FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 12, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Flushing family splits
big lotto jackpot
Two Flushing residents just got a lot richer
thanks to a pair of winning New York Lottery
tickets worth millions of dollars.
Vasilios Panagopoulos, a Flushing resident
who plays the lottery daily, went to Family
Bakery Outlet, located at 77-26 21st Ave. in East
Elmhurst, aft er his family jokingly told him to
“play one for us” as he left the house.
However, no one expected that Vasilios was
going to bring home a winning ticket worth
$6,200,000.
“My father left the ticket on the dining room
table and I decided to check the numbers online a
couple of days later,” said George Panagopolous,
Vasilios’ son. “It was all very weird really. It’s
really too much too handle all at once. We were
all asking, ‘So what now? What do we do now?’”
Th e family’s ticket matched all six numbers
drawn for the Feb. 28 LOTTO drawing, which
were 4-6-10-28-30-53 Bonus number 35, earning
them a jackpot of $6,200,000.
Th e four family members splitting the prize
include Vasilios’ wife Dimitra, and his children:
George, Menelaos and Peter. Each member of
the Panagopoulos family will receive a net check
totaling $635,026 aft er required withholdings.
At this time, the Panagopolous family is thinking
that they’ll invest their winnings.
Meanwhile, a chef in Flushing also found luck
aft er buying a scratch-off from a local shop.
Zhao Liu, 46, bought a $7,000,000 Cash
Blowout scratch-off game from Mitul Quickstop,
located at 60-08 Main St. in Flushing. Liu had
been playing this game for quite some time,
hoping to win a big prize.
Little did he know, Liu was about to win the
top prize of $7,000,000.
“I scratched the coin symbol and knew I won
right away,” Liu explained through an interpreter.
“I tried to remain calm. I put the ticket in my
pocket and headed straight home.”
Aft er learning that he’d won, Liu immediately
called his wife to tell her the good news.
Liu will receive his $7,000,000 prize as a onetime
lump-sum payment. Aft er required withholdings
he will receive a net check totaling
$4,431,280.
Emily Davenport
Little Neck contractor
pays for bribing Con Ed
A Little Neck man will be spending the next
four years in a federal prison for bribing Con
Edison offi cials to receive lucrative construction
contracts.
Rodolfo Quiambao, 75, paid Con Edison
supervisors hundreds of thousands of dollars in
kickbacks to secure “sole source” contracts on
behalf of Rudell & Associates, an engineering
and electrical design fi rm for which he formerly
served as president and CEO. He was initially
arrested in June 2015.
According to U.S. Attorney Richard
Donoghue, Quiambao also evaded taxes by concealing
and later deducting the bribe payments
he made as business expenses on the company’s
tax returns.
Quiambao pleaded guilty back in March 2016
to bribery and tax evasion charges. During
his sentencing on April 4 of this year, he was
ordered to 48 months’ imprisonment and to pay
a $125,000 fi ne and more than $4.5 million in
restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Robert Pozarycki
Photo by Suzanne Monteverdi/QNS
College Point residents vow
to fi ght proposed hotel
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
As a six-story hotel project looms on
the horizon, College Point residents
say their neighborhood is in danger of
being overdeveloped.
Located at 18th Avenue and 128th
Street, the site of the proposed business
was formerly home to a one-story
building, which has since been demolished.
Th e plot is located in a M1-1
zoning district, which allows for hotel
use.
State Senator Tony Avella and residents
met on the premises at 14-61
127th St. to rally against the plans on
April 10. Th e neighborhood is in danger
of being overdeveloped, Avella
said, and overloaded with hotels.
“It’s like trying to put 10 pounds of
potatoes in a 5-pound bag, and the bag
breaks,” Avella said. “College Point
has had enough development and we
certainly do not need another hotel.”
Kathryn Cervino, vice president of
the College Point Civic and Taxpayer
Association, said the neighborhood is
already over-saturated.
“Th ere’s no need for what would be a
fourth hotel in this town,” the lifelong
resident said. “And when the need for
a hotel diminishes, what we’ve seen all
around the boroughs is they become
transferred into homeless shelters.”
Cervino also expressed concerns
with existing neighborhood infrastructure,
which she said would not
be able to handle the additional strain.
“Th e infrastructure of this community
was just not built to handle this
many people and this type of use,” she
continued.
Th e city put a hold on the project
in December aft er an audit revealed
a nursery was planned for the second
fl oor of the building. As this use
is not allowed under current zoning,
the agency issued an intent to revoke
the permit until developers fi led new
plans. New plans have been fi led with
the city since then.
Avella said he has written to DOB
Commissioner Rick Chandler twice
“with very specifi c concerns.” He also
said he has held multiple meetings
with the developers in the hope the
plan could be altered. Aft er agreeing to
come up with an alternate use for the
site, Avella claimed, the owners went
back on their word.
“We’re gonna fi ght this to the bitter
end,” he said. “College Point was
part of suburbia in an urban environment.
Th at has changed because of
overdevelopment over the past 20 to
30 years.”
A spokesperson for the Department
of Buildings said the city has not yet
issued a permit for the new building,
as the plans are currently being examined
by the agency. Th e plan was disapproved
during its most recent plan
exam on April 11 because all of the
required documentation was not submitted
by the owner.
“DOB is responsible for ensuring
that all building projects comply with
the NYC Building Code and Zoning
Resolutions and will not issue permits
for non-compliant projects,” the
spokesperson added.
Property owner Lisa Ye said she has
spoken to members of the community
who support the construction project.
She and her team have been in
conversation with Avella, as well as
Community Board 7, about the project.
A hotel is allowed under current
zoning, she noted.
“I want the community to be happy.
Th ey’re living there,” Ye said. “I want
us to work together.”
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