FASHION PLAY
Cop corrupter got Hilfiger gig for chief’s kid
He was treated like royalty at NYPD headquarters. He got a police escort to the New Year’s Eve ball drop. And when he asked Tommy Hilfiger to give an internship to a police chief’s daughter, the fashion mogul responded “I’m on it.”
Aspiring real estate big shot Jona Rechnitz shared a laundry list of favors lavished on NYPD cops Monday in Manhattan Federal Court, from a detective who posed as his security guard to former Chief of Department Philip Banks, who gave him and another accused cop-corrupter, Jeremy Reichberg, special access to 1 Police Plaza.
Reichberg is charged with bribing ex-Deputy Inspector James (Jimmy) Grant. Rechnitz has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and is the government’s star witness against the Brooklyn businessman and disgraced cop.
Rechnitz’s dirty dealings also extended to City Hall. Rechnitz said he used straw donors to donate money to de Blasio’s pet causes in 2013. An email from October 2013 showed de Blasio’s top fundraiser, Ross Offinger, asking Rechnitz for information on several of Rechnitz’s friends who had donated the maximum amount of $4,950.
Among the cops Rechnitz said he and Reichberg cultivated was Deputy Chief David Colon. They rented a hotel room for a Sweet 16 party for Colon’s daughter, Rechnitz recalled. They also bought Colon a Breitling watch worth as much as $5,000, he said.
When Colon’s daughter sent Rechnitz her résumé for an internship at Tommy Hilfiger in March 2013, Rechnitz sent it to Hilfiger himself.
“This is a daughter of an NYPD chief. Very close friend,” Rechnitz wrote to Hilfiger in an email shown in court. “I’m on it, thx,” Hilfiger replied. The following month, Hilfiger wrote to Rechnitz, “Jona, she’s on board as a Tommy Hilfiger intern!” “Beautiful, thank you,” Rechnitz wrote back. Colon retired in 2016 after it emerged he was linked to the bribery scandal that tarnished the upper ranks of the NYPD. The feds consider him an “unindicted coconspirator.” He was one of the many cops who Rechnitz said accepted gifts from him and Reichberg. Other cops included: ● Former NYPD Inspector Stephen McAllister, who Rechnitz said helped shoo away protesters frequently gathered in 2008 outside a jewelry store owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev. “He told me he could take care of the problem, but we’d have to donate to the NYPD football team,” Rechnitz recalled of a conversation with McAllister.
Rechnitz and Leviev wrote the team checks worth $2,500, Rechnitz said. Later, when McAllister began his current job as Floral Park police commissioner, he awarded Rechnitz a role as Floral Park police chaplain, he said. The bogus job gave the businessman a coveted parking placard. Rechnitz said he’d been to Floral Park, L.I., maybe once in his life. Floral Park cleared McAllister of any wrongdoing last year.
● Former Detective Michael Milici, who once allegedly posed as a full-time security guard of 23 Wall St., which Rechnitz managed. Rechnitz said Milici went into an interview with the building’s owners to protect the actual security guard, who was a friend of Rechnitz’s and woefully unqualified for the job.
● Former Chief of Department Philip Banks, who helped Reichberg and Rechnitz get special access to the 2014 New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square, Rechnitz said.