Amazon Protesters Say They Were Paid To Be At Rally

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY – Protesters who supposedly gathered to express outrage after Amazon dropped plans for a Queens headquarters included mercenary activists paid to turn up, according to video and some participants.

The crowd picketed outside the retail giant’s brick-and-mortar store on West 34th Street Feb. 15 in a protest spearheaded by Long Island City landlord Sammy Musovic, who said he’d borrowed money to renovate his four-story apartment building in anticipation of the company’s arrival.

Flanking Musovic was a group of about 10 men holding up signs reading "Boycott Amazon!" and "Amazon Left Us!"

But two of those participants told Patch they had responded to a Craigslist post recruiting people to hold signs for $30 an hour. A video obtained by Patch shows a man handing out cash to a group of protesters after the event.

“I was just looking for jobs and came across that gig — I thought it was advertising-related,” Donny Radwell, one of the protesters, told Patch.

Charlie Perry, 21, another protester who spoke to Patch, said the ad was deleted right after the event, but he recorded a video of protesters receiving the cash payments. The video shows an unidentified man handing wads of cash to several protesters, including Radwell.

Musovic denied any knowledge of the Craigslist post and the payments. "I don't know anything about that,” he said by phone. “We were just trying to get Amazon back on the table.”

When a reporter described the video documenting the payments, Musovic repeated the denial and hung up.

A PR representative for Musovic’s rally said he had no knowledge of a Craigslist ad soliciting protesters. “Frankly, I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t even know whether or not there was a Craigslist ad, frankly.”

The PR person was reached by phone at the same number Perry texted to respond to the ad. The rep said he didn’t recall the text conversation. "People were texting me how they could come out and support,” the PR person told Patch.

“My number was listed all over the place. I didn't necessarily know everybody who was texting me."

"It is wrong that the wealthy fake and fabricate grassroots support," Radwell wrote in a message to Patch. "It damages the validity of true grassroots campaigns like the protests surrounding the Amazon HQ2."

Amazon announced in November that it would build one of two new headquarters in Long Island City, but aggressive protests of the nearly $3 billion incentive package it was offered prompted the company to announced Feb. 14 that it was backing out.

Musovic said he had borrowed money to renovate his residential building in Long Island City in anticipation of Amazon's arrival. Musovic, 55, who also owns two Upper East Side restaurants, told Patch at the event that he hopes Amazon will change its mind.

"Musovic, after learning of the 25k six-figure jobs to be created in Long Island City, invested over a million dollars into his facility, only for Amazon to stand him up on Valentine's day — and leave him with nothing but the bill and a broken heart," read a press release advertising the rally.