 All right, is this working? Is this working? Is it working? It is? Okay, great, thank you. All right, well thank you everyone so much for being here. Happy Friday, beautiful sunny day. Hope everybody's gonna join some time outdoors after this as well. I am Vilda Veramayuga, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for being here today and holding this press conference to announce this very important announcement that we have an important win for all New Yorkers. Working families depend on their cars to go to work, take their kids to the doctor, go grocery shopping, and they just simply cannot be left with massive debt or a broken vehicle when they need it most. And that is why combating predatory practices in the use car industry is a priority for my agency. So when we received complaints from consumers claiming that Brooklyn Mitsubishi and Brooklyn Volkswagen were violating our consumer protection laws, we took action. Our investigation revealed that the dealerships used deceptive advertising to lure consumers to their dealerships and then illegally sold cars at much higher prices. They also targeted consumers. We lower credit scores for promising guaranteed approval for financing from a fake finance company. They misled consumers about warranties, used illegal contracts, and falsely advertised accessories. Warranties and item products that did not come with the vehicle. We charged the dealerships with more than 7,000 violations. And today, I am happy to announce we have reached a settlement that will put money back in the pockets of the consumers that were harmed. And with that, it is my pleasure to introduce our mayor, Eric Adams. Thank you, thank you so much. And this is such an important initiative and commissioner. Thank you for being raised a focus on this. There's a reason throughout our entire lives that we talk about someone is acting like an illegal used cars man or woman. And that is what we found here. Today, we're really just continuously showing every New Yorker that we're going to have their backs. And there's often times when you feel you have a bad deal, particularly with a major investment as in buying a car, you believe you have nowhere to turn. And so thanks to the Department of Consumer and Rokers Protection our amazing, amazing commission on a team of over 300,000 in restitution for customers who were ripped off by Brooklyn Miss Abishi and Brooklyn Volkswagen. And it was about drilling in and finding those who were taking illegal actions to deal with purchasing or selling a car and collecting a half a million dollars in civil penalties as well. So it's a combination that the unit has gotten it right. And this is what we want this unit to do. Today's settlement is about protecting New Yorkers and sending a message, the duality of, number one, we want to protect New Yorkers, but we also want to send a message that we're not going to stand back and allow anyone to take advantage of people that are making big financial investments. And we're going to be proactive about it. New York City Consumer Protection Law and our licensing laws prohibit deceptive and unlawful conduct in the industry. That includes the behavior we saw here. These dealers had forced advertisement, misleading warranties, fake contracts, and bogus financing. All of them together, anyone who has purchased a used car will know you walk out thinking you're getting the best deal for your investment just to learn in some cases like these that it was the level of trickery used. And this is unacceptable. The shady practices were not a one time issue. So it's not like they did it one time and we're zeroing in on them. No, there was a pattern and practice that we went after. When I talk about law and order that I talk about all the time, it's not only for those who commit lawsonies of taking property, for those who carry out lawsonist actions that take property away from innocent people and their assets. This administration is clear. We're going to tackle illegal activity in the business sector. It's often ignored. You don't see the seven majors looking and zooming in on illegal action in the business sector. We're not going to ignore that. Predatory crimes we'll fight for, but we're also going to fight for those business crimes. We support our small businesses. We support our large businesses, but we don't support deceptive actions. New Yorkers should not have to waste their time, energy, money, and stress to get the support when they're fighting against these scams. And we're not allowing a person to pick pocket to these individuals who ride our subway systems or pick their pockets illegally when they purchase goods and services from the city. Hard work and earned money needs to be protected, and that's what we're saying today. And so, again, I want to thank the Department of Consumers and Brookes Protection, an amazing commissioner for continue. Mayuga brings all the energy to the job of ensuring we are protecting New Yorkers. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I just want to summarize in Spanish for all of our consumers, Spanish-speaking consumers. Importante saber que le pusimos un alto a las prácticas depredadoras de Brooklyn Mitsubishi y Brooklyn Volkswagen. Accusamos a estos concesionarios con más de 7,000 violaciones de nuestras leyes de protección al consumidor y recuperamos más de $300,000 en restitución para nuestras víctimas. Si usted cree que fue perjudicado por Brooklyn Mitsubishi, Brooklyn Volkswagen, o cualquier concesionario de automóviles usados en la ciudad de Nueva York, por favor, presente una queja con nosotros visitando nuestro sitio web, nyc.gov, barra diagonal DCWP, o llamando al 3-1-1. Next, I'd like to introduce a couple of our consumers from the case so they can share their experiences. First, please welcome Yudi Melcumian. Good afternoon, everyone. So buying a car is supposed to be one of the major investments in your life, and for me, it was my first major investment because I was 24 at the time. And going to the dealership by myself, I expected help from their workers. I expected them to at least give me the car that I found online. And that's not what I encountered. Instead, what I encountered is a completely different price, a change of a car itself. And while the car is supposed to get you from point A to point B, it's not supposed to make you shake from being nervous and stuff like that. And my very first experience was basically getting stuck in the middle of the highway. And after that, they haven't helped me in any way. Any time I would bring the car back to them, they wouldn't really fix it. They would just give it back to me and say that everything is fine. They would also kick me and my friend out of from the office when he was actually trying to get help. So we wanted to talk to the manager who signed my contract and see why they added things like unnecessary warranty, which was really nothing that anybody shot would accept or any other mechanical shot would accept. So it was just overall a terrible experience up until the last day of me having that car. But thankfully, to the Department of Consumer and Workers Protection and to the mayor's team, I was able to get some answer and at least get a resolution at the end, get paid. And that pretty much covers at least a part of what I spent on that car. But it's just not right what they did to me and to 35 more people from what I read in the case. I also would like this not to be in vain and to make sure that somebody else who comes in there, probably around my age, maybe also by themselves like I did, so they can at least leave with a car that works properly, gets you from A to B. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Judy. And I'd also like to welcome Carini Oliveira to share her experience in Spanish. I'm here today because I had a lot of difficulties when I went to... My Spanish is not that great. I'm sorry. I can speak English. I'm going to say it in English because my Spanish is not so great. I'm sorry. I actually went and I went to Brooklyn, Miss Obishi to try to purchase a vehicle. Did not have the best experience at all. It kind of rushed me into doing the purchase. Had someone accompanying me to go get the money. Half of the other money came back, left there with no contract. When I went back to go try to get the contract, the guy was never there. It was just a mess. I tried to return the vehicle. They told me I couldn't. It was a very horrible experience for a first time purchaser. I really wanted this vehicle, but they ended up bumping up the price more than what it was. I ended up getting my contract maybe two weeks later. And it wasn't the price that I have seen online. I felt like I was robbed. No one helped me. But that was when I turned to the Department of Consumers, which I'm very grateful for everyone's help, and all the workers there. And I actually got results today. And I'm happy for the justice that I'm getting now for the transpiring of what's the outcome of it. At least people's voices could be heard. Don't stay quiet. Come forward. It's OK if you go into the dealership and you don't know anything. Just make sure that you do your research. You go with someone that maybe knows. And make sure that you leave there with your contract and don't give more money than what you're supposed to. So I can say, but thank you to all for being here today, and thanks everyone for their help. Thank you. Thank you so much, Kedini. I mean, as you can hear, I mean, we want New Yorkers to really know that we are here for them. As the mayor has mentioned, this city is to work for every New Yorker. And you need to understand that when you come to us, we're going to take your case seriously. And we're going to investigate. And we're going to get the results that you need. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, for really putting every single New Yorker first. If you have any complaints, please just reach out to us. Call 311 or go to our website. Thank you so much. I think we're going to give some checks now, really, the restitution. I'm very curious. I'm with the commissioner. How many of you need to wash us through a little bit of the process of, you know, some of them, I think, they got scammed, and maybe it wasn't the case. So how do you investigate that to ensure that it is legitimate? Absolutely. Thank you so much. We had since about 2017, we've had over 5,000 complaints related to second hand auto dealerships. In terms of people knowing whether they've been scammed, don't hesitate. Just call us. Just follow your complaint. We'll be happy to educate you and walk you through the steps. We do have a consumer bill of rights on the website, which is something that is required to be given to every consumer when they go purchase a used car. It has to be given in the language in which you negotiated the contract. So it's a great first step to look at if you have any doubts on whether you have been scammed in purchasing a used car. Oh, gosh. Well, I can tell you for this case, we have about 38 consumers that were getting restitution back. That totals about a little bit over 150,000. And for this particular case, we have another 150 for any other consumer that is listening and has any complaints related to Brooklyn Mitsubishi and Brooklyn Volkswagen. No, you do not need to go to court. You come to us, you file the complaint, we'll investigate it. We're going to have a back and forth with the dealership in this case and get this case in a week just to pin as it became contentious. Eventually, we don't settle the case. We will file a case at oath, the Office of Administrative Tribunals and Hearings. And we will either get results through an actual hearing and trial there, or we will settle the case with the, in this case, the dealerships and then get the restitution money for the consumers and issue the checks. That is great. We will, correct. We will subpoena them first. We have the power of subpoena. And if they, you know, felt to negotiate in good faith to provide what we need, we will proceed with a filing at oath. And this goes a long way. I mean, look at those checks, 7,000 and 3,000. You're hard earned, earning your dollars. And, you know, these are major cases that impacts families. So we want to zero in. We think about the big budgets, but it's the small things that are extremely important. And these are big things to both of these New Yorkers that did the right thing and tried to make this major investment. Okay? A few off topics. Mayor, you said you'd be a mayor who rides the subway. I wonder if you've been riding the subway recently. And if so, have you noticed a significant decrease in the number of riders wearing masks? If so, do you say anything to people? Are you troubled by that? I always, I always talk to them and tell them it's, you know, we should put on a mask. One of the biggest challenges we are having is I think COVID fatigue. New Yorkers are here in one thing, but they're seeing another. And we have to fight against COVID fatigue because we're not out of the woods. We have a new variant in the city. And that variant is extremely infection. It passes infection rapidly. And so when I'm on the system, and I do use the system, of a matter of fact, we're gonna do a ride tonight with Shams LaVarin. I see that, you know, more and more people are becoming comfortable and we cannot let our guards down. And I do witness and I talk to help people, you know what? It's good to put on a mask, you know, to slow the spread of this new variant. Credibility, you're the credible messenger. You're the mayor, former transit cop, put on the mask, they're gonna put on the mask. A fellow rider who says it or gives him a look, that's not happening. No, I think there's a way to communicate with some people, carry an extra mask. You don't have to say put on a mask, hand someone the mask. Because you're protecting yourself and you're protecting others. And we're going to start doing more initiatives like we did when COVID was at its peak when we had the previous variants. I heard some subway stations in the morning. I know there's action, there's some signs that are being removed, but there's still announcements on the subway system. We want to continue to reinforce wearing a mask and doing those things that can push back against this variant. We've done some great things, you know, delivery of medicine, the mobile vehicles, you know, the information at home tests, almost I think 35 million now, but we need every New Yorker to play their role in this as well. Mr. Mayor, on Monkey Box, as a group of council members now, we want a hearing, an emergency hearing, to figure out what has gone wrong here, why we've learned so many lessons through COVID, but it seems like they weren't applied in the Monkey Box vaccine outreach and distribution. What's your response to that call for a hearing and what's your assurance to folks who are still looking for a vaccine and have gone through so much frustration to this point? Well, you know, the council can do hearings. Our team will go in and testify, and I'm sure when they finish the hearing, they're going to be impressed. Number one, our advocacy to get more vaccines here. We have 25% of the cases. This is ground zero. This is epicenter. And we were not at one time getting our appropriate amount of doses. We had great communications with the White House, great communication with the officials there, and we're hoping that they are going to hear us and bring in the numbers that we need. But as soon they come in the door, they're going out the door. People are getting, we're getting shots in the arms of people. And so when the council is able to do a hearing, we come in, we're testifying, and we show them the amazing job we're doing. We have some kinks on our websites. You know, computers are perfect, humans aren't. And I should have went with my gut and had our team do it the same way we did it before, but we went out to outside vendors and they didn't get it right. So now we're going to do it inside. We have some great experts here. Our CTO, Matt Frazier is excellent. He's turning out, you know, different databases. So it has been, it's outside the kinks in the website. People are getting shots. They come in, we get them out, you know, and we're going to continue to do that. There are complaints about outdoor odors. We spoke to a bunch of business owners who said the city essentially stinks and business owners are cleaning up poop from the sidewalks and they're seeing it all over the place. I'm wondering, what is city hall doing about that? Are you concerned? And when you walk around the city, do you think that the city smells bad? That was an interesting report, because I read it also. And when you zero into the report, you see that it is automobiles were leading the way. You know, from car idling that was leading the way. And so folks see our investment in sanitation. City has to be clean. And I'm seeing the city getting cleaner and cleaner. We have a lot more to go. Jessica Tish is solid as rock, you know, and she's putting together the right team. We're going to continue to unfold ensuring our city is clean. But cleanliness also, all of us must participate. And that is number one. Our store owners should be sweeping up in front of this store. They should be making sure they're bagging their garbage. Even though, although we don't have a law on containers, there's nothing stopping them for creating or building containers. There's a lot of industries that are doing that. And I think we need to move in a direction to require. And that's something that we're exploring to make sure we don't have garbage bags on our streets. So the goal is cleanliness is next to godliness. And that report really pointed out we have to zero in on the idling law. But we're going to continue to get cleaner. We got a good team over at the Department of Sanitation that's on board. And we have to get the city as clean as possible. What is it that you say? Yeah, the number one thing I smell right now is pot. It's like, everybody is smoking a joint now. You know, everybody has a joint. I'm not smelling. Maybe I have a New York nose that, you know, I'm not smelling, you know, filled. You know, that was it. There's an interesting video on that was posted. We should put that on our site from Philadelphia walking through the subway system. And the reporter said, the stench is overwhelming. And you just see people lying out all over the subway system. And I think people need to see that. And then they're going to see why I zeroed in on encampments. Our subway system is definitely cleaner. You don't see the encampments. You're seeing people are moved off. It's really impressive what we have done around our subway system. And we're going to continue to do it. But I don't, outside cars idling. And we need to, you know, make sure we enforce the idling law. I think the city is getting cleaner. But store owners have to do their job too. Everyone, you have to sweep up in front of your spot. You got to bag your garbage. Everyone has to chip in to do so. Is there anything in particular you're hoping to hear from that briefing, and on the same note, is there anything in particular that has been especially lacking from your point of view from the federal government? Well, yeah, we're going to update the electives. You know, we're going to update the electives. Let them know what's taking place. We're hoping by then, that the White House and the feds will give us more doses. You know, that's what we're hoping. We have been in great talks with them. They're analyzing the numbers that we're receiving here. And we're really hoping by then, we will be notified that we're going to get an increased number of doses so we can get them out the door and get a shot in the arms of those who want the vaccine. We're hearing them out. Just wondering if you wanted to share any thoughts. At that call this morning, he was a real mentor. He was a giant. We're going to miss him. He not only impacted the city, but some of the things he did impacted the entire country. We were notified early this morning that we lost him. He was a very special and dear friend. And, you know, we're better, we're better, you know, city because of him. And we're really going to miss him. At least the new, we did a report earlier this week that so I guess first I was wondering if you had any reaction to that. And second, if you can describe what role any of your office had, like interfacing with commissioners you have. I have been looked at the maps. And our job was to appoint people to the commission. That was our job. And of my understanding, that's the job that we did and should be an independent commission to make sure that we can fairly draw the lines. I've not really been engaged in the day-to-day operation of it. I think we got a good group of New Yorkers who are thoughtful and smart and I think they're going to do the right thing for the city. I just wanted to get your take. I know that these are companies or private companies but they work in the city when there is a house fire or a building fire or a commercial fire and according to the indictment, they basically infiltrated and took over the whole industry kind of like the mafia take over a private party but I wanted to get your take and what the city can do to make sure that the companies that they might work with in the future are not involved in this. Two things. One, it is wickedly impressive how these street gangs are shifting what they're doing. They're getting into credit card, identity theft. They're getting into spending, taking millions of dollars and some of the PPE dollars, they're shifting into really white collar crimes and I'm happy that the feds are now getting involved and they're doing a coordinated effort with the local municipalities but what I have been on the second part of that but I have been really alarmed about in the past how we have organizations and companies with spotty track records and we continue to do business with them. You know, I just believe we need to have a zero tolerance if you have done something that was illegal, we need to really think hard about giving you some form of new contract with us. From what I understand, I'm digging into it that some of the procurement laws that say the lowest bid sort of supersedes if we could deny that. I think we need to change that. Shady characters should not be doing business with the city and if there was a nexus between those gangs and those businesses, then we need to look at their contracts and my belief, terminate them and find new vendors and I'm trying to dig into how we can better do that.