Staff Blog
Will Councilman Kelly still push for mechanical parking garages?
Here's an interesting chain of events, brought on by today's indictment (previous posts here and here):
Around July 2006: According to U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid, one month after Chawla allowed Wright to live rent-free in a Delancey Place apartment, he asked Wright to help create legislation that would allowed developers "to implement mechanical parking garages for certain multi-family buildings without first having to seek permission form the zoning authorities or City Council.
On June 12, the indictment says that Wright "assisted" Kelly in introducing a bill (text here) that eased the amount of required driveways and aisles for only mechanical parking garages. The bill was passed in December 2006.
In January 2008, everyone suddenly learned that the FBI was questioning people, including Councilman Kelly, about Wright and the Chawla brothers, according to an exclusive Daily News story. Two days later, it was reported that Wright's estranged wife was also an FBI informant.
Even after knowing this, on June 12, 2008, Kelly introduced another piece of legislation (text here) that created a "new definition for 'Mechanical Access Parking Garage' and adding it as a permitted use in certain residential, commercial, and industrial districts." The bill was referred to the committee on rules, and Council won't meet again until September.
So, the burning question: did the FBI mention mechanical parking garages to Kelly when they questioned him about Wright? (It was obviously part of the investigation.) And if they did, why was Kelly still pushing a type of legislation that that investigators later linked to Wright and the Chawla brothers?
I called Kelly's office, but was told he wasn't available. So I asked John Cerrone, his director of legislation, if Kelly still planned to push the mechanical parking bill. "At this point, I haven't spoken to him about that and don't want to speculate as to what he plans on doing and not doing," he said.
These Fraudster chawala Brothers should be behind bars its a shame to see them start numerous businesses and then declaring chapter eleven in different states FBI should Look into their clothing business where they just kept Ordering on credit and shipped the stuff overseas and declared bankruptcy