FLSA
Before SDNY
Judge Oetken
From Dentistry
Magistrate To
Qatar Slavery
Mediation
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Follow up to
exclusive
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
May 20 – The Fair Labor
Standards Act compliance of
the dentist office on East
40th Street was pursued on May
20 by the same firm sitting on
an explosive human trafficking
case against the Qatar royal
family, here. In both cases,
Inner City Press has been the
only media in the courtroom of U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Paul Oetken,
see below.
On
May 20 it was
Pardalis
&
Novavicka
through
Ariadne
Panagopoulou
going after
Core Smiles
Aesthetic and
Implant
Dentistry
PLLC, whose
lawyer praised
Magistrate
Judge Debra C.
Freeman to
Judge Oetken.
He shot back,
since not
having a court
reporter at
such
proceedings is
his way,
"We're not on
the record,
you don't have
to day that."
But the praise
seemed
genuine, and
the referral
was made.
Also
before Judge Oetken, the Qatar
ruling family's abuse of
employees and laws was exposed
in an off the record initial
conference at
in the U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York on
February 14; Inner
City Press was the only media
present.
Inner City Press
wrote an exclusive story that
day, February 14, then more in
the following few days as more
sources contacted us. Now it
has learned that the UK's
Daily Mail days later on
February 21 false claimed an
exclusive on the story, here.
Now
Inner City
Press can
report that
the Qatari
royals'
lawyers have
spied on text
messages to
their staff,
and now seek
to bury the
case in
mediation by
JAMS.
First, the
Qatari royals'
lawyer
complained of
a text message
from Benjamin
Boyd.
Judge Oetken
noted to
"uncertainty
as to how
Defendants
caught sight
of the
offending text
message in the
first place,"
left it open
to pursue the
issue later,
without
prejudice.
On April 17
the Qatari
royals'
lawyers filed
a motion to
stay the
proceeding
past the June
14 return
date, for
mediation by
JAMS. Judge
Oetken's order
on the motion
is listed but
no live in the
docket.
The
plaintiffs' lawyers, Pardalis
& Novavicka through
Ariadne Panagopoulou engaged
in other mundane FLSA
litigation in front of Judge
Oetken even on May 20, here,
seem unaware of the explosive
human rights aspects revealed
/ revealable in this case.
It's one in which the public,
through the Press, must stay
alert, and on Notice - watch
this site.
On April 10 we
reported that these Qatari
royals, stating that they are
diplomats, are seeking to
further extend the case,
writing that "Defendants
Sheikh Jassim Abdulaziz
Al-Thani and Sheikha Al
Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani
(“Sheikh and Sheikha”) are
Qatari residents and
diplomats, and as a result,
frequently travel to Doha for
reasons pertaining to their
diplomatic duties and their
participation in other civic
engagements. At the moment,
Sheikh and Sheikha (and
members of their staff, many
of whom are anticipated to be
document custodians in the
litigation) are scheduled to
be in Qatar for the remainder
of the month of March, through
the beginning of April to
prepare for and attend the
formal opening of the Qatar
National Museum (as Sheikha is
the Chairperson of Qatar
Museums). The parties have
actively participated in
written discovery thus far;
they have already exchanged
document requests and
interrogatories, and they are
in the process of negotiating
a confidentiality stipulation.
However, as a result of Sheikh
and Sheikha’s (and their
staff’s) travel schedules,
Defendants anticipate some
subsequent delays in the
upcoming stages of discovery,
especially pertaining to data
collection of ESI from
custodians (as requested by
Plaintiffs) and the scheduling
of their depositions (which
are currently noticed for
April 16, 2019). In order to
ensure that Defendants are
able to collect, process,
review and produce ESI
responsive to Plaintiffs’
document requests, and
schedule mutually agreeable
dates for depositions to take
place in New York thereafter,
Defendants respectfully
request that the current
discovery deadlines be
modified as follows: Current
Deadline Proposed Deadline
Deposition Completion Date May
1, 2019 July 1, 2019
Completion of all Fact
Discovery June 10, 2019 August
9, 2019 Status Conference June
14, 2019 August 16, 2019 (or
any other date that is
convenient for the Court)."
Back to August? Since
its exclusive
report that day, Inner
City Press has been contacted
by more employees and
whistleblowers and a range of
apparent legal violations by
the Qatar royal family has
come to light.
Beyond the
failure to pay overtime which
was the subject of the
February 14 proceeding, Inner
City Press is now informed
that others of the Qatar
royals' workers are brought in
through JFK airport on private
jets, into limousine that
drive onto the tarmac. These
employees are then made to
work long hours with no
protections in the mansion at
9 East 72nd Street in
Manhattan.
Inner City Press
is informed, tellingly, that
one female worker from the
Philippines in forced to sleep
in front of Sheikh
Jassim bin Abdulaziz
Al-Thani's bedroom room so
that she can be ready to bring
him food or water or even give
massages at any hour. His wife
Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad
Al-Thani, the sister of
Qatar's ruler, buys art for
Qatar's museum and runs the
"Reaching Out To Asia" foundation.
Meanwhile her workers have
their hair pulled and a tooth
broken by her son. When
workers are fired they are
urged to fly to Doha where
they would face arrest.
The scams work
this way: the Qatari royals'
employees signed contracts in
Doha and then are told that
their visas to the US, unless
they are smuggled / trafficked
in through the JFK Airport
tarmac, are under the control
of the royals. While waiting
to be processed at JFK they
are presented with a new less
favorable contract and told if
they do not sign it, they will
not be admitted. If they work
for the family in Qatar, they
face imprisonment for any
disagreement.
In New York the
family's close protection
guards, some without visas,
brandish illegal large knives.
NYPD was called when the
royals sought to have one
fired employee, Chantelle
McGuffie, removed from her
apartment at 221 East 50th
Street near the UN. Still this
family, these systematic
crimes, have yet to be acted
on by authorities including
the U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of New York
despite the facts dragged
through the SDNY court.
Inner City Press,
in reporting this despite
threats - at the UN, Qatar's
state media Al Jazeera has
worked with UNSG Antonio
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric to have Inner City
Press roughed
up and banned,
see Columbia Journalism Review
here
- aims to put an end to this
impunity. Watch this site.
Background: the
sister of the ruler of Qatar
is being sued by at least
three employees who say they
were made to work six days a
week without being paid
overtime, and were retaliated
against. Inner City Press was
the only media present at the
initial pre trial conference
on the case in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
on February 14, and was
tempted to object when the
Qatari royal's lawyer from the
Proskauer law firm urged SDNY
Judge J. Paul Oetken for a
confidentiality order.
Royals of a
gas-rich emirate that has
locked up poets for
criticizing them, seeking to
cover up their retaliation and
refusal to pay overtime? It
remains to be seen how much
will be covered up in the
case. The defendants are
Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad
Al-Thani and Sheikh Jassim bin
Abdulaziz Al- Thani.
From the answer
to the Complaint: "Defendants
admit that Mr. Bancroft began
his employment in Doha, Qatar
and that he accompanied
Defendants when they moved to
New York, but otherwise deny
the allegations in
Paragraph 39 of the
Complaint. 40.
Defendants deny the
allegations in Paragraph 40 of
the Complaint. 41.
Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their European
travels in various countries
during the summer of 2016, but
upon information and
belief, otherwise deny
the allegations in Paragraph
41 of the
Complaint.
42. Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their trip to
Qatar in the summer of 2017,
but otherwise deny the
allegations in Paragraph 42 of
the Complaint. 43.
Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft accompanied
Defendants on their European
travels in various countries
during the summer of 2018, but
upon information and
belief, otherwise deny
the allegations in Paragraph
43 of the
Complaint.
44. Defendants admit that Mr.
Bancroft traveled with the
family to Miami and Boston."
This is the
life of corrupt royals and
diplomats, such like those at
the UN up to and including its
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres who lives alone in a
$15 million mansion on
Manhattan's Sutton Place (where
he favors Qatar state media Al
Jazeera, using it to oust
the independent Press which
questions him.) This is the
world of immunity and impunity
and now, it is urged,
confidentiality. Inner City
Press, now covering the SDNY
daily, will have more on
this.
***
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