Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Liu knew of bad campaign donations


From the Daily News:

Embattled City Controller John Liu may have known some contributions to his mayoral campaign were fishy, court records revealed as a second member of his political circle was busted Tuesday.

That news surfaced as the widening federal probe into Liu’s fund-raising for the 2013 mayoral race ensnared his campaign treasurer, Jia Hou. The feds accused her of steering 40 fraudulent donations to the campaign through a coordinated subterfuge that used straw donors to duck campaign finance laws.

The complaint alleges that Liu fund-raising bundler Xing Wu (Oliver) Pan — the other member of the Democratic controller’s camp to be pinched — coached an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman to tell the candidate prior to a fund-raiser that this was his “event.”

Liu, the court papers quote Pan as saying, would “know what I meant” and understand that all the campaign contributions being collected at the event were really coming from the undercover agent’s “money.”

...City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Queens), a major Liu supporter and one of his top fund-raisers, said he should step down as controller if the insinuation that he may have known what was going on proves true.

“If he knew, he should consider resigning his position — if he knew,” Koo said.

Koo added that he saw Hou, whose family is close to the controller, a few days ago at a campaign function and she didn’t seem to know she was going to be charged.

The feds documented a flurry of instant messages that showed how Hou on July 14 of last year allegedly offered to reimburse one crooked donor. “Don’t worry about it,” she texted.

Hou also instructed campaign volunteers to “imitate the handwriting of campaign donors” to make their contributions look kosher, the court papers state. She is also accused of withholding potentially damning documents after she was slapped with subpoenas by government investigators last year.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

This pip squeak MUST GO!

Anonymous said...

So, do we know how much and how Tommy and Alice Huang and their family contributed?

You can't tell me that they would not have -- that is not reasonable to believe.

Remember, some of the businesses being looked at for suspicious contributions are Tommy and Henry's suppliers.

Anonymous said...

Toodle Liu!! Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Anonymous said...

If he knew and hasn't revealed that information to the Feds, isn't that already a violation of RICO! Take him down boys.

Anonymous said...

Does this mean he doesn't have to pay up the 600K in fines for the illegal posters in the last election?

Anonymous said...

Reconsidering, what's to reconsider. Give it up already! You're done.

Really, how stunned could he be -- very that she got nabbed.

Liu is paying Hou's legal fees from his campaign funds. Can you tell me why? Is that even permissible?

John claims she's smart. How smart can she be -- she's facing 60 years, if convicted.

John, obviously, she will sing loudly!

What would possess a young gal to even consider doing what she did. Someone who is educated and from a wealthy family?

People who work for the Liu's and the Huang's think that they are a "protected class". They may very well be.

Let's see how this plays out.

Anonymous said...

compare the text of the DN report "liu MAY have known"and the Q.C. headline "liu KNEW ". with all due respect to CRAPPY, there is a great difference in meaning.

i have no respect for Liu ,after the S.S.I. investigation that i believe he initiated on me. i won ,because i had documents from 1977 ? i dared to challenge him at a civic meeting, and he played the Asian race card on me.

if the evidence proves that he is guilty of a crime ,convict him.

remember the 94 Asians who bundled for DEMOCRAT W.J.Clinton ,took the Fifth or skipped the country.no one went to jail????

i think his mayoralty opponents just want liu out of the race. they don't imprison their own left wing comrades.

Anonymous said...

Liu is just a COMPTROLLER, not a controller, and has no power, anyway. But it IS about time he's being punished for his corruption.

Anonymous said...

Free Jenny!

Anonymous said...

How smart can she be -- she's facing 60 years, if convicted.

People do strange things all the time out of loyalty, love, or both.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Jia Hou's father one of the most powerful men in the Chinese community and hooked up real good with Beijing and its money sources?

Johnny's goin' up the river and it ain't gonna be a luxury cruise along the Yang Tse.

This is major election fraud.
The investigation has just begun.

Cav said...

"How smart can she be -- she's facing 60 years, if convicted.

People do strange things all the time out of loyalty, love, or both."

Could be. But it could also be a very ambitious woman hoping to hitch a ride on a rising star in a shady NYC political culture where it's ok 'cause everyone does it.

Or maybe she does have a thing for guys who look like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Anonymous said...

My compliments to you...
"Pillsbury Doughboy"...a perfect description of that dumpling cheeked crook.

You nailed it right on the head.

Anonymous said...

What about investigating the possibility of Wellington Zhou Chen having arranged for straw man contributions to Liu's campaign?

Could Chen be the biggest covert bundler (bag man) of them all?

After all, he's very well placed and has been around from the very beginning of the "Asian invasion".

Anonymous said...

WELLINGTON CHEN: WELLINGTON CHEN; WELLINGTON CHEN; WELLINGTON CHEN: !!!

Is he the real big fish in the Oriental pond?

Bait your hook and examine his finances...you FBI guys.