www.thevillager.com/villager_309/sohoactivistis.html -
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Published on: 4/5/2009
Last Visited: 4/5/2009
In news that sent shock waves from Soho to Southampton, last week Don MacPherson, a former Community Board 2 member and owner of the Soho Journal, was arrested as part of a $50 million mortgage fraud ring, reportedly involving more than 50 Hamptons properties.
Don MacPherson, left, and his wife, Carrie Coakley, in photographs taken at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office on March 25 when they surrendered to authorities.
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Mixing kink with alleged corruption, MacPherson was identified as the owner of Arena Studios, at 407 Broome St., a business that at one time provided dominatrix services.
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MacPherson, 65, and Coakley, 39, who live at 80 Varick St., surrendered at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office on the morning of Wed., March 25.
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MacPherson is charged with two counts of grand larceny in the first degree as to mortgage fraud and one count of scheme to defraud in the first degree.
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MacPherson faces a maximum of eight-and-one-third years to 25 years in prison on each of the grand larceny counts, and one-and-one-third to four years behind bars for scheme to defraud.
His wife faces up to one-and-one-third to four years in jail.
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MacPherson and his co-defendants are accused of using so-called “straw buyers” with fictitious employment and income information on mortgage applications to make the applicants look more affluent and, thus, a lower risk for lenders.
Specifically, the “straw buyers” were falsely said to have jobs — with incomes as high as $45,000 a month — at several companies MacPherson owned, including Arena Studios, the Soho Journal, Maximum Restraint Films and the Hamptons Consulting Group.
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In addition, according to the complaint, MacPherson’s Soho Journal, through its advertisements, “promoted Hamptons rental properties fraudulently purchased and used as summer rentals by the defendants.” In other words, while profiting off the fraudulent mortgages, the defendants also made more money off the houses by renting them out during the summer.
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The cover of the latest issue of the Soho Journal, Don MacPherson’s cultural and news magazine.
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But MacPherson laughed off the charges — literally.
When The Villager called him on his cell phone last Thursday afternoon, MacPherson, upon answering, burst into uproarious laughter.
“I have never been the owner of the sex club — I’ll tell you that,” he said, laughing again.
“It’s a fetish photographers’ studio — and it’s a location where I’ve done some of my photography.
“I can tell you, categorically, that it is some kind of a put-up job by a political hack,” MacPherson said of the charges against him.
“There is no dominatrix business — it’s a fetish photography studio.” He said the studio is used by people to dress up before the annual Black and Blue Ball, a fetish-wear ball that his wife runs.
As for his reference to his photography, a trademark of the Soho Journal is its photos of female nudes taken by MacPherson.
He said Arena Studios and the offices of the Soho Journal are located on the same floor, right next to each other.
“First of all, you have to understand, this is under litigation now, so I can’t go into long discussions of it,” he continued.
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According to a March 25 article in the Southampton Press, court documents state that MacPherson has not made any mortgage payments on 11 houses in Southampton Town for the past year.
Court records show MacPherson stopped making payments on the mortgages — many of them worth $1 million or more — in the summer of 2007.
Banks began to investigate and foreclose on the properties.
But MacPherson told The Villager he is simply being persecuted for speaking out against wrongs in the Hamptons.
“I have sued the town of Southampton in federal court, on grounds that they have been anti-Latino, anti-immigrant and anti-summer renters,” he said.
“They tried to pass an unconstitutional law — saying names have to be revealed and limiting the number of renters [per house].
“They did this to make it very difficult for landlords to rent their property,” MacPherson said.
“There has been a very strong anti-New Yorkers type of attitude by the politicians — not by the people.”
He said it’s all detailed on his Hamptons Politics blog.
He also writes the Soho Politics blog.
MacPherson said he had another call coming in and couldn’t talk further.
When The Villager called him back the next day, MacPherson said, “I can’t really talk right now.
I can’t really talk any further right now.”
According to the Southampton Press, MacPherson reported in early February on his Hamptons Politics blog that his Manhattan offices were raided by the New York City Police Department on orders from Spota’s office.
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At the time, MacPherson would not comment about the incident to the Southampton Press, while a spokesperson for Spota, would only say that the D.A. was in the midst of a mortgage fraud investigation on Long Island’s East End.
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Sean Sweeney, a C.B. 2 member and ally of MacPherson’s, said, “His wife ran the Black and Blue Ball; he was very out about that.
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MacPherson was appointed to Community Board 2 in 2001.
He ran unsuccessfully for board chairperson in 2005.
He grew up in the Hudson Square and Soho area, where his family’s roots stretch back to the start of the 20th century and where his father was a printer.
He attended New York University.
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“I seem to be alone in wanting to bring these issues out and do something about it,” MacPherson told The Villager.
However, he pulled out of the race shortly before the election, realizing he didn’t have enough votes to beat Derr.
Although the board has achieved a better balance in recent years under Borough President Scott Stringer, MacPherson resigned from C.B. 2 last August.
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“I’m disturbed by what I’m seeing as a trend Downtown of people trying to buy themselves into office,” MacPherson had told The Villager at the time.
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Reck credited MacPherson with being a steady hand more than six years ago when then-C.B. 2 Chairperson Aubrey Lees appointed MacPherson to head the board’s Waterfront Committee during the first contentious — and ultimately failed — attempt to redevelop Pier 40.
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Reck credited MacPherson with being a steady hand more than six years ago when then-C.B. 2 Chairperson Aubrey Lees appointed MacPherson to head the board’s Waterfront Committee during the first contentious — and ultimately failed — attempt to redevelop Pier 40.
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Reck ran for chairperson against Derr in 2006, backed up by a Soho bloc including MacPherson and Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance.
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On occasion, MacPherson would show up with his children at political fundraisers and events, Reck recalled.
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“I think the real tragedy is he has several young children,” Reck said of MacPherson.
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Sweeney, however, backed the theory that the Hamptons powers that be are out to get MacPherson.
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“Donald was muckraking, exposing the Hamptons.
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Sweeney said MacPherson was “very generous with his money” in helping the community oppose the Trump Soho condo-hotel and on other local issues.
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MacPherson and his family live on the top floor of 80 Varick St., a 10-story, rent-regulated building, sharing their floor with four other apartments.
He did not appear to be home last Thursday; a reporter for a daily newspaper said she had knocked on his door hours earlier and there had been no answer.
Several residents and a staff member queried while passing through the building’s vestibule, said MacPherson was a model neighbor who cared about the community and his children.
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The man said it was known in the building that MacPherson was into the dominatrix scene.
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Daley said MacPherson used to see Daley’s own children when they were young and showed a strong interest in fatherhood.
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The magazine regularly interviews Downtown’s political movers and shakers, and MacPherson writes his “Soho Politics” column for each issue.
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Asked if MacPherson was the owner, she said, “I don’t know for sure.
I don’t see him.
The check comes in the mail.”
MacPherson also owns both Magic’s Pub and Sunset Cafe in downtown Westhampton Beach, according to the Southampton Press.
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