From the NY Times:
Mr. Liu recently announced, with great fanfare, that he had taken in $1 million in the first six months of the year, much of it from donors who gave him $800 — to reflect the number 8, which is lucky in Chinese culture.
But there is much about Mr. Liu’s campaign money that does not add up.
Canvassing by The New York Times of nearly 100 homes and workplaces of donors listed on Mr. Liu’s campaign finance reports raises questions about the source and legitimacy of some donations, as well as whether some of the donors even exist. Some two dozen irregularities were uncovered, including instances in which people listed as having given to Mr. Liu say they never gave, say a boss or other Liu supporter gave for them, or could not be found altogether.
Two people who described attending banquets in which Mr. Liu appeared and posed for photos said that company executives who support him provided donations in the names of those in attendance.
In addition, Mr. Liu is not complying with some basic campaign finance laws: To protect against so-called straw donors, the city requires that donor cards submitted with campaign contributions be filled out only by the person making the donation. In numerous instances in Mr. Liu’s campaign, one person appears to have filled out cards for multiple donors.
His campaign is also engaging in bundling, in which well-connected individuals collect contributions for a candidate from friends, relatives and others, but Mr. Liu has not disclosed the bundlers’ names, as required.
31 comments:
is North Korean Communist advocate John Choe in the photo and is he a $800. donor ?
What a surprise - NOT! Greed and creative financing seem to run in his family.
Having people fronting as contributors is a serious violation of the Campaign Finance Law. But more importantly, who is supplying and managing the dirty money and where is it coming from?
Numerous donations in the amounts of $800.00 each means more money from the CFB in matching funds. It has nothing to do with the lucky number 8. It is just another attempt to bilk the system out of more money.
Simply stating that he will just "give it back" does not work here. The damage is done. He has no more integrity. He cheats. He lies.
is North Korean Communist advocate John Choe in the photo and is he a $800. donor ?
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That's the notorious Wellington Z. Chen standing directly to the left of Johnny Liu in the photo. Talk about your "bundlers", Wellie has been doing that for years. It's called buying influence. It gets his projects approved more quickly.
Disgraceful!
The office of the Comptroller should be held to the highest standards. Just like Alan Hevesi, John Liu has compromised the integrity of the office with his campaign finances and with the abuse of power.
An investigation is in order and Liu shoud take a leave of absence until it is completed.
BTW Liu needs to pay his sanitation fines for his campaign posters.
Nothing new here...NYT should have looked also at Liu's previous Council runs.
If one were to place this article about Liu's alleged illegalities under a microscope I'm sure you'd find Christine Quinn lurking around. Quinn is The NY Times choice to be the next mayor and The Times had City Hall Bureau chief and main hatchett man, David Chen, co-write it.
Quinn is the darling of The Times; A gay woman who represents a downtown district in Manhattan. God forbid a mayor come from one of the outer Boroughs.
Let's see...Bloomberg, Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch, Lindsay, Wagner all Manhattanites. Abe Beame was the only recent mayor from the boroughs and the press and pols buried the guy during his one term as mayor. What people forget is that he turned around a $1.5 Billion deficit into a $200 million surplus.
So now The Times will push the ethically questionable Quinn into city hall while journalistically asassinating her competition and letting her off the hook for all her political transgressions.
How typical.
So hypothetically speaking, if these campaign contributions prove to be fraudulent then will he be removed from office?
Who cares about Quinn? Liu is the man of the hour. Focus on him. He's been a naughty boy!
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — New York City Comptroller John Liu says he’ll conduct an internal review of his campaign donations following allegations of irregularities.
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Liu knew all about these donations. An internal review by John Liu is not needed. The US Attorney's office should sieze his documents and conduct an full investigation into this matter. It is a dangerous situation to have people fronting as contributors.
Liu sould take an unpaid leave of absence until this matter is investigated and resolved.
Who knew? Liu Knew! And he did nothing about it until he got caught.
Another company, W&L Construction, shows 18 employees as Liu donors. Zhong Qun Tan is listed as a carpenter, but told the Times she worked at a garment factory and had not heard of W&L.
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Maybe she's a former co-worker at that sweat shop that Liu claims he worked in as a boy. The LIC sweat shop and building owned and operated by his family.
Lies, lies and more lies.
Are these phony contributors former customers of the Great Eastern Bank? Clients of the Seven Giants Realty?
I noticed one contributor I know who hasn't been in the United States in more than 20 years. Yet he is listed as contributed from his former Queens home.
Shame on you John Liu!
BRING IN THE FEDS---AND LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED!
Don't forget the Ackertman/Chinese connections!!! Those Queens Tribune whore ads will seem tame compared to what's really going on behind the scenes. For example, the Nussbaum (Tribune) connection to the RKO debacle...
Liu's indiscretion is the tip of a large and unwieldy iceberg that's trying to sink the city, especially Queens. Let the games begin!
they should fine Liu for those lousy posters his dumb workers from the WFP put up in broad daylight. when his campaign for comptroller was fined by the DOT, they went around and took them down. the Working Families Party and ACORN is in the mix. that's the problem. why did those fines go away? bring them back.
all three candidates on the Working Families Party ticket, DeBlasio, Thompson and Liu were bankrolled by union political activities money from unions like the Retail Department Store workers, RWDSU, 32 JB and 1199 & DC 37. if Liu's
Campaign Finances are twisted then so were Thompson's & DeBlasio's. the Campaign Finance Board should be investigating all three of them.
to think chuck apelian of cb 7 is his neighbor directly accross the street in a nice cul de sac.
"Who cares about Quinn? Liu is the man of the hour. Focus on him. He's been a naughty boy!"
To not care about Quinn is being myopic. She will ignore the boroughs more than her master Bloomberg.
Check out the services that are cut in Queens alone. No bus service on some line during night hours and weekends. No filling of pot holes. Fewer waste baskets in shopping areas. Pitiful snow removal. Look at the highways and see the weeds and garbage accumulating along the shoulders. Check out the overcrowding in the schools.
All of this will get worse once Quinn is elevated to mayor. Her agenda will be strictly New York County oriented. Oh yeah, she’ll go to some parades in Sunnyside and Jackson Heights and Williamsburg but the rest of the boroughs will get nothing, nada, zip.
It’s about time the boroughs got behind a leader who will represent our needs. I’m sick of paying taxes that are spent on Manhattan foolishness like midtown plazas, removable rock climbing walls and bicycle rental stations.
You may have an axe to grind against Liu, as you should, but don’t ignore those who are pulling the strings in the investigation and who will screw you in the near future, namely Quinn.
check wikipedia for the facts on "NORMAN HSU "
he is presently serving 24 years in the Federal Prison in Milan ,Cal., for embezzlement and campaign fund bundling for the Democrat city,state ,federal candidates of 2008. H.R.C.got over $100,000, John Kerrey ,Ed Rendell, Barack Obama and local guy John Liu($5000) and i believe Weiner partook also.
some claim they gave the money to "CHARITY" ? How do you prove this ? the ny post printed the list of approximately 100 democrats getting the money .
This is nothing new. It has been going on for years. Liu knew. So what else is new?
BTW How many dead people voted for him in the last election?
This is nothing new. It has been going on for years. Liu knew. So what else is new?
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He got caught!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quinn knew, Bloomturd flew.
Where is the money coming from? Developers? The Chinese secret society?
Mr. Liu said that his campaign had never heavily relied on an accountant or treasurer to handle its finances, and that he oversaw much of the operation.
“I’m responsible for my own campaign,” he said. “To the extent that I think something has been done wrong, or people engaged in behavior that broke my rules, we’ll reverse anything.”
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That's not good enough. Where was this money coming from? Has this practice been done in his previous campaigns? Is it being done for other candidates? INVESTIGATE!
From NBC4:
New York City candidates get $6 in public matching funds for every $1 they raise.
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So for a contribution, legal or otherwise, of $800.00, the total contribution with matching public funds is actually $5,600.00. How manny of these $800.00 lucky contributions were there?
No wonder he was able to raise a million dollars in six months - he used taxpayers dollars to do it. Now that's creative accounting!!!! And it still wasn't enough for greedy Liu.
At the very least, his campaign should be expelled from the CFB for abusing the system.
Lucky 8 is not so lucky for Liu. But lucky for us that the NYT did this story and exposed this fraud. I would hope that the US Attorney's office launches an investigation into not only Mr. Liu's campaign, but all campaigns that have similair contributors.
Does anyone know what happened to the $1 million allocation for rebuilding the road going past the defunct Flushing Airport that Liu received several years ago? Actually, that property wasn't even in his council district. This guy's dirty. How did he get to be comptroller??? Oops. Look at those lips. Never mind!
His campaign is also engaging in bundling, in which well-connected individuals collect contributions for a candidate from friends, relatives and others.....
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Former State Assemblyman Jimmy Meng did that service for then City Comptroller (and now convicted felon), Alan Hevesi. Jimmy Meng was the biggest fundraiser for the Hevesi Campaign. Birds of a feather...
Clyde Haberman:
On Wednesday, Mr. Liu’s campaign finances were cast most unfavorably in an article in The New York Times that described a series of irregularities involving some of his donors. Interviewed by NY1 Wednesday night, he said that “to the extent that there are discrepancies, we are going to get to the bottom of it.”
Mr. Liu has another financial problem, though. The Sanitation Department says he owes the city more than $500,000, a result of 7,000 summonses for posters put up unlawfully when he ran for comptroller in 2009.
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He owes the City of New York $500,000 in fines for his last campaign, while he gets taxpayer's dollars for his new campaign?
If I owned the City $500,000 I'd lose my house. Do rules and regulations ever apply to John Liu?
Sieze the funds from his campaign war chest and kick him out ot the CFB! He's a liar, a cheat and a dead-beat!
and he quietly hires NORTH KOREAN COMMUNIST ADVOCATES to $105,000. per year positions in the nyc comptroller's office.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER ?
Speaking of birds of a feather.... Did anyone notice all the men in that photo are wearing flowers? What's with that?
Must be a Chinese mafia thing.
Great photo. Liu reaching for more lucky dollars.
Impeach his ass.
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