It has become increasingly clear that Controller John Liu’s political treasury has been bolstered by money improperly taken from the taxpayers via the city’s generous campaign finance program.
He owes New Yorkers an immediate accounting — if he dares to issue one.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Wednesday charged a Liu supporter with ripping off the city by funneling impermissibly large contributions to Liu via straw donors, thus enabling Liu to tap the public for so-called matching funds.
Liu says he knew nothing of this alleged scheme, and, in all fairness, it is possible he was sucked into a damaging scandal by an overzealous booster.
Then again, by Bharara’s account, two of Liu’s aides knew that the supporter in question, New Jersey businessman Oliver Pan, had bundled $16,000 in 20 individual donations that stayed well within the legal maximum.
Then again, Pan allegedly told an undercover FBI agent he had previously engaged in the straw man maneuver to help finance Liu’s campaign.
Then again, numerous individuals who Liu listed as contributors have said they gave no money, suggesting their names were used to conceal illegal donation
s, or they wrote checks to the campaign and were reimbursed by the true, hidden giver.
Then again,
a campaign donor told The Wall Street Journal she had donated to Liu’s campaign at the behest of now-imprisoned Democratic moneyman Norman Hsu
, who had clandestinely provided the funds.
Then again, Liu failed to report on campaign finance forms the names of his bundlers — people who solicited money from others and had checks delivered to the campaign.
The FBI apparently has been probing Liu’s accounts for several years. Subpoenas recently went out to a firm whose employees are listed as donors but appear to have been used as straw men.
Under the campaign finance program, a candidate can apply for $6 in taxpayer funding for every $1 raised
from donors, with a top grant of $1,050. A deep-pocketed supporter can help a candidate siphon extra money
out of the system while remaining anonymous by having others write checks to a campaign and then secretly reimbursing them.
Liu has responded to each new revelation with expressions of ignorance, declarations that contributions found to have been improper would be returned and promises that he would disclose all after a full investigation.
Then again, he still refuses to publish bundlers’ names, though he says he knows who they are.
Then again, he has backed off on having former state Attorney General Robert Abrams give his books a look-see.
Then again, he has been chatting with a criminal defense lawyer.
R.I.P. mayoral ambitions.
