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Anonymous ID: 5005eb May 3, 2021, 9:55 a.m. No.13571687   🗄️.is 🔗kun

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Eastern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, May 3, 2021

Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn Agrees to Settle Claims of Employment Discrimination by U.S. Army Reservist

Mark J. Lesko, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced today a settlement with Maimonides Medical Center (Maimonides) in Brooklyn to resolve a lawsuit filed on behalf of Lieutenant Colonel Louis Rego, a U.S. Army Reservist and former Maimonides pharmacist. Maimonides is the largest hospital in Brooklyn and is an affiliate of Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer. According to the United States’ complaint, Maimonides violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) by terminating Lieutenant Colonel Rego’s employment in the Pharmacy Department after he was called up to active military duty status. USERRA prohibits discrimination in employment based on an individual’s prior service in the uniformed services; current service in the uniformed services; or intent to join the uniformed services. Under the terms of the settlement, Maimonides will pay Lieutenant Colonel Rego $195,000 to compensate him for lost wages and other damages. The settlement also requires Maimonides to provide annual training to hospital officials and human resources staff on the rights of service members under USERRA.

 

“Lieutenant Colonel Rego’s honorable service to his country cost him his job as a pharmacist, even though USERRA flatly prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on account of their military service,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Lesko. “This Office is firmly committed to enforcing USERRA’s requirements and to holding employers like Maimonides accountable for their failure to comply.”

 

Rego was ordered to full-time active duty with the U.S. Army Reserves on July 17, 2017, when he was deployed for a tour of duty with U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency at Fort Detrick in Maryland. Rego took a leave of absence from Maimonides in order to perform his military service. Rego returned to work at MMC on October 2, 2017. Just seven weeks later, on November 21, 2017, Rego was informed by a supervisor that his position was being eliminated and that he was being terminated as part of a reduction in force designed to save money at the hospital. Rego was the only employee terminated of the more than 100 employees in the Pharmacy Department. After Rego was fired, Maimonides promoted and gave pay raises to two mid-level managers in order to cover some of Rego’s duties, used non-managers to perform other duties and paid those non-managers overtime. Maimonides also hired new Pharmacy Department employees immediately before and after it fired Rego and had posted an opening for his job on a job search website one week before he was dismissed.

 

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability and Maimonides denies that it has violated USERRA.

 

The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean P. Greene-Delgado of the Office’s Civil Division.

 

The protection of servicemembers’ rights is a priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Individuals who believe they may have experienced discrimination, harassment or retaliation on account of their military service should contact the United States Attorney’s Office by emailing usanye-civilrights@usdoj.gov or the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division by e-mailing servicemembers@usdoj.gov. Additional information about USERRA can be found on the Justice Department’s websites at https://www.justice.gov/crt/employment-litigation-section and www.servicemembers.gov, as well as on the Labor Department’s website at www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/main.htm.

 

E.D.N.Y. Docket No.: 21-CV-2448

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/maimonides-medical-center-brooklyn-agrees-settle-claims-employment-discrimination-us

Anonymous ID: 5005eb May 3, 2021, 9:56 a.m. No.13571688   🗄️.is 🔗kun

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Rhode Island

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, May 3, 2021

Providence Contractor Charged in Murder-For-Hire Plot

PROVIDENCE – A Providence man has been ordered detained in federal custody in an alleged murder-for-hire plot. It is alleged that Agustin Vinas, 51, attempted to hire a person to kill two men, one a contractor he claimed owed him $8,500 and who threatened to harm his family if he did not stop his repeated requests for payment, and the second an employee of the contractor.

 

It is alleged in court documents that on April 19, 2021, Vinas had a chance meeting with an acquaintance. Vinas told that person of his unsuccessful attempts to collect money he was owed by a contractor, of the contractor’s threat against his family, and that he wanted to hire someone to kill the contractor and another man. Vinas’s acquaintance told him that he might know of someone interested in the job and that he would be in touch shortly.

 

The next day, while under surveillance by members of the FBI Rhode Island Safe Streets Task Force, the two met again in a parking lot in Providence. In a recorded conversation, Vinas allegedly repeated that he wanted the contractor and another person killed. Vinas offered to pay $3,000 for the killings and an additional $500 to make the bodies “disappear.” Vinas explained that he would like to have the victims tortured before they are killed.

 

It is alleged in court documents that two days later Vinas’s acquaintance arranged to meet with Vinas to introduce him to a “hitman.” They arranged to gather in a parking lot in Pawtucket and then follow Vinas to a second Pawtucket location. Once there, they moved to a third location and met in Vinas’s vehicle. During the meeting, Vinas identified the intended targets, and provided the “hitman” with the contractor’s cellphone number, address, and a description of the vehicle the contractor drives. Vinas told the “hitman,” who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer, that the contractor was the primary target and that he wanted him killed first. Vinas specified that the second victim was not as important but that he would be an easy person to kill. Vinas offered to pay the undercover law enforcement officer $3,000 to kill both individuals. Vinas agreed to provide a deposit for the killings, and stated, “I’m not dying until this guy is dead.”

 

On April 26, 2021, Vinas provided the officer with a $100 deposit for the killings with a promise of an additional $300 at their next meeting. At the meeting, Vinas showed the officer two checks made payable to his son totaling $2,700. Vinas said the checks would be cashed and the proceeds provided as payment once the murders occurred. Three days later, Vinas and the undercover officer met again, and Vinas provided the undercover officer an additional $200 in cash. Vinas was asked on several occasions at that meeting if he was certain he wanted the murders committed. He responded, “I am one hundred percent sure,” and offered to sign a contract.

 

Vinas was arrested by members of the FBI Rhode Island Safe Streets Task Force on Friday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. He was ordered detained by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond.

 

The FBI Safe Streets Task Force is comprised of officers from the Providence Police Department, Cranston Police Department, Pawtucket Police Department, Central Falls Police Department, Woonsocket Police Department, West Warwick Police Department, Rhode Island State Police, and the United States Marshals Service. The arrest and detention of Vinas is announced by Acting United States Attorney Richard B. Myrus and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division Joseph R. Bonavolonta.

 

A federal criminal complaint is merely an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul F. Daly, Jr.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ri/pr/providence-contractor-charged-murder-hire-plot