BREAKING: 7-Eleven Owners Plead Guilty to Human Trafficking

House of Horror: This dilapidated house in Islip Terrace, Long Island was used by several 7-Eleven franchisees as a modern day plantation.

Via The New York Post

A crew of crooked 7-Eleven franchise owners pleaded guilty to setting up a “plantation” system for illegal alien employees to increase profits at their Slurpee strongholds in Virginia and Long Island, according to the feds.

Five defendants copped to knowingly hiring illegal aliens, siphoning off their earnings and forcing them to live in dingy boarding homes scattered across Suffolk County, according to court papers.

The scheme skimmed a total of $2.6 million that was owed to the workers, court papers state.

“Using the 7-Eleven brand, the defendants dispensed wire fraud and identity theft, along with Big Gulps and candy bars,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch in a statement. “In our backyards, the defendants not only systematically employed illegal aliens, but concealed their employment by using the names of children and even the dead.”

Mastermind Farrukh Baig — a Pakistani bigshot who counts former Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf as a pal — faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing.

Continue reading 7-Eleven owners admit ‘plantation’ system to boost profits [NY Post]

Related

NY couple admits exploiting 7-Eleven workers [Washington Post]
5 Plead Guilty on Long Island to Exploiting 7-Eleven Immigrant Workers [7 Online]
LI husband and wife 7-Eleven owners plead guilty to exploitation scheme [Newsday]
7-Eleven immigration sting suspects plead guilty [Suffolk Times]
NY couple admits exploiting 7-Eleven workers [Daily Record]
7-Eleven Chain Busted For Hiring Illegal Workers And Stealing Identities Of Americans [Inquisitr]

Merrick Resident Says of Proposed 7-Eleven “Big America is gobbling up small America”

Via Long Island Herald

Merrick residents articulated many reasons why they do not want to see a 7-Eleven open at 150 Merrick Road, opposite Levy-Lakeside Elementary School, during a June 10 Hempstead Town Council meeting. Town officials, however, said there was nothing they could do legally to stop the business from moving in.

AJM RE Holdings V, LLC, a company that Great Neck real estate developer Adam Mann owns, holds the deed to 150 Merrick Road. Mann and his contractor applied to the town’s Building Department in March for a permit to build a convenience store at the location. The developer plans to lease the property to 7-Eleven, which aims to have the store built and open for business by December, according to an attorney for Mann and 7-Eleven’s franchising website.

About 30 Merokeans attended the Town Council meeting, which started at 7 p.m. last Tuesday at Town Hall in Hempstead. Several addressed the Council during the meeting’s public comment segment, arguing that the 7-Eleven would cause traffic congestion and accidents, attract crime, hurt nearby businesses, lower home values and introduce children to alcohol and tobacco. Town Supervisor Kate Murray was absent from the meeting, which was one of four the Council scheduled in the evening this year.

“The important part is quality of life,” said Randy Shotland, a lifelong Merokean. “Quality of life is about why my parents moved here in 1948, to a bedroom community. We’re not in Queens, we’re not in Brooklyn, we’re not in the Bronx. We’re in Long Island … Twenty-four hours a day is not acceptable — 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., I don’t know any Merokean that’s coming out to buy a six-pack of beer, tobacco, and whatever else they sell. It affects our community … Big America is gobbling up small America.”

Continue reading Town: We can’t legally block 7-Eleven [LI Herald]

Related

Proposed Merrick 7-Eleven cannot legally be prevented, officials say [Newsday]

7-Eleven Withdraws After Opposition

It’s a bad week to be 7-Eleven. Yesterday we learned that residents of Merrick berated developers over a controversial new 7-Eleven that’s planned. Today, residents of Freeport have successfully fought off a fifth 7-Eleven fearing it would hurt local business.

Developers with plans to build a fifth 7-Eleven in Freeport have withdrawn their application after the village board of zoning appeals refused to grant them an extension to respond to community opposition. Residents say the area does not need another convenience store.

“We just don’t need another of those stores in the village, certainly not in that area,” said Douglas Mayers the leader of the NAACP in the village and of the Long Island Caribbean-American Association. “It would also hurt many local businesses.”

Plans for Freeport’s fifth 7-Eleven withdrawn after opposition [Newsday]

Merrick Residents Berate Developers Over Planned 7-Eleven Near School

Residents of Merrick, Long Island berated developers Tuesday night over a controversial new 7-Eleven planned for the area. More than 100 residents showed up at the heated South Merrick Community Civic Association’s meeting to voice their opposition of the 7-Eleven, fearing the chain would be a target for robberies, further congest the area and pose a safety threat to the nearby Norman J. Levy Lakeside School.

Though the building permit application has not yet been approved and the Nassau County Department of Public Works is still reviewing the site plan, the mere idea of a 7-Eleven is not sitting well with locals.

via Newsday:

Nassau County Police Chief Steven Skrynecki said an increase of traffic in the area could mean an increase in traffic accidents. There were 11 accidents in the past year at the intersection of the proposed store, he said.

But Ken Barns, 7-Eleven’s regional development senior director, said while there would be more activity at the site, “we don’t bring more traffic to the road. We just capture from what’s there.”

Skrynecki also said 24-hour convenience stores are often robbery targets, noting there have been 13 armed robberies in the area since April, including five at 7-Eleven stores. Barns said that number of robberies was “an anomaly” and the company was working with police.

Clearly Ken Barnes has never done a Google news search for 7-Eleven.

Merrick Residents Berate Developers Over Planned 7-Eleven near school [Newsday]

BREAKING NEWS! Top-Grossing 7-Eleven Is On A Highway!

It should come as no surprise the nation’s top-grossing 7-Eleven is not in the East Village, the West Village – or on St. Mark’s! – but on a stretch of Long Island highway.

And why is 7-Eleven so popular on Long Island?

Ubiquitous at intersections and along highways here, 7-Elevens also have cultural significance for many Long Islanders, who see the shops as a repository of childhood nostalgia, including memories of multiflavored Slurpees.

“7-Eleven has been here since the ’60s, and they really have a monopoly on the convenience-store market,” said Gregg Carlin, a retail real estate broker and senior vice president at CBRE’s Melville office. “There are no other chains that do what they do here. Long Islanders are very comfortable with 7-Elevens.”

With 208 locations on Long Island, how could it be anything other than a monopoly?

LI 7-Eleven stores top performers for chain [Newsday]