Seth Meyers introduces Mayor Michael Bloomberg at news conference on set of Saturday Night Live. (Kerri Byam)

By KERRI BYAM

Employment in the city’s film industry has sharply increased in recent years to 130,000 jobs, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report from Boston Consulting Group was released with an entertaining flourish in the “Saturday Night Live” studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with the show’s actor Seth Meyers of the “Weekend Update” segment introducing Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“He’s going to come from out there,” said Meyers, pointing to the doors where the host of “Saturday Night Live” usually enters. “Just so you know, we told him that counts as hosting the show. Please tell him he did great.”

According to the report, the city’s film sector is the strongest in its history, generating direct spending of $7.1 billion in 2011, an increase of over $2 billion since 2002. Employment has risen from 30,000 jobs in 2004.

Studios are trying to keep with the demand of increased dramas, reality shows, and talk shows. With the Steiner Studios expansion on March 26, New York City is now home to nearly twice as much studio space as a decade ago.

“Our interviews with industry leaders consistently cited the strong support of the city and the state of New York as an important driver of growth,” said Katherine Sayre, a partner of the Boston Consulting Group.

Bloomberg said the boom in the media and entertainment industry has helped the city to weather the recession.

These jobs do not only cater to actors and production assistants, but also to carpenters, caterers, musicians, electricians, drivers, and many others.
The report said that digital media has an annual economic impact of $8 billion and employs more than 25,000 people full-time in the city.

Katherine Oliver, the commissioner of the New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, said that loss of business to Canada was a problem for the city. When Bloomberg took office in 2002, a film company was shooting a movie about his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, in Montreal.

“We worked really hard to turn things around; you [can] look at the numbers,” Oliver said.

Bloomberg said he hopes to continue to build New York’s cultural influence.

“We decided to honor SNL two years ago because this show is an important part of what makes New York City the media and entertainment capital of the world, and we’ve always said that,” said Bloomberg. “Some people don’t believe it, but it is true.”

A federal jury in Brooklyn was in its second week of deliberation Tuesday in the embezzlement trial of former Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. and his son.

Espada, a Bronx Democrat, is charged with embezzling thousands of dollars from the non-profit Soundview Healthcare Center for his personal use.

At 10:20 a.m., the jury sent a note saying it was reviewing transcripts from the April 3 testimony of Edwin Miranda, Espada’s cousin and janitor at Soundview Healthcare Center in the Bronx. During that testimony, Miranda acknowledged that he was often sent to clean the two smaller clinics on his own although the Espadas informed prospective companies that they would have to pay more for two janitors for each individual building.

This testimony spawned the alleged “trash for cash” scheme in which the Espadas charged prospective companies maintenance fees that were higher than actually required.

During the deliberations, prosecutors could be seen pacing back and forth awaiting word. The defense, including Espada’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, sat in the courtroom spectator section, at one point conversing and laughing with several members of Espada’s relatives, who joked and appeared to be optimistic.

The report also found that the companies selling the cards have intentionally obscured the multiple fees and surcharges that tend to undermine their perceived value. Prepaid phone cards are typically used by immigrants and foreigners to call relatives overseas without incurring prohibitive costs.

“Phone cards are not all that different from the lottery,” said Robert Tiernan, managing director of Consumer Reports, speaking at a news conference in Midtown. “They’re at the counter, they’re colorful, they have scratch off numbers just like the lottery does. They usually cost a couple dollars, just like the lottery. And just like lottery tickets you really have no idea what you’re getting.”

The Consumer Reports study was conducted by purchasing more than 130 cards from a variety of types of stores throughout the state. The prices of the cards differed, depending on where they were bought. They were then tested for their cost-effectiveness. The rates that users receive from different providers can “vary big-time,” with call destination being one of the determining factors, the report found.

Mary Meza, a phone card user who spoke through an interpreter at the news conference, calls her mother in the Dominican Republic every week using a $2 phone card. To her, this is the easiest method for them to communicate. She has never received the minutes that she was promised and would never be able to talk to anyone at customer service, she said.

Appearing alongside Tiernan were representatives of the state attorney general, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. They cited their own extensive investigations on the issue.

According to Assistant Attorney General Keith H. Gordon, who is in charge of the Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection, the international prepaid phone industry sells about $2 billion worth of cards annually in the United States. As they are aimed at people whose first language is often not English, the cards are frequently designed in a specific way that plays on the language gap.

“In some cases the card is targeted to a specific ethnicity, be it Asian, Hispanic, African and most of the advertising is in a foreign language,” Gordon said, displaying examples of cards. “Even those card companies that are aimed at the Hispanic market, we found… the calling instructions are in Spanish… the fee disclosure on the card were in English.”

Robert Anguizola, assistant director of the Division of Marketing Practices in the Federal Trade Commission, spoke about the multi-year investigation of the Millennium Telecard Group in Newark.

“Between August 2010 and March 2011, the cards that we purchased provided on average 45 percent of the advertised minutes,” he said. “Then we tested 141 cards, 139 of which, 98 percent, failed to deliver the number of minutes advertised.”

The company received a temporary restraining order that stifled its operations and eventually had to provide a payment of more than $2 million to the FTC.

“I want to tell anyone in the industry that we are on the beat and if the FTC doesn’t get you, then the FCC is going to get you,” Anguizola said. “And if we don’t get you then the state is going to get you and it’s not going to be pretty. “

Representatives of the FCC said that their Enforcement Bureau was actively investigating cases in the phone card industry and was helping educate consumers through services offered at its website and over a telephone hotline.

Despite the agencies’ recent actions, their representatives agree on the need for educating the consumer at large. As part of this, a new public service announcement aimed at minority groups was aired at the press conference.

“Clearly the game is rigged against the consumer in the first place,” said Tiernan.

Former rap star G. Dep was sentenced to 15-years-to-life in prison on Tuesday after being convicted on murder charges for a slaying he committed as a teenager in 1993.

After 17 years of keeping silent, G. Dep, 37, born Trevell Coleman, turned himself over to authorities and admitted to the shooting at Park Avenue and 114th Street in Harlem. Police matched up the details to the death of 32-year-old John Henkel and charged the rapper with murder.

According to Hip-HopDx.com, “the rapper felt that his crime was always haunting him and that he couldn’t continue with his life without admitting his wrongdoing.”

G. Dep shot Henkel three times with a .40-caliber gun, saying the victim allegedly tried to rob him. In December 2010, he turned himself in to the police.

“It was the right thing to do, even though it landed you in the position you find yourself in now,” State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus reportedly told G. Dep when sentencing him.

The rapper, formerly signed under Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ label Bad Boy Entertainment, gained success after releasing hit singles like “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It.”

In a 2008 interview with XXL Magazine, he spoke about his drug addiction to PCP and plans for rehabilitation. Shortly after, he completed a drug treatment program.

After the judge announced the 15-year-to-life sentence, G. Dep’s immediate family, including his wife Crystal Sutton, cried as he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. The rapper said nothing and kept his head down.

The Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention announced at the “Weight of the Nation” conference Tuesday that the slow progress made in reversing national obesity trends is partly due to the exposure of Americans to fast food and vast advertising of unhealthy products and beverages.

According to the report, two-thirds of adults and almost one-third of children in the United States are overweight or obese.

“As the trends show, people have a very tough time achieving healthy weights when inactive lifestyles are the norm and inexpensive, high-calorie foods and drinks are readily available 24 hours a day,” committee chairman Dan Glickman said at the conference. “Individuals and groups can’t solve this complex problem alone, and that’s why we recommend changes that can work together at the societal level and reinforce one another’s impact to speed our progress.”

The Institute of Medicine researchers came to the conclusion that Americans’ calorie intake has significantly increased over the past 40 years, and 20 percent of weight increase between 1977 and 2007 is attributed to sugar-sweetened beverages.

American Beverage Association immediately released a statement, insisting that “advocating discriminatory policies that uniquely focus on sugar-sweetened beverages is the wrong approach.”

The association said that only 7 percent of the calories in the average American’s diet come from sugar-sweetened beverages. “Focusing on a small and declining source of calories in the diet is a wrong-headed approach that distracts from meaningful solutions that promote healthier diets overall, as well as increased physical activity,” it stated.

The report found that besides the poor diet choices, Americans fail to regularly exercise.

Businesses’ annual losses associated with obesity-related job absenteeism come up to $4.3 billion, and preventative measures need to be taken to lower these costs and to promote physical activity and healthy food choices work places, the report said.

Some business owners include discounted gym memberships in employees’ benefits packages, an incentive used for routine obesity prevention; most national sport clubs are more than willing to accommodate such employers.

Town Sports International’s sports clubs encourage companies of any size to offer club membership benefits to their employees. Individuals enrolled in their corporate wellness program enjoy savings of up to 20 percent.

Lucille Roberts, one of the largest women’s health clubs chains in America, provides comprehensive packages to individuals and businesses.

“It might attract some people,” said a manager at a Lucille Roberts health club on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, referring to the effectiveness of adding gym membership to benefits packages. “But then there are others . . . you can bring the gym to their living room, and they still won’t exercise. It’s a mentality.”

She noted that most of their members join Lucille Roberts on an individual basis, but some of the customers are covered by Oxford health plans through work.

“If they come 50 times within six months, Oxford reimburses them,” she said.

According to the Institute of Medicine’s report, $190.2 billion, or 21 percent of the country’s annual medical spending, was allocated to treat overweight and obese patients in 2005-2010.

A Brooklyn lawyer and investor scammed a bank for more than $700,000 and left a hapless woman on the hook for the bill, federal prosecutors charged Tuesday.

An indictment handed up by a grand jury on Friday accused Benjamin J. Turner, 48, and Jacob Vizel, 55, of identity theft and of defrauding Wells Fargo Bank Home Mortgage to the tune of $716,510.

According to the indictment, in June 2006 Turner, a lawyer and owner of the Midwood-based Four Dolphins Corp., tricked an unidentified woman into signing a form, on the pretense of a credit check that granted Turner power of attorney. Turner then allegedly prepared documents that showed the woman, identified in the indictment as Jane Doe #1, borrowed $570,000 from his Four Dolphins Corp.

Turner, then allegedly using power of attorney, bought a house at 1678 Madison Place in Marine Park under Doe #1’s name for $530,000. Turner and Vizel then allegedly obtained a fraudulent appraisal of the house that falsely jacked up its value.

In June 2007, Vizel allegedly recruited a second unidentified woman, Jane Doe #2, to purchase the house, telling her that she’d never have to make the mortgage payments or take possession of the house. In exchange for using her name and good credit score, Vizel allegedly paid her $4,500.

Vizel and Turner, armed with the fraudulent appraisal, Doe #2’s credit rating, Doe #1’s power of attorney, and a forged down-payment check from Doe #2 to Doe #1, allegedly obtained a loan to purchase the home back from Doe #1 for around $800,000.

Turner then allegedly directed a Wells Fargo’s attorney to transfer the loan money, around $716, 510, to his Four Dolphins’ account and then split the money between himself and Vizel.

The indictment states that Turner and Vizel “made sporadic mortgage payments to Wells Fargo on behalf of Jane Doe #2” until November 2008.

When the payments stopped coming in, Wells Fargo broke the news to Doe #2 that she was responsible for making the payments.

Turner and Vizel were arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn.

The three charges, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft, carry a maximum sentence of 32 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines, authorities said.

In his blog, Thomas Gioeli called himself `unconvicted.' That's no longer the case.

By MAX NEOPIKHANOV

After nine days of deliberation, a federal jury in Brooklyn found Colombo crime family underboss Thomas Gioeli and hit man Dino Saracino guilty Wednesday of a racketeering conspiracy that includes schemes to murder mob rivals.

Jurors acquitted the two men in the 1997 murder of Police Officer Ralph Dols in Brooklyn.

Gioeli, 59, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. The jury found him guilty of three murder conspiracies, including schemes that led to the slaying of Frank Marasa in Brooklyn in 1991 and John Minerva in 1992. Prosecutors said Gioeli and Saracino conspired to murder other rival members of the Colombo family during the criminal organization’s internal war between 1991 and 1993.

The jury found Saracino, 39, guilty of conspiring to murder Michael Burnside, whom Saracino believed killed one of his brothers, as well as loansharking, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. Saracino faces a sentence of up to 100 years in prison.

The nearly seven-week trial at U.S. District Court in Brooklyn was full of colorful witnesses who offered up a saga of the Colombo crime family in New York.

Lawyers for Gioeli and Saracino tried at each opportunity during the trial to discredit the prosecution’s turncoat witnesses as criminals who simply wanted a reduced sentence from the government.

In a final plea before deliberations began, defense attorney Adam Perlmutter implored jurors to see through what he said were the witnesses’ lies because they are “untrustworthy, unreliable, desperate individuals.”

He added: “You know what else they are? Rats!”

Prosecution witnesses included Colombo crime family hit men Dino Calabro and Joseph Competiello. Both men testified to collaborating with Saracino in killing several mob members and associates, including the then underboss of the Colombo crime family, William Cutolo, and Dols, saying they did so under Gioeli’s orders.

The prosecution argued that the hit on Dols in Brooklyn came down to Gioeli from the then underboss of the Colombo family, Joel Cacace, whose wife had left him for Dols.

Both men gave detailed accounts of the slayings. Calabro testified that he and Saracino gunned down Dols in broad daylight as Dols was exiting his car in front of his house on Avenue U. Both denied knowing that Dols was a police officer.

Defense lawyers pointed at discrepancies between Competiello’s testimony at the trial and the original account he gave to the feds when describing a meeting with Gioeli to plan the Cutolo and Dols slayings.

The jury acquitted Saracino and Gioeli in the Dols and Cutolo slayings.

In what turned to be the one of the biggest twists of the trial, Gioeli’s cousin, Thomas McLaughlin, who was called to testify on Gioeli’s behalf, instead said that Gioeli ordered the killing of Marasa in 1991.

Gioeli and McLaughlin, a former Colombo associate and currently a government informant, yelled at each other across the courtroom. The jury evidently accepted McLaughlin’s testimony, finding Gioleli guilty of conspiracy to murder Marasa.

But that wasn’t the only instance of yelling during the trial.

Saracino’s brother, Sebastiano Saracino, testified that “Little Dino” had gunned down an ex-marine in their basement in 1995.

“Stop lying!” Dino Saracino yelled out as his brother spoke on the witness stand. “I’m not your brother!”

Another memorable prosecution witness was Salvatore Vitale, a smooth-talking former Bonanno family underboss in witness protection, who gave the jury a primer for mob life in New York City, explaining standard mob fare like extortion, running illegally rigged “joker poker” slot machines, and loansharking.

The defense said that Vitale, who served seven years in prison, now free, is an untrustworthy criminal who, like the other witnesses, turned on his former friends to get a deal from the government.

“You don’t have any friends in organized crime,” Vitale said. “Why would I want to do life for people who did not care for me?”

Throughout the trial, the jury was shown photos of numerous known and alleged mob members and associates, video footage, and an assortment of evidence against the defendants –including a party invitation that included the names of both defendants, several of the witnesses, and their families.

At one point the prosecution even attempted to introduce a photograph of Gioeli and his associates at a fundraiser with the cast of the Sopranos TV show. The defense objected that the photo would unfairly tarnish Gioeli’s reputation.

For weeks Saracino sat smirking as he heard the testimony against him. Gioeli often smiled softly, but looked frail and old – much older than his 59 years. He sometimes took the time to wave and blow kisses to his family members in the stands. He also claimed that prison authorities mistreated him.

Gioeli hasn’t let his discourse go unheard. With the help of one of his daughters, Giolei wrote about his experiences behind bars on a blog, trying appeal to anyone who will listen.

“As trial is coming to an end I am filled with excitement to have my dad back home,” one of his daughters wrote on the blog on April 10.

“I daydream about the day I will see him walk up our front steps and I just can’t wait. I dream about just sitting around the table with my family and enjoying each other’s company.”

Police make arrests in protest at Bank of America office. (Marla Bahloul)

By MARLA BAHLOUL

Eight people were arrested Tuesday morning during a protest in Midtown against Bank of America’s recent foreclosures, a police official said.

Activists representing several organizations under the umbrella of the 99 Percent Power Coalition charged Bank of America with having “sold out” clients after its early 2009 bailout.

The protest at Bank of America’s office at 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue was held to coincide with the bank’s shareholder meeting in Charlotte, N.C. that, according to a press release issued by the bank, was discussing the launch of three new travel rewards credit cards.

New York Communities for Change member Guillermo Calle, who was not arrested in the protest, spoke of his current foreclosure battle.

“It is an injustice,” Calle said. “I’ve been trying to modify my mortgage but Bank of America denies me every time.”

Among those arrested were the executive director for the Strong Economy for All Coalition, Michael Kink; a minister from Brownsville community; and six other activists.

“I think we’re trying to make it clear that corporations like Bank of America are part of what’s deeply wrong with our country,” Kink said shortly before his arrest. “They took $61 million in tax subsidies and didn’t deliver the 7,000 promised jobs.”

After the arrests, others continued to protest.

“Bank of America is doing a great deal to destroy people’s lives and future,” said Mimi Okino, a protester. “We hope to make people increasingly aware that [they] can take their money out of these big banks and put them into smaller, more trustworthy banks.”

Those who helped organize the protest included Vocal-NY, United New York, and MoveOn.org.

The 99 Percent Power Coalition released a “People’s Charge Sheet” that listed the salary of Bank of America’s co-chief operating officer to be at over $14 million. It also showed the bank’s recent tax records, as well as accusing Bank of America of “widening the racial gap,” among other charges.

According to the news Web site ProPublica, the bank was rewarded $45 billion in aid from the government and other large capital investors, and returned its bailout funds by December 2009.

“Bank of America, bad for America,” Kink said as he was getting arrested.

There was no response in a phone call to Bank of America offices.

According to the professors, Laura C. Harrington and Drew Harvell of Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the virus is “headed this way.”

“The invasive species was introduced to us in the 1980s and the pathogens and bacteria it transmits are also invasive,” Harvell said.

Perhaps what’s causing the most concern is the virus itself, which originated in Africa and travels with the Asian tiger mosquito. Although the deaths associated with the virus have been few, the professors do believe there is definite cause for concern this summer.

“Increased temperature is critically important in driving this virus,” Harrington said. “I don’t think we are prepared, that’s why there needs to be awareness … We didn’t learn our lesson with West Nile (virus).”

According to her research, there is a 38 percent probability of an outbreak in New York this summer, followed by a 40 percent chance in Atlanta and a 40 percent chance in Miami at any given time.

The most common symptoms of chikungunya include high fever, debilitating joint pains, nausea and headaches, with some cases lasting weeks to months. Like most viruses, the elderly and very young are shown to be most susceptible. “We see the risk peaking in July and dying down in August, ” Harrington said.

“We should let physicians know to look for sign of chikungunya,” Harrington said. “Efforts should go into vaccine development.” There is currently no form of commercial vaccinations or treatment for chikungunya.

“This is a climate-driven disease phenomenon,” said Harvell. She explained that global warming is the culprit for many global diseases and recent strange natural occurrences. She said the unusually warm weather can contribute to the development of diseases, but also coral reef collapsing, recent bird and dolphin deaths and high levels of rain to contribute to the breeding of mosquitoes.

“No matter how you measure it, the earth is getting warmer [and] a warmer world is a sicker world,” she said.

The city’s Department of Small Business Services told the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises that it would seek zoning changes near the of Four Sparrow Marsh. Details were not provided at the hearing.
In October, plans to develop a giant retail center in the area were abandoned. The marsh, which is home to a number of rare indigenous bird species, is located near Flatbush Avenue, on and between a Toys R Us retailer and the Belt Parkway.

Plans by Forest City Ratner Company to build a 137,000-square-foot retail center because it was advocated by Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn), who was ensnared in a bribery scandal.

According to the Save Ridgewood Reservoir blog, last winter the New York City Economic Development Corp. announced plans to turn a sizable portion of the marsh into a shopping mall. Although the site was marked by signs belonging to the Parks Department, it turned out that the land had never been officially turned over to the agency.

However, there are still plans in the works for development on the parking lot of the Toys R Us site, but there is an additional plot of land south of the toy retailer that is also included in the development.

On Tuesday the 11 members of the Council subcommittee heard from a lawyer who began to introduce a new proposal based on the Department of Small Business Services’s ideas, but shortly thereafter adjourned for the day. The lawyer declined comment afterwards. The subcommittee will meet again in two weeks to further explore what will be put forth by the Bloomberg administration.