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Crooked de Blasio donor lived like the unofficial king of NYC
[NYPOST] Whether he was high-fiving athletes from courtside seats at the Garden, jetting to Vegas in a private plane with NYPD brass and a hooker named Candi, or getting the Port Authority to close a lane of the Lincoln Tunnel so his billionaire pal could speed through traffic, Rechnitz was a self-made, cash-powered macher.Want VIP access to the New York City Marathon, or the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop? Call Jona. Want an NYPD courtesy card that gets you out of tickets? Jona could pull one out of his wallet. In social-media posts and gossip-page clips from the past five years, the millionaire Manhattan real-estate developer and his wife, Rachel, rubbed elbows with A-listers in every corner of Gotham ‐ Manny Pacquiao with Jona at a Knicks game, or Rachel sitting beside Jennifer Lawrence and Anna Wintour at the hottest fashion shows. Selfies on Rachel’s Facebook page show her grinning at fashion and charity events alongside Jessica Chastain, Martha Stewart, Rachel Zoe and Chris Rock. Sometimes, Rechnitz would be chauffeured around town in a police vehicle by Philip Banks III, then a top chief in the NYPD. "Jonah & Aryeh courtside with the Knicks!!!" the wife boasted in a 2011 Facebook photo of her husband and his business partner, Ari Schwebel, sitting on the floor of Madison Square Garden. "They were even pictured in the Post!" she gushed. The next time Rechnitz would be in The Post would be on Page 1 ‐ as the campaign donor who ensnared the highest echelon of city government and law enforcement in a pay-for-play scandal. Posted by: Fred 2017-10-30 |
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