FDNY chaplain's signature forged on letter backing Queens pot dispensary
They'll burn for this one!
The owners of a legal Queens marijuana dispensary are under fire for allegedly trying to dupe government officials to back their expansion efforts — by claiming the FDNY's top religious leader is high on the plan.
A recently circulated letter supporting Astoria-based Terp Bros' application to open a second dispensary in Ozone Park that was 'purportedly authored and signed' by FDNY Chaplain Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, 'appears to be a forgery,' warned FDNY Deputy Commissioner of General Counsel Don Nguyen in a June 5 letter to Queens Community Board 10.
Advertisement
The FDNY has 'no position' in general on applications to run cannabis dispensaries in the Big Apple, he added in the letter, obtained by The Post.
3 FDNY Chaplain Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello told The Post he wasn't aware of the letter.
Stefano Giovannini
The bogus letter addressed to 'legislators, Community Boards and the NYS Office of Cannabis Management' claimed Gigantiello is pushing Terp Bros' plan because 'safe use of Hemp and other Cannabis plants is long overdue.'
Advertisement
'We must help those like Terp Bros gain the opportunity to continue working with the community in providing them with a safe, legal way to purchase cannabis and cannabis-related products,' the faux holy man wrote.
Terp Bros' co-owners Jeremy Rivera and Alessandro Cottone opened their pot shop at 3610 Ditmars Blvd. in October 2023. In April, Time Out magazine ranked it New York's ninth best weed dispensary out the state's 405 licensed cannabis shops.
The letter tries to portray Rivera — an ex-con who spent 11 years in jail for criminal possession of controlled substances and robbery — as a sympathetic figure.
3 Jeremy Rivera and Alessandro Cottone opened their Astoria pot shop in October 2023 and earlier this year, Time Out magazine ranked it New York's ninth best weed dispensary out the state's 405 licensed cannabis shops.
Kyle Stevens/Shutterstock
Advertisement
He, 'his family, and many others like him have paid a great price caused by wrongful and failed policy targeting minorities and the failed war on drugs as it pertains to hemp and other cannabis,' it reads.
Gigantiello insisted to The Post he didn't write or authorize the letter — and never even heard of the weed joint until learning of the letter.
'I had no idea. Someone shouldn't be using using my name in any form,' added the monsignor, who made headlines two years after being relieved of his administrative duties for allowing pop star Sabrina Carpenter to film a racy music video inside Our Lady of Mt. Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg.
3 Owners of the popular shop didn't respond to messages seeking comment.
Helayne Seidman
Advertisement
The board rejected the pot shop's application in January — and said it didn't get the letter until only a few weeks ago. Board members showed the letter to NYC Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who alerted the Fire Department.
'It's very telling that someone would fake a letter from a monsignor because they couldn't deal with the results of a community board vote,' Ariola said.
'If they didn't like the way the board voted, I get it, but forging a letter from an FDNY chaplain is the absolute worst way to try and change their opinion.'
The state's Office of Cannabis Management will ultimately decide whether to approve the plan.
Messages left for Terp Bros' owners were not returned.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
American Press
an hour ago
- American Press
Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from immigration detention
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was released Friday from federal immigration detention, freed after 104 days by a judge's ruling after becoming a symbol of President Donald Trump 's clampdown on campus protests. The former Columbia University graduate student left a federal facility in Louisiana on Friday. He is expected to head to New York to reunite with his U.S. citizen wife and infant son, born while Khalil was detained. 'Justice prevailed, but it's very long overdue,' he said outside the facility in a remote part of Louisiana. 'This shouldn't have taken three months.' Email newsletter signup The Trump administration is seeking to deport Khalil over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. He was detained on March 8 at his apartment building in Manhattan. Khalil was released after U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be 'highly, highly unusual' for the government to continue detaining a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence. 'Petitioner is not a flight risk, and the evidence presented is that he is not a danger to the community,' he said. 'Period, full stop.' During an hourlong hearing conducted by phone, the New Jersey-based judge said the government had 'clearly not met' the standards for detention. The government filed notice Friday evening that it's appealing Khalil's release. The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on the social platform X that the same day Farbiarz ordered Khalil's release, an immigration judge in Louisiana denied him bond and 'ordered him removed.' The decision was made by Judge Jamee Comans, who is in a court located in the same detention facility from which Khalil was released. 'An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr. Khalil should be released or detained,' the post said. Khalil was the first person arrested under Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel's devastating war in Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Khalil must be expelled from the country because his continued presence could harm American foreign policy. The Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be deported as it considers their views antisemitic. Protesters and civil rights groups say the administration is conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel in order to silence dissent. Farbiarz has ruled that the government can't deport Khalil on the basis of its claims that his presence could undermine foreign policy. But the judge gave the administration leeway to continue pursuing a potential deportation based on allegations that he lied on his green card application, an accusation Khalil disputes. The international affairs graduate student isn't accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. He served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists and wasn't among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics. The judge agreed Friday with Khalil's lawyers that the protester was being prevented from exercising his free speech and due process rights despite no obvious reason for his continued detention. The judge noted that Khalil is now clearly a public figure. Khalil said Friday that no one should be detained for protesting Israel's war in Gaza. He said his time in the Jena, Louisiana, detention facility had shown him 'a different reality about this country that supposedly champions human rights and liberty and justice.' 'Whether you are a U.S. citizen, an immigrant or just a person on this land doesn't mean that you are less of a human,' he said, adding that 'justice will prevail, no matter what this administration may try to portray' about immigrants. Khalil had to surrender his passport and can't travel internationally, but he will get his green card back and be given official documents permitting limited travel within the country, including New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances and Washington to lobby Congress. In a statement after the judge's ruling, Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said she can finally 'breathe a sigh of relief' after her husband's three months in detention. 'We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others,' she said. 'But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family.' The judge's decision comes after several other scholars targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another former Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri. ___ Marcelo reported from New York. Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
5 hours ago
Insurance firm ordered to pay $44M in lawsuit filed by man freed from prison
A man won $11 million in a lawsuit against police after his conviction for killing a Missouri newspaper's sports editor was overturned, but the city's former insurer resisted paying most of it for almost three years. A Missouri judge this week ordered the company to pay nearly $44 million. Most of the money would go to Ryan Ferguson, whose legal battle with Minnesota-based St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. in Missouri's courts started in 2017, about six weeks after he won a federal lawsuit against six Columbia police officers. Ferguson was convicted in 2004 of killing Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt but was released from prison in 2013 after a state appeals court panel concluded that he hadn't received a fair trial. Ferguson maintained his innocence. The city insurer paid Ferguson $2.7 million almost immediately after he won his federal lawsuit, and his attorneys expected St. Paul to pay $8 million under its coverage for the officers from 2006 to 2011. But the company argued that it wasn't on the hook because the actions leading to Ferguson's arrest and imprisonment occurred before its coverage began. While Ferguson sought to collect, the officers argued that St. Paul was acting in bad faith, shifting the burden to them as individuals and forcing them to face bankruptcy. Ferguson's lawyers took up those claims, and Missouri courts concluded that St. Paul was obligated to pay $5.3 million for the time Ferguson was in prison while it covered the officers. It paid in 2020. But the payment didn't end the dispute, and in November, a jury concluded that St. Paul had acted in bad faith and engaged in a 'vexatious refusal' to pay. Cole County Circuit Judge S. Cotton Walker upheld that finding in his order Monday as he calculated how much money the company would pay — mostly as punishment — under a Missouri law capping such punitive damages. 'It's a way to send a message to insurance companies that if there's coverage, they need to pay,' said Kathleen Zellner, whose firm represents Ferguson. She added: 'You can't just pull the rug out from under people when they've paid the premiums.' The company can appeal the decision. An attorney representing St. Paul did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Under an agreement between Ferguson and the six officers, they stand to split about $5 million of the $44 million. The award of nearly $44 million includes $3.2 million to compensate Ferguson and the officers, another $24.2 million in punitive damages, $535,000 million for the 'vexatious refusal' allegation and interest on all of the damages totaling about $16 million.
USA Today
10 hours ago
- USA Today
Walmart to pay $10 million to settle FTC fraud lawsuit over money transfers
Walmart WMT.N has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission civil lawsuit accusing the world's largest retailer of ignoring warning signs that fraudsters used its money transfer services to fleece consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The settlement was filed on Friday in Chicago federal court, and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah. Walmart also agreed not to process money transfers it suspects are fraudulent, or help sellers and telemarketers it believes are using its services to commit fraud. "Electronic money transfers are one of the most common ways that scammers tell consumers to send them money, because once it's sent, it's gone for good," said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC consumer protection bureau. "Companies that provide these services must train their employees to comply with the law and work to protect consumers." Average worker pay: Walmart reveals its highest paying job, excluding managers The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer did not admit or deny wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In its June 2022 complaint, the FTC accused Walmart of turning a blind eye to fraudsters who used its money transfer services to cash out at its stores. Walmart acts as an agent for money transfers by companies such as MoneyGram, Ria EEFT.O and Western Union WU.N. Money can be hard to trace once delivered. The FTC said fraudsters used many schemes that included impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents, impersonating family members who needed money from grandparents to avoid jail, and telling victims they won lotteries or sweepstakes but owed fees to collect their winnings. Shah dismissed part of the FTC case last July but let the regulator pursue the remainder. Walmart appealed from that decision. Friday's settlement would end the appeal. The case is Federal Trade Commission v Walmart Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 22-03372. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy
