Florida
Man sentenced for attacking four Jewish teens
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after earlier pleading no contest to attacking four Jewish teenagers who were walking along a road while dressed for a religious holiday in 2022.
Noah Amato, 19, of Ponte Vedra, was sentenced Friday for aggravated battery and carrying a concealed firearm in the October 2022 attack. Local news outlets reported his sentence also covers a no contest plea to fleeing police and reckless driving in 2023.
Investigators said Amato and a friend were riding a bike in Ponte Vedra Beach in 2022 while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Amato shouted a slur to a group of four Jewish teenagers who were out celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Amato then hit one of the teenagers with a handgun in the face, deputies said, and fired the gun near the teenager’s head, leaving burns on the teen’s face.
Amato’s attorney disputed parts of the account, saying there was a verbal confrontation between Amato and the Jewish teens. The lawyer said the teen who was targeted by Amato, Zalman Barrocas, had shoved Amato first.
“I believe this man should have the maximum punishment,” Barrocas said in testimony during the sentencing hearing. “My life could have been over that day. I believe it’s a miracle from God and I thank him every day. I hope it’s a story that ends with us being safer and we’re able to live in society without being in fear.”
Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky, Barrocas’ uncle, had called for hate crime charges against Amato. Prosecutors previously said there were no hate crime charges pending.
Amato apologized for the pain he caused the family, saying on the witness stand, “I take 100% responsibility for the heinous crime I committed. I was highly intoxicated on an entire bottle of liquor and some Percocets.”
New York
Man pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar pandemic loan fraud
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A politically active western New York businessman has admitted to a multimillion-dollar pandemic loan fraud that, prosecutors have said, went partly to his campaign coffers for an unsuccessful bid for county office.
Court records show Hormoz Mansouri, who sought the Democratic nomination for Erie County comptroller in 2021, pleaded guilty Friday to federal bank fraud and fraud conspiracy charges.
“I acted with willful intent to violate the law,” Mansouri told the court, according to The Buffalo News. The 70-year-old remains free on $250,000 bond until his sentencing, set for February. Sentencing guidelines in his case indicate a prison term between 33 and 41 months, according to the newspaper.
Mansouri had been set to go to trial next month.
Trained as an engineer, Mansouri established several businesses in the Buffalo, New York, area. He has had ties to local and state politics for decades.
He was involved in billionaire Tom Golisano’s ultimately successful bids to buy the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres in the early 2000s. The Sabres dealings helped acquaint Mansouri with the political sphere, as Golisano was a founding member of the New York Independence Party and was its candidate for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002. Golisano sold the Sabres in 2011.
Mansouri, of the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, became a prominent political donor — mainly to Democrats, but also to Republicans, according to The Buffalo News.
According to his indictment, Mansouri reaped about $3 million in all from the pandemic loan fraud scheme, and $200,000 of it went to his county comptroller campaign account. The specific charges to which he pleaded guilty weren’t those that concerned the alleged payment to the campaign fund and to various other bank accounts and expenses, including the purchase of a Lexus.
Mansouri admitted in court that he inflated his businesses’ payroll costs and employee numbers on federal pandemic relief loans applications, The Buffalo News reported. The loan initiatives, the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, were launched to help U.S. businesses weather the COVID-19-related lockdowns and upheaval that began in spring 2020.
Mansouri’s lawyer, Herbert Greenman, said after Friday’s court session that his client was “a kind and generous man” who became rattled by what the pandemic might to do his business, according to the newspaper.
“He did something that he never felt conceivable,” the attorney said. “Sadly, he feels that he let his family, friends and his country down. For that, he will be forever sorry.”
New York
Former aide to Hochul charged with being agent of Chinese government
A former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was charged Tuesday with acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, federal prosecutors revealed in a sprawling indictment.
Linda Sun, who held numerous posts in New York state government before rising to the rank of deputy chief of staff for Hochul, was arrested Tuesday morning along with her husband at their $3.5 million home on Long Island.
The FBI searched the couple’s home in late July but declined to release further details at the time.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
FBI agents arrested a former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday morning, along with the former aide’s husband, after FBI agents searched their Long Island home earlier this summer, officials said.
The charges against Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, remain under seal but the pair are expected to make an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn said.
The FBI searched the couple’s $3.5 million home in Manhasset late July but declined to release further details at the time.
Sun worked in state government for about 15 years, holding posts in the administration of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and eventually becoming Hochul’s deputy chief of staff, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In November 2022, Sun took a job at the New York Department of Labor, as deputy commissioner for strategic business development, but she left that job months later in March 2023, the profile said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Hochul’s office said the administration fired Sun after “discovering evidence of misconduct.”
“This individual was hired by the Executive Chamber more than a decade ago. We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,” the statement reads.
Sun and Hu live in a gated community on Long Island called Stone Hill.
Man sentenced for attacking four Jewish teens
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after earlier pleading no contest to attacking four Jewish teenagers who were walking along a road while dressed for a religious holiday in 2022.
Noah Amato, 19, of Ponte Vedra, was sentenced Friday for aggravated battery and carrying a concealed firearm in the October 2022 attack. Local news outlets reported his sentence also covers a no contest plea to fleeing police and reckless driving in 2023.
Investigators said Amato and a friend were riding a bike in Ponte Vedra Beach in 2022 while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Amato shouted a slur to a group of four Jewish teenagers who were out celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Amato then hit one of the teenagers with a handgun in the face, deputies said, and fired the gun near the teenager’s head, leaving burns on the teen’s face.
Amato’s attorney disputed parts of the account, saying there was a verbal confrontation between Amato and the Jewish teens. The lawyer said the teen who was targeted by Amato, Zalman Barrocas, had shoved Amato first.
“I believe this man should have the maximum punishment,” Barrocas said in testimony during the sentencing hearing. “My life could have been over that day. I believe it’s a miracle from God and I thank him every day. I hope it’s a story that ends with us being safer and we’re able to live in society without being in fear.”
Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky, Barrocas’ uncle, had called for hate crime charges against Amato. Prosecutors previously said there were no hate crime charges pending.
Amato apologized for the pain he caused the family, saying on the witness stand, “I take 100% responsibility for the heinous crime I committed. I was highly intoxicated on an entire bottle of liquor and some Percocets.”
New York
Man pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar pandemic loan fraud
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A politically active western New York businessman has admitted to a multimillion-dollar pandemic loan fraud that, prosecutors have said, went partly to his campaign coffers for an unsuccessful bid for county office.
Court records show Hormoz Mansouri, who sought the Democratic nomination for Erie County comptroller in 2021, pleaded guilty Friday to federal bank fraud and fraud conspiracy charges.
“I acted with willful intent to violate the law,” Mansouri told the court, according to The Buffalo News. The 70-year-old remains free on $250,000 bond until his sentencing, set for February. Sentencing guidelines in his case indicate a prison term between 33 and 41 months, according to the newspaper.
Mansouri had been set to go to trial next month.
Trained as an engineer, Mansouri established several businesses in the Buffalo, New York, area. He has had ties to local and state politics for decades.
He was involved in billionaire Tom Golisano’s ultimately successful bids to buy the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres in the early 2000s. The Sabres dealings helped acquaint Mansouri with the political sphere, as Golisano was a founding member of the New York Independence Party and was its candidate for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002. Golisano sold the Sabres in 2011.
Mansouri, of the Buffalo suburb of Amherst, became a prominent political donor — mainly to Democrats, but also to Republicans, according to The Buffalo News.
According to his indictment, Mansouri reaped about $3 million in all from the pandemic loan fraud scheme, and $200,000 of it went to his county comptroller campaign account. The specific charges to which he pleaded guilty weren’t those that concerned the alleged payment to the campaign fund and to various other bank accounts and expenses, including the purchase of a Lexus.
Mansouri admitted in court that he inflated his businesses’ payroll costs and employee numbers on federal pandemic relief loans applications, The Buffalo News reported. The loan initiatives, the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, were launched to help U.S. businesses weather the COVID-19-related lockdowns and upheaval that began in spring 2020.
Mansouri’s lawyer, Herbert Greenman, said after Friday’s court session that his client was “a kind and generous man” who became rattled by what the pandemic might to do his business, according to the newspaper.
“He did something that he never felt conceivable,” the attorney said. “Sadly, he feels that he let his family, friends and his country down. For that, he will be forever sorry.”
New York
Former aide to Hochul charged with being agent of Chinese government
A former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was charged Tuesday with acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, federal prosecutors revealed in a sprawling indictment.
Linda Sun, who held numerous posts in New York state government before rising to the rank of deputy chief of staff for Hochul, was arrested Tuesday morning along with her husband at their $3.5 million home on Long Island.
The FBI searched the couple’s home in late July but declined to release further details at the time.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
FBI agents arrested a former deputy chief of staff to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday morning, along with the former aide’s husband, after FBI agents searched their Long Island home earlier this summer, officials said.
The charges against Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, remain under seal but the pair are expected to make an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn said.
The FBI searched the couple’s $3.5 million home in Manhasset late July but declined to release further details at the time.
Sun worked in state government for about 15 years, holding posts in the administration of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and eventually becoming Hochul’s deputy chief of staff, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In November 2022, Sun took a job at the New York Department of Labor, as deputy commissioner for strategic business development, but she left that job months later in March 2023, the profile said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Hochul’s office said the administration fired Sun after “discovering evidence of misconduct.”
“This individual was hired by the Executive Chamber more than a decade ago. We terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process,” the statement reads.
Sun and Hu live in a gated community on Long Island called Stone Hill.
