraud another of the intangible right to honest services through a scheme to violate a fiduciary duty by bribery or kickbacks. A fiduciary duty is a duty to act only for the benefit of the public, an employer, shareholders, or a union.” (Source)
Violations of 18 U.S.C. §1346 look something like this:
An offender who breaches their fiduciary duty to provide honest services, through a scheme, in exchange for a bribe or kick-back;
A party harmed by this scheme — by the denial of their right to receive the offender’s honest services; and,
A third party, not deceived by the scheme, who provides the bribe or kick-back to the offender.
So, let’s look at this step-by-step:
1. An offender who breaches their fiduciary duty to provide honest services, through a scheme, in exchange for a bribe or kick-back
In the case of South Blooming Grove, there are two clearly identifiable offenders: Confidential Assistant to the Mayor, Joel M. Stern, and South Blooming Grove Mayor George Kalaj.
The mayor is an elected official. Mr. Stern is a village employee hired by Mayor Kalaj who acts as the de facto mayor in correspondences with other municipal entities.
Prior to being hired, Mr. Kalaj referred to Mr. Stern in multiple instances as his “campaign manager.”
It is their fiduciary duty to, as this law states, “to act only for the benefit of the public, an employer, shareholders, or a union.”
But that’s not what happened. As detailed here with George Kalaj and here with Mr. Joel Stern.
If you don’t feel like reading long posts, I’ll give you the brief recap:
A. Mayor George Kalaj was trying to sell his home. He took it off the market prior to the 2020 election. Mr. Stern acts as Kalaj’s campaign manager. Kalaj then hires Mr. Stern to be his confidential assistant after being elected. Then, just before his re-election campaign for mayor, Kalaj sells his home for over $4M. This is despite the fact that the home was only worth around $500,000. After receiving his big payday, and getting re-elected, George Kalaj removes all the members of the South Blooming Grove Planning Board without any notice. Then, a meeting is held during the afternoon of August 9th, 2022. During that meeting, the Village Board and Planning Board, now all controlled by Stern and Kalaj, vote to move forward with Keen Equities’s Clovewood development. It’s not clear how much public notice was given for this 12pm meeting. There are also published reports that state Mr. Kalaj may have received more than $4M for the sale of his home, but that can’t be verified without the help of law enforcement. From there, Clovewood moves forward and starts running afoul of the DEC, all the way through this past week.
B. Joel M. Stern is the Chief Operating Officer of a company called Windsor Global. A company that lists a fake address — according to the township of Union, New Jersey — for its business, and who’s phone number doesn’t actually connect you to anyone. Also, an employee of the company is Y.C. Rubin. Y.C. Rubin is listed on all documentation available as the representative for Keen Equties LLC, the owner of Clovewood. It’s not clear what Mr. Rubin’s position is at Windsor Global, but again, the company may or may not actually exist. Either way, in his capacity as both campaign manager to George Kalaj, and then as assistant to the mayor, Mr. Stern, along with his associated Mr. Ekstein, begins attacking any sort of opposition to Clovewood as “anti-semitic” and uses his position to further the project on behalf of Mr. Rubin and other associates. Stern also does this ridiculous thing, where he asks the Town of Blooming Grove Police to remove a business and its employees from a building he doesn’t actually own, which is later the subject of the first of two lawsuits against him and Mr. Ekstein. The second lawsuit alleges that Mr. Stern tried to purchase a medical business and informed its employees that he was relocating them to Monroe/Blooming Grove, despite not actually owning the company. Mr. Stern and his business partners also own a variety of LLCs involved with local real estate transactions in and around Blooming Grove that are aided by his role in village government.
2. A party harmed by this scheme — by the denial of their right to receive the offender’s honest services; and,
In this case, the party is every resident of South Blooming Grove, every resident of the Town of Blooming Grove, and every resident of the Village and Town of Woodbury. South Blooming Grove is, and has been, under water restrictions since 2019. Despite this, Mr. Stern and Mayor Kalaj pushed ahead a project (Clovewood) that would further strain not only Blooming Grove’s water supply, but also the neighboring town of Woodbury.
Clovewood and other housing projects were adamantly opposed by residents of the Town of Blooming Grove and Village of South Blooming Grove. Not due to anti-semitism — as Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein claimed, but because of a constrained water supply and polluted water, both in the Village of South Blooming Grove and the Town and Village of Woodbury.
(Then you factor in the stuff with the second, illegal garbage district being created by Kalaj and Stern, and the construction of a road without any permits or authorization on county owned land, and you see a bigger pattern forming. One where Mr. Stern, Mr. Kalaj, and others are showing a willful disregard for the law and concerns of the citizenry they have a fiduciary responsibility to represent.
3. A third party, not deceived by the scheme, who provides the bribe or kick-back to the offender.
This would be Mr. Y.C. Rubin of Windsor Global and also of Keen Equities LLC. This would also include Fort Worth Holdings LLC, which purchased the mayor’s home just before the second election. Mr. Kalaj himself through hiring Mr. Stern and compensating him as a paid village employee. Also possible is Mr. Simon Gelb who is the developer of Clovewood, Mr. Isaac Ekstein, who is Mr. Stern’s business partner and various parties yet to be identified.
What A Prosecutor Needs To Show
A fiduciary duty is owed (e.g., to the public by a public official, to an employer by an employee, to the shareholders by a corporation, etc.); and
Mayor Kalaj and Mr. Joel Stern are both public officials, one elected the other appointed. Both are paid by taxpayers. As village officials, they have a fiduciary responsibility to the tax payers of South Blooming Grove.
2. The defendant knowingly devised or participated in a scheme to defraud – a scheme that is intended to deceive or cheat another and to deprive another of the intangible right to honest services through bribery or kickbacks; and
Mr. Stern, acting in his capacity as campaign manager, worked to get Mr. Kalaj elected and orchestrated write-in campaigns to have his preferred candidates win seats on the Village Board. This includes at least one attempt to register over 700 people using a single address during the Fall of 2021. Then, once the Village Board was taken over, the Planning Board members were removed and replaced by people favorable to his fellow Windsor Global Employee, Y.C. Rubin, and the Clovewood project. Mr. Kalaj made at least $4M from the sale of his house. Mr. Y.C. Rubin, the developer, Mr. Simon Gelb, and others stand to make millions more if the Clovewood development is successfully completed and all the units are rented out.
3. The defendant did so with the intent to defraud; and
Upon his arrival to South Blooming Grove, Mr. Joel Stern began a consistent campaign to paint the surrounding town and area as anti-semitic. This began with a lawsuit against the Washingtonville School District over busing; but then again in advocacy against a law that would have allowed for the Town of Blooming Grove to place a small tax on real estate transactions that would go toward funding preservation. It’s reasonable to assume here that Mr. Stern was truly against this tax and land preservation project because it would have restricted the amount of land he and other associated parties could have purchased to further their own financial interests. To provide cover for this activity, Mr. Stern said:
“Everyone in today’s day and age in this geographical area knows that the term “Preservation” and “Comprehensive Moratoriums” is the 21st century code word and dog whistle to keep Chasidic Jews out from an area,” Eckstein and Stern wrote to The Jewish Press in a prepared statement. (12/29/21)
Mayor Kalaj, in 2020, made the dirty water part of his electoral campaign, with the Times Herald Record explaining that it was discussed on his campaign website as well. Despite these concerns he shared publicly about the village’s water, Kalaj then proceeded to move forward in pushing projects that would only make the water situation worse for residents.
In November of 2022, Mayor Kalaj also goes “missing” for at least two months, with Mr. Stern seemingly left in charge while Kalaj is seen vacationing overseas.
4. The scheme to defraud involved a materially false or fraudulent pretense, representation, or promise, which may include an omission or the concealment of material information – information capable of influencing the decision of others.
Mr. Stern explicitly lobbied against legislation for the property tax claiming it was driven by anti-semitism. At no point did he mention publicly his numerous real estate business interests, or other business interests. This includes Rapid Care Inc. and other medical businesses that lease and use property in South Blooming Grove. At one point Mr. Stern attempted to purchase a medical company and move it into one of these offices. But he later failed to come up with the payment resulting in a multimillion dollar lawsuit.
By describing South Blooming Grove and Orange County residents as anti-semites, Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, and Mr. Kalaj were able to push forward a controversial housing development that would have exasperated an already dire water crisis in the region. At no point has Mr. Stern disclosed his role as Chief Operating Officer of Windsor Global and Mr. Y.C. Rubin’s role at Windsor Global, nor did he mention that they were co-workers at what could be another fraudulent business.
In an interview with Mid-Hudson News, Mayor Kalaj states he is aware of the DEC stop work violations at Clovewood and says, “We have a village engineer, Al Fusco. He is working close with the developer, Clovewood, and DEC, to make sure things are done properly.” As the DEC has explained, this was a lie by the mayor.
And So …
You’ll notice I’m talking federal code here. That’s because, both Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler and New York Attorney General Letitia James — As far as we know publicly — have failed to intervene or act on behalf of residents of South Blooming Grove.
This is despite the fact that, in Mr. Hoovler’s case, Orange County officials have already had numerous instances where they’ve informed the Village of South Blooming Grove that what it was doing in certain cases was illegal. Not to mention, the attempt to register 700 voters to a single address in the Fall of 2021, which Hoovler’s office claimed they were investigating, but then did nothing about.
In the case of AG James, the DEC has said that their actions do not preclude James from taking action against Keen Equities LLC and Mr. Y.C. Rubin for flagrant disregard of New York State law.. AG James has also, in over a year, not responded to inquiries from a State Senator to investigate the sale of Mr. Kalaj’s home. Nor has she commented on the activities of Mr. Stern, many of which represent clear violations of the law.
So, if anyone is going to help the residents of South Blooming Grove, just as they did in Bloomingburg, it’s going to be the FBI and the US District Court.
If you have any friends in law enforcement, ask them how to get in touch with both, and then send them this link. The case has been made. Now it’s time to act.