A Manhattan attorney ripped off $4.4 million intended to buy protective gear during the COVID pandemic to fuel his lavish relationship with his then CEO girlfriend, prosecutors said.
Real estate lawyer Bryan McKenna was arraigned Tuesday on charges of stealing from his attorney escrow account to use for himself and his relationship with AstZen Group CEO Duni Zenaye — by stiffing a company that was trying to buy PPE during the coronavirus pandemic.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Borle said that Elkay Plastics contacted AstZen Group, a consulting firm, to purchase 500,000 boxes of medical-grade latex gloves and Elkay agreed to place $4.45 million into an escrow account managed by McKenna.
The disgraced attorney agreed to hold the funds in January 2021 until AstZen Group shipped the gloves — but McKenna instead drained the account’s millions of dollars by April 2021.
The money was used to “benefit his personal life” and a “romantic relationship” he had with Zenaye, who is not charged in the case, according to prosecutors.
Elkay had asked McKenna about the return of its escrow funds in the summer of 2021, but McKenna continued to lie about the location of the funds until November 2021.
McKenna, who resigned from the New York State Bar in 2023, pleaded not guilty to the grand larceny charge, which was slapped on top of his existing indictment of stealing more than $260,000 from two clients in Manhattan and Brooklyn. --->READ MORE HERE
'We cannot allow those protections to evaporate,' the Governor said of a temporary law set to expire.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging lawmakers to permanently ban mandates for mRNA COVID vaccines, as a law on the books is going to expire this Summer.
“You should not be forced to take an mRNA shot against your will,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa with First Lady Casey DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
In 2023, DeSantis signed legislation (SB 252) making it illegal for businesses or governments to fire or refuse to hire employees because of their vaccination status among other provisions. “It is the intent of the Legislature that Floridians be free from mandated facial coverings, mandates of any kind relating to vaccines,” the bill said.
But the legislation also included a sunset date of June 2025.
“We enacted protections for people in the state of Florida so that no one had to choose between a job they needed and a shot they didn’t want. And we saved thousands and thousands of jobs and livelihoods as a result of doing that,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said he has no idea why the Legislature added an expiration date in the bill, but is calling on lawmakers to extend the ban and make it permanent.
“We cannot allow those protections to evaporate,” he said as the Legislature reconvened for the first week of the Regular Session. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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