Saturday, October 29, 2011

Abrams to audit Liu


From the Village Voice:

For such a normally loquacious man, City Comptroller John Liu was comparatively mum in today's press release announcing he has ordered a "comprehensive independent review" of his campaign fundraising.

Liu, known for flooding the email boxes of City Hall reporters, offered just 9 words about the undertaking. "I look forward to a thorough and prompt review," he said.

The 60-day review will be conducted by Robert Abrams, a former state Attorney General now lawyer at the white shoe firm, Stroock, Stroock and Lavan. Abrams, notably, once called a political rival a "fascist," and also has a building named after him in Albany.

Liu took on Mayor Bloomberg over the CityTime debacle in which payroll software contract ballooned from $68 million to more than $700 million, and resulted in a dozen arrests and a series of firings.

But those chickens came home to roost when the New York Times reported irregularities in his campaign books.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The part about "chickens coming home to roost" -makes no sense.
Does the author mean to imply that if Liu had not "taken on" Bloombag his alleged irregularities would not be a problem, or even revealed?

Anonymous said...

liu "hired ", "selected", Robt. Abrams to audit the 2009 comptroller 's campaign funding practices, to the present?
what about the flushing CM campaigns in past years ? some of his developer donors seem to be getting their building violation fines expunged.

abrams is a former democrat nys assemblyman,dem. Bx. B.P., dem. candidate for U.S.Senate, and nys dem.A/G.

did his law firm Stroock,Stroock and Lavan donate to liu's campaigns ?

this is really an independent auditor ?....i wonder if he understands MANDARIN ?

Anonymous said...

Good....
now tie him to cousin Tommy Huang and drag Gary Ackerman into the investigation.

Michael Nussbaum and the "Trib's" whole shady crew need some careful scoping too.

These crooks are still following the Manes-Shulman playbook.

Anonymous said...

BRING IN
THE FBI's ANTI CORRUPTION UNIT!

Everyone else
has already been bought off!

Anonymous said...

OAG investigation of TOMMY needs to be expanded to the Liu connection.

Anonymous said...

Tommy Huang married Alice Liu.

Alice is related (cousin, whatever?) to John Liu.

Tommy, Alice, John....
they're ALL in it together!

Ask the Asian community about these close family ties and they'll confirm it....but only IN PRIVATE.

They're much too afraid to go public with this info!

Any expert out there who wants to trace the roots of the Huang and Liu family from Taiwan and publish your results?

Anonymous said...

Might Dr. Augustine Chen or Susie ("Auntie") Wu Rathbone (if they're still around) know the truth about the Huang/Liu connection?

Does Wellington Z. Chen, Fred Fu, Mabel Law, etc. know?

Anonymous said...

Maybe Donald Manes knew and took it to the grave.

Maybe it put him in his grave.

Anonymous said...

All Liu's opponents have to do is make public Liu's connection to Tommy Huang and his political career is kaput!

Maybe they're holding back on this until it comes closer to election time.

Anonymous said...

When the city reneged on the promised $600,000 to Bowne House a few years ago ($ it still has NOT received), Liu played front man for Rosemary Vietor: Liu lied to the Press about the funding - saying it was all going according to plan (you can find his lies on a quick google search). But this was no ordinary lie to "save face." This lie was in furtherance of a FRAUD committed by Liu and Vietor: The transfer of the privately owned Bowne house to the City House Trust was approved by the Board based upon Vietor & Liu's representations that the city would provide the $600,000 in that same fiscal year. What makes their actions fraud is the fact that prior to the Board's vote, Vietor had already received written notification from the city that Bowne House would NOT get the $$$ as PLANNED. Vietor had the Board approve the transfer (which had to be unanimous or it would not be binding) by email and failed to tell Board members that the city had already reneged on its promise to provide the money. Liu was entirely complicit in Vietor's dastardly deed and happily acted as her mouth piece with the Press.
When a man is so ready, willing and able to commit fraud over the funding of a historic house, is it any surprise he would also collect campaign funds through fraudulent means?
A man who lies about funding for a historic house should NOT be in control of the city's finances. The NY Times expose proves that he can't even control his OWN finances!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Rosemary Vietor is one of those Liu "bundlers" mentioned in the NY Times article about Liu's corrupt campaign finance practices...?

Anonymous said...

Let's see...Now how might this one unfold? Hmm? Liu hires longtime Democratic politician Bob Abrams to look over his cooked books. And we expect Abrams to say what? "Yea, John. It looks like the Times got it right. You have broken the city's campaign finance laws by using straws for illegal donations?"
Not bloody well likely! The New York Times better be looking over Bob Abrams shoulder because he's too much a part of the machine to be able to finger Liu for the crimes he has committed.
And Liu? Did you see him talking (read: smiling) to Marcia Kramer on CBS this past Sunday? The man has NO shame. He wouldn't recognize the truth if it came up and bit him in the ass!
No, if the people of NYC want the truth, this time they are going to have to track it down themselves.