From the Daily News:Oliver Pan was snared in a sting operation by an undercover FBI agent posing as a bigwig who wanted to make a $20,000 donation — four times the city limit.
Pan, 46, was caught on tape describing an elaborate scheme to divvy up the cash among 20 “straw donors” who would make $800 contributions in their own name, the feds said.
Plans were made for the fatcat to meet Liu at a small event with some of the straw donors and give a campaign staffer a sheaf of their bogus contribution forms, court papers said.
“Here’s the thing,” Pan told the undercover during a recorded Aug. 15 phone conversation.
“Only [the candidate] knows it’s your event.”
Liu, a 2013 mayoral contender who has already raised a million bucks, was not named in the complaint filed Wednesday in Manhattan Federal Court.
But law enforcement sources identified him as the “candidate” repeatedly mentioned, but not accused of any crimes, in the court papers.
Pan, who lives in New Jersey, told the undercover agent that he had used straw-donor schemes to pump up Liu’s coffers in the past, prosecutors said.
The alleged fraud had a two-fold effect: It let the campaign collect more than the legal limit from a single donor and it could have entitled Liu to extra matching funds from the city.
From the Daily News:
Forget becoming New York’s first Asian-American mayor.
The real question that had the city’s political world buzzing Wednesday is whether city Controller John Liu can get reelected to the job he has — or even keep his hide out of prison.
“It’s not likely he’ll be elected mayor in 2012 and not likely that voters will reelect him to be controller, the city’s chief auditor,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime political consultant. “The person who’s supposed to protect the city from fraud can’t be under investigation for fraud.”
Liu’s political fortunes were skewered Wednesday when a campaign fund-raiser working on his 2013 mayoral bid was arrested for chopping up an illegal $16,000 campaign contribution to make it look like it came from 20 different people.
Documents from Manhattan federal prosecutors show that Liu personally glad-handed the deep-pocketed donor — who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent — and that top campaign aides seemed to have knowledge of what the dubious fund-raiser was up to.
30 comments:
is not democrat/liberal/progressive dictatorship on the rocks ?
now for a U.S. Attorney prosecutor similar to RUDY.
John Liu, City Comptroller, Yeh, right.
Johnny finally you get caught. Now the Fed should investigate the ties between Johnny and those Flushing developers, such as Tommy Huang, Michael Lee of Tafa developemnt, Malgreen and all the other asian developers.
LIU-ie the LIAR....
son of a convicted felon....
and a relative of criminal Tommy Huang.
Now he's claiming no knowledge of his indicted bundler Oliver Pan's illegal activities?
It looks like Liu's political career is finally winding down!
Would anyone trust a comptroller who "didn't know" where his own campaign money is coming from?
Unassuming whimpy looking Liu is likely a Chi-com front man who's following orders from his thug bosses in Asia.
Now if the feds really want to complete the job they just started....
they should look into that Chinese pipeline that's been pumping overseas money into other political candidates pockets for about 3 decades....then break it up for good!
Begin with a subpoena served on Congressman Gary Ackerman!
He's most likely been running interference for Oriental skull-duggery since the 1980s in return for receiving HIS SHARE of contributions from Taiwan or China.
Didn't Tommy Huang once arrange for Ackerman's trip to Taiwan for a fundraiser some 26+ years ago?
Tsk, tsk, tsk! H-m-m-m-m.
Note:
The Flushing Oriental colony has got to be one of the the major epicenters in the USA for Chinese money laundering.
And I'll bet the Clintons (as in Bill and Hillary) know it!
Bill appeared at least twice at the old "Future Diner" as cheerleader for the Democratic Party's machine candidates.
And isn't the Stavisky/Mc Laughlin club named the "William Jefferson Clinton Democratic Club"?
Connect all the dots FBI and finish the job.
The corruption runs deep....from high up in Washington DC way down to the most local of levels....the neighborhood clubhouses!
Isn't one of Liu's shady bundlers also one of Bill Clinton's!
Yep, all that and more, in spite of which he gonna be da Mayor someday! There won't be an English sign left in NYC. Ancient Chinese secret!!!
Flushing....
an Asiatic cesspool for breeding the foul toads of corruption!
It looks like Councilwoman Harrison was right all along when she first described the likes of Tommy Huang (and his shifty cousin John Liu) as "colonizers....bilking their own kind".
Immediately afterward, Brian Mc Laughlin (aided by the Stavisky camp and a female Asian NY Times reporter) mounted a smear campaign against Harrison....attempting to discredit her as an anti-Asian bigot.
Both these machine political puppets eagerly played the roles assigned to them by their Asian handlers...lest their Chinese laundered overseas campaign contributions be severed.
Mc Laughlin is currently strolling his cell block in prison....
perhaps soon to be joined by a former NYC Comptroller John Liu.
From an old Chinese curse:
"May they live in interesting times"
Liu in bundle of trouble...catchee hell from FBI soon.
Liu ain't ever
gonna become mayor of NYC
in anybody's pipedream!
Mayor of Taipei maybe.
He's hit his glass....make that bamboo....ceiling.
Johnny's been swiping at the all powerful Bloomberg for far too long.
Mike is burning mad at this spoiled brat....and has bitch slapped him down to where he belongs...in a sweat shop ironing finished goods!
Don't think that Mayor Mike (with all his connections) didn't put the bite on this little Taiwanese upstart by tipping off the feds on our boy.
Savvy Liu will get one of his underlings to take the fall. A few years ago, the Mengs (father and daughter) got one their underlings to take the fall for registering fictious voters as residents of their bookstore.
Liu's ambitions
far exceeded his real power.
He expected to become mayor
in just 3 easy baby steps:
Councilman; comptroller; then mayor.
But now he's going to take the fall!
Our little emperor's dreams
have been dashed by his own greed!
Now that he's becoming a pariah....
his former political "friends" will soon distance themselves from him in order to save their own necks.
Since campaign donations are MATCHED with public funds in NYC, John Liu has been STEALING from the citizens of NYC for years now: By creating phony donors - "straw conributers" (which is really just money being funneled from a small number of big money backers) Liu has fraudulently inflated the dollar amounts that are entitled to receive matching funds from the city coffers - coffers that hold your money!
The idea that THIS corrupt man controls billions of dollars in public pension funds (the retirement accounts for city employees including the teachers unions, etc.) as City Comptroller should send people into the streets screaming for him to resign immediately. If OWS really wants to do something fair, just and productive, they should all make march over to John Liu's office and DEMAND his resignation TODAY! The man is obviously a thief and a LIAR! No way should this sleaze bag be NYC Comptroller for even one more day!
He shouldn't have LIED to the Press about Bowne House.
He shouldn't have LIED about the city reneging on its deal to give Bowne House over $600,000 which the city had promised in 2009 (to patch Bowne House's broken roof, etc.).
He shouldn't have LIED to cover up the fraud Bowne House President Rosemary Vietor committed when she concealed material facts from the Bowne House Board (Vietor had PRIOR written notice that the city would no longer be giving the more than $600,000 and she deliberately withheld that material fact from Bowne House Board members until AFTER they voted on the transfer at her direction).
He should have made sure Bowne House got the money HE had promised it.
He shouldn't have LIED.
Messing with the ghosts of NYC city's history - John Bowne and his soulfull posse - well...just sayin'...
Hopefully the FEDS will gets their asses into to Flushing and CLEAN HOUSE !!! The 109th Precinct and Mengs office FILTHY PIECES OF CRAP ;-( AND D.O.B.
Hey Feds!
While you're at it, how about Shulman and the Staviskys? Queens corruption knows no bounds!!!!!
Remember how he stuck with Rangel during Rangel's own corruption probe? Such an asskisser on the big man, and Rangel couldn't even pronounce his name.
A few years back, Sheldon Leffler pulled the same trick, and ended up in jail.
Unethical chinese person.
Well John?
Doug Kelly
For shame John. For shame.
It's only a matter of time before Liu disappears, but really, what sort of reform is taking place so that someone honest is going to get this job?
The next Dem to get this job is only going to attempt to do a better job at not getting caught.
Politicians are mostly crooks. You don't have to be Asian, they're mostly all crooks.
RE #16....
Former Queens CM Sheldon Leffler was only disbarred in NYS. no jail time . he was letter supported by Ed. Koch,Ruth Messenger, and David Dinkins. ALL DEMOCRATS.
He actually helped to write the campaign finance law against bundling donations. his conspirators were caught because the checks from all donors were in numerical sequence ? his main bundler was a local real estate broker.
google : sheldon leffler.....Queens Gazzette....Tribune
Yeah, this is what happens when you start to make a corrupt carpetbagger look bad. For a while,the paid-off toadies fall in line and besmirch your name. Then.over time,as the usurpers' funding stream starts to dry up,the truth comes out. Believe me, Liu's sins are chump change compared to the hurting the ironically fascistic Jewish midget has pinned on us!
From The Wall Street Journal - published Nov 21, 2011:
"A Conspirator is Unnamed in Funds Case"
By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL
"Tucked among federal charges filed last week against a fund-raiser for New York City Comptroller John Liu was an unanswered question: If Xing Wu Pan conspired to commit fraud, with whom did he conspire?
The answer could reveal to what extent prosecutors believe Mr. Liu or anyone in his camp knew that Mr. Pan was attempting to evade city campaign-finance laws.
"For the government to prove the crime of conspiracy, there has to be another person who engages in the plan to carry out the crime, and that person cannot be an undercover agent, or anyone else acting on behalf of the government pretending to be part of the scheme," said James DeVita, a defense lawyer and a former federal prosecutor."
John Liu has been fleecing the people of NYC for YEARS.
With each Liu campaign, "Mr. Comptroller" has squeezed matching funds out of the publicly-funded system (6 PUBLIC dollars for every 1 dollar in campaign "donations") -ravenously picking the public's pocket clean while grinning & cooing into the nearest mic.
Liu's serial mendacity is outdone only by his outsized audacity.
John Liu and Rosemary Vietor committed FRAUD in the transfer of the historic Bowne House from private ownership (the members of the not-for-profit Bowne House Historical Society owned the house) to the City's Parks Department.
Even though Vietor had PRIOR written notice that the more than $600,000 Liu had promised to Bowne House as part of the transfer deal (the transfer was supposed to trigger the release of the money) had already been pulled, Liu & Vietor decided NOT to tell the Board or the BH Historical Society Membership prior to the vote on the transfer (they both correctly feared that this material change in the facts and terms of the transfer would sink the vote)
and, instead, to misrepresent the status of that money as though the more than $600,000 would still be available to Bowne House for repairs that year.
Both Liu & Vietor were politically invested in pushing the transfer through even though the city had already reneged on its part ($$$) of the bargain (read: They were both desperate to take credit for the transfer after so many years even if it meant sinking any hope of actually making the emergency repairs so desperately needed to patch the roof and stabilize the caving structure).
So now, years have passed, Bowne House remains IN PERIL and Liu & Vietor are still free to walk the streets even though they both committed fraud while sacrificing the future of New York City's most important historic site - all to grab a few headlines for themselves in 2009.
If only the Press had nailed Liu & Vietor for the fraudulent transfer of Bowne House (the Press was given more than enough evidence to publish the story well before Liu was ever elected City Comptroller. But, instead, the Press bought into Liu & Vietor's LIES as they both scrambled to cover up and spin their criminal deceit), the good citizens of NYC would have seen Liu for the criminal that he is and would never have voted to let him get his hands on the BILLIONS of dollars in public money he still oversees to this day.
Doesn't ANYBODY do hard news anymore?
John Liu has already moved on!
"Mr. Comptroller" is back on the huskings and busy at work pulling the wool over the eyes of his elderly comrades. In Chinese, they sang the Union song 'Solidarity Forever' together at the Senior Center on Grand Street. Ya GOTTA watch the video: http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2011/11/4236391/dont-worry-about-it-liu-tells-elderly-supporters
The following excerpt is from an article written by Azi Paybarah and is published in Capital New York (but SERIOUSLY, ya gotta watch the video!):
"John Liu isn't going to let a federal investigation into his fund-raising throw him off his regular schedule of appearances around the city.
After thanking a room of elderly Chinese residents at a seniors center on Grand Street in Lower Manhattan earlier today, Liu, through the help of a Mandarin translator, said, "And I also want to say thank you for all of you showing your concern. I want to say, 'Don't worry about it.' I'll deal with the politics. You just make sure that you take care of yourselves."
The crowd applauded after Liu spoke, and after the translator, standing to his right, finished explaining what he had said.
Liu was greeted warmly by the roughly 400 seniors inside the 40-year-old Project Open Door Senior Citizens Center, who listened to Liu as they waited for their turkey lunches.
Before leaving, Liu sang a song with the center's executive director, David Chen, the center's founder, Po-Ling Ng, and other center staff.
Liu, who was put on the spot when one of the staff members requested that he lead the audience in a song, asked to sing "God Bless America." But that suggestion was overruled by the center's leaders, who told me afterward that they had, as luck would have it, they had sung the song earlier in the morning. Instead, they sang a Chinese-language version of the union song "Solidarity Forever.""
Rosemary Vietor owes John Liu BIG TIME for covering up the fraud she committed when giving Bowne House to the city as a gift with no monetary consideration (the city had already reneged on the money promised to restore Bowne House and Vietor falsely and deliberately led BHHS Members and BH Board Members to believe the house was still getting the money the city had promised as part of the deal - a representation upon which many members based their vote to approve the transfer).
I wonder what Rosemary Vietor had to do to pay back John Liu for lying on her behalf? (Yes, yes, we can all now see that City Comptroller John Liu is happy to lie for free, but...)
I wonder whether Rosemary Vietor might be one of the unnamed Liu campaign fund-raising bundlers?
I wonder WHEN we will actually see the list of NAMES who donated to and bundled for John Liu?
Is Liu's list being sanitized as we speak?
Is Rosemary Vietor listed as a campaign bundler for John Liu?
Just how did Rosemary Vietor ever pay back John Liu for covering up the fraud she committed when transferring historic Bowne House to the City's Parks Department?
Ahh, such a tangled web Liu & Vietor have woven into the anals of New York City's political history.
If John Liu was willing to sell America's symbol of religious freedom (Bowne House) down the river just to make nice with Rosemary Vietor (What? Did Liu expect Vietor to make a big campaign donation in return for his assist on the field?), wasn't it obvious all those years ago that he would sell anything and anyone down the river to advance his political ambitions?
It sure was obvious to us...
And now, it's just sad.
Nov 22 Editorial in The New York Observer:
"City comptroller John Liu, whose campaign finances are under federal investigation, apparently doesn’t quite get it. He admits that recent revelations about dubious record-keeping and shady fund-raising practices, along with the federal indictment of one of his fund-raisers, are “quite embarrassing.” No kidding. But investigators aren’t looking to embarrass the comptroller. They’re trying to enforce laws that Mr. Liu’s campaign may have skirted or violated. That should be more than merely “embarrassing.”
Mr. Liu still won’t reveal the identities of fund-raisers who have collected contributions from friends, family or co-workers. Known as “bundlers,” these fund-raisers are supposed to be identified in campaign finance records. But Mr. Liu’s campaign hasn’t provided that information, as required by law. The comptroller had a chance during a public appearance last week to provide the names, or at least to indicate when his campaign will do so. But he did not.
Several weeks ago, when revelations about Mr. Liu’s campaign fund-raising made headlines, the comptroller asked former State Attorney General Robert Abrams to conduct an independent inquiry. It was a bold and welcome move, albeit one made only after Mr. Liu backed down from his insistence that the inquiry could be handled in-house. At the time, this page noted that Mr. Abrams was the right man for the job—he would quit rather than be complicit in a whitewash.
Well, Mr. Abrams has resigned. The comptroller’s attorney asked Mr. Abrams to suspend his investigation after federal prosecutors opened an inquiry of their own. Mr. Abrams saw no conflict between his work and that of federal investigators. The request, he said, compromised his independence. So he quit.
This is serious business, indeed, but Mr. Liu apparently believes that he can continue to delay and obfuscate while still positioning himself as a mayoral candidate in 2013. He refuses to explain why he cannot provide a list of bundlers immediately. He offers no explanation for his campaign’s shoddy record-keeping. He seems indifferent to concerns raised about his ability to oversee his campaign’s finances—this is a man, remember, in charge of monitoring the city’s treasury.
Mr. Liu needs to reassess his plans for 2013. His campaign is under federal investigation. He has stonewalled efforts to obtain basic information about his fund-raisers. He cannot—and should not—be considered a serious candidate for mayor while investigators are raising questions about his fund-raising.
He should announce, now, that he will not be a candidate for mayor in 2013. He should spend his spare time trying to sort out his campaign’s tangled finances rather than making stump speeches throughout the five boroughs. His continued presence in the shadow campaign to succeed Michael Bloomberg would be, frankly, a joke.
Mr. Liu has more important work to do than run a campaign for mayor. It’s time to get it done."
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