From the NY Times:Federal authorities are investigating the fund-raising operation of the New York City comptroller, John C. Liu, seeking records from his campaign and from a city contractor whose employees were listed as having contributed thousands of dollars to his campaign, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Grand jury subpoenas issued last week in the inquiry followed a report in The New York Times last month detailing a number of fund-raising improprieties, including questions about the sources of Mr. Liu’s donations, whether people listed as contributors had actually given their own money and whether some donors listed even existed.
It is unclear whether the current inquiry is related to an investigation begun by Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in late 2009. That investigation, which had not previously been made public, focused on whether foreign money flowed into Mr. Liu’s 2009 campaign for comptroller, two people with knowledge of the inquiry said.
28 comments:
It's about time! Let the games begin! Hey John. Don't let the door hit you too hard on the way out. You can be mayor of the Federal pen they put you in. Claire Shulman said you can "borrow" one of her orange jumpsuits. She said you can make 3 prison outfits from the material of one of her suits.
Why aren't State and City D.A.'s also investigating?
I see some of you smart federal boys have been taking my tips on "Queens Crap" seriously in following the foreign money trail (from Taiwan/China) to Mr. Comptroller's door.
Thank you most heartily....
for protecting our great republic from criminals....both foreign and domestic.
Here's another tip:
CHECK OUT LIU'S CONNECTION TO CRIMINAL TOMMY HUANG!
Also scope Congressman Ackerman.
He's likely part of the "ring"!
And please do stay tuned for future leads.
The feds can do a better job.
The city DA and state attorney general are probably on Liu's payroll!
"....After initially pledging to disclose the identities of those bundlers, Mr. Liu has declined to do so."
I wonder why?
are the authorities going to be allowed to trace it all the way back to Beijing and Hong Kong???
Liu has the word "ganif" (crook) written all over his face! He is a poster boy for everthing in politics that makes it dirty.
the chicoms also may have donated to the cm candidate KIM , whose war chest tried to defeat N.E.Queens cm Dan Halloran.
kim had donations from Hong Kong,Beijing, and Korea listed on the nyc campaign finance donor website.
kim was a G. Ackerman collegue.
"KIM , whose war chest tried to defeat N.E.Queens cm Dan Halloran"
Reality check: Halloran won by the same 5 point margin that Bloombag did -which was touted as a failure in his case.
The fact that that beef-eatin dope (Halloran) could come so close to being defeated by a questionable opponent says a lot about the future politics of N.E. Queens.
Take a little walk on that stretch of Northern Blvd and turn up Bell...You'll see what I mean.
How about checking into the workings behind the creation of the Flushing BID????
It's about time. The Feds finally woke up. Let's see how far they get in this investigation. I'm sure Liu has paid off lots of investigators and tried to cover his money trail. When they're finished, they can check out Ackerman, Schulman, Wellington Change, etc, etc.
check Property Shark .com for the ethnic statistics in Halloran's cm district.
caucasian...70%....asian 16%, many elementary schools in c.s.d. 26 are loaded with flushing, asian anchor babies, bused in from main st.
store front signs are not significant.
when a candidate for district cm gets 99.5% of his donations from other states and asia, that is significant.
Addendum:
Two others must be investigated
as possible "bundlers" for overseas Chinese campaign contributions to US candidates:
WELLINGTON Z.CHEN & JIMMY MENG.
But if the FBI's budget is limited to open only one additional case...
then let it be spent on CHEN!
This normally low profile individual is most likely the king pin of the whole operation of influence buying!
If he cracks...the rest of the house of cards will tumble!
From today's NY Post:
“I don’t trust Liu for anything,” said Julia Harrison, a Flushing Democratic district leader, who was Liu’s predecessor on the City Council.
“Putting Liu in the comptroller’s job was like putting the fox in the henhouse.’’
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/john_looking_more_like_liu_ser_every_lr6T5Oy5ZSMrgRftMMAnwJ#ixzz1dshavsXl
So does this Federal probe(which includes an F.B.I. investigation) into Liu's shady finance practices mean that we'll finally find out whether Bowne House President Rosemary Vietor was one of Liu's 'bundlers'? With all her Wall Street (and former Lehman Bros.) connections she would certainly seem a likely source for Liu. So why has Liu, to date, gotten away with refusing to make public the names of his campaign 'bundlers' as is required by the city's campaign finance law? Shouldn't the Chief Financial Officer for the city's rich pension fund at least be expected to follow the laws governing campaign financing and fund raising? Why did the city NOT press Liu on these very serious violations of its finance laws much earlier? For god's sake, the man is in charge of the city's vast finances! The Campaign Finance Board should not have failed the public trust. The Campaign Finance Board had an obligation to let the public know what the man who controls the public's money was up to: And it should have booted him to the curb long ago!
Can you spell sleaze? :LIU
From today's Wall Street Journal:
By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL
"City Comptroller John Liu accepted political contributions during his 2009 campaign from people linked to disgraced Democratic fund raiser Norman Hsu, including an actress and a California man who later testified in federal court that they had been straw donors for the businessman."
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that Bowne House President Rosemary Vietor was a fund raising bundler for the disgraced John Liu when he ran for City Comptroller in 2009. That was the same year Liu helped Rosemary Vietor conceal the fact that she committed fraud in the process of transferring Bowne House from private ownership to the city. At the time Bowne House Board Members were asked to vote to approve the transfer, Vietor failed to diclose to the Board (whose unanimous vote was required for the transfer) the material fact that the city had already reneged on its promise to give Bowne House more than $600,000that year for vital repairs to the caving roof and necessary structural support to hold up the ancient and tilting timber frame. Vietor had been notified in writing that the city had pulled the money which was for many Board Members the most compelling basis for the transfer. For some Board Members, their approval was predicated on the representation that the transfer was in exchange for the immediate release of the more than $600,000 that the city had publicly promised. Of course, Liu bragged about getting the money for Bowne House and then after the money was pulled from the city budget, he LIED to the press and the public to cover-up Vietor's fraud and his own involvement. When Liu was asked about the city reneging on that money (and the timing of the claw back in so far as it relates to Vietor's fraud) he lied again (in print).
So, yeah. It wouldn't be at all surprising if Rosemary Vietor's name turns up in the Federal investigation on a Liu campaign fund raising bundler list. She owed him BIG for covering-up her fraud.
And why didn't the NY State Attorney General - Andrew Cuomo at the time - investigate the fraudulent transfer of Bowne House to the city? It is the responsibility of the Attorney General to protect against financial abuses and fraud in charitable organizations. He should have climbed up on his white horse and galloped to Bowne House's rescue. Of course, John Liu may have lied to Cuomo too. With what the NY Times uncovered, it seems Liu lies a lot. "Lying Liu" is not the knickname anybody would want for a man charged with the duty to oversee, manage and protect New York City's finances. So sad it all is...
I don't get it? At BEST Liu didn't know what was going on with his own campaign finance practices. It is neither sufficient nor acceptable for the City Comptroller to play dumb about finances. It was his job to know what was going on with his campaign finances. He was running for the city's top FINANCE job for chris sake!
Is he going to pretend that he didn't know what was going on with the CITY'S financing when we find out he violated the public's trust in that arena as well?
Liu should save the public all the stomach-turning anguish and save the city, state & federal govt. the burdensome expense - on the public's dime, of course - of a long drawn out scandal. He should man-up and resign today. The economy is shaky enough. We can ill aford another corrupt Comptroller. Between Alan Hevesi and Anthony Weiner haven't New Yorkers suffered enough scandals already? Step down, Mr. Liu. It's time you did a little soul-searching. You're still young. And with therapy, prayer and the support of your family and friends, you might still be able to redeem yourself. Who knows? There may be a thriving, bright & shiny car dealership in your future.
But do everybody a favor and stay out of politics, would you? We have enough corrupt, unctuous narcissists as it is.
By Michael Appleton for The New York Times:
"A fund-raiser for the New York City comptroller, John C. Liu, whose campaign finances are under federal investigation, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of attempted wire fraud and conspiracy, people briefed on the matter said.
The charges against the man, Xing Wu Pan, do not mention Mr. Liu, but say that Mr. Pan served as a bundler — a person who gathers donations from a group of contributors — for a citywide candidate in New York for the 2013 election. A person briefed on the matter said the candidate was Mr. Liu."
one wonders if the feds will investigate how many of LIU'S developer campaign donors have had their D.O.B. & E.C.B. violation fines dismissed or resolved with certificates ?
the feds can start with the owners of the new daycare center @ 196-29 42nd avenue @ francis lewis blvd.,Flushing/Auburndale.
Stick a fork in Liu's political aspirations....he's done to a turn!
And let's all hope that when the feds are finished with that son of a criminal he's wearing an orange jump suit!
That's right folks....let's not forget that Johnny's daddy, Joseph Liu was convicted on federal bank fraud charges....the Great Eastern Bank job.
Expand the federal probe laterally into other areas.
Did Congressman Ackerman get re-elected ad nauseum with the help of illegal overseas Chinese campaign contributions?
Who were his Asian bundlers?
He does sit on an Asian Congressional committee which would
make it easier for him to be introduced to such bundlers.
H-m-m-m....
and maybe the Stavisky's North Flushing Senior Center is a partial front for laundering overseas political campaign money.
Expand the investigations!
Liu is not the only politician who received illegal money!
It all goes back to the days f Donald Manes.
Is Michael Nussbaum tied to this circle of Liu's bundlers?
Didn't Nussie almost go to jail in the 80s?
Wasn't he involved in a shady Time Warner Cable scheme?
Keep on dragging your net FBI guys until ALL of the Flushing based fish are pulled in!
Liu may have preserved "deniability" but if you read the complaint, possibly the most damning thing against Liu in this case is that he never listed Oliver Pan as an intermediary or a bundler, even back when he was running for Comptroller. Intermediaries must be listed according to the rules. So, you have a guy who is a main fund raiser for years and you never even identify him under election rules??? Where there's smoke, there will be fire!!!
A corrupted NYC elected official? No way!
Here come da judge
here come da judge
Here come da judge...
PS The butler did it.
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