Saturday, March 24, 2012

Johnny's judgment questionable (understatement of the year)

From the NY Post:

Comptroller John Liu has awarded $6 million in contracts to manage city pension funds to a firm under investigation by New York federal and state prosecutors over claims it ripped off millions from public-employee pension systems around the world, The Post has learned.

Boston-based State Street Corp. has faced litigation from state governments in Washington and California, as well as the United Kingdom, dating back to 2009 — each alleging the company fraudulently overbilled their retirement funds during so-called “foreign exchange” trades.

But that didn’t stop Liu from doing business with the company — his administration disclosed the contract in Friday’s public record.

His office awarded three contracts totaling $6.141 million to State Street Global Advisers, the company’s investment arm, the public notice said.
In 2010, State Street forked over $12 million to settle claims by the state of Washington over accusations the firm overcharged for its foreign-investment transactions of pension money over a 10-year period.

And in 2009, the California attorney general filed suit, saying State Street committed “unconscionable fraud” and “raided” $56 million from its pension funds over eight years. That case is pending.


And then there's this:

“I don’t believe it’s our campaign’s responsibility or any campaign’s responsibility to verify the home address, to verify the work address, to essentially run a credit check on any donor,” Liu said in response to allegations that his campaign made use of straw donors who funneled illegal contributions from wealthy individuals into the campaign. “Do we operate differently than other campaigns? Absolutely not.”

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's gotta stop hittin' the bong..........

Anonymous said...

John Liu’s response (uh, excuse me ….Mr. Comptroller’s) response to the campaign charges is clearly nonsense. It’s laughable and I mean that, I’ve been having a ball with this story and will for many, many years.

There have been numerous donations of hundreds and hundreds of dollars to John Liu over the years by waiters, busboys, and hotel maids. Of course the notion that dozens of minimum-wage employees would give nearly a thousand dollars to a politician are absurd, everyone knows that this doesn't pass the smell test.

Yet over and over John Liu has told us that these nearly destitute workers are all so proud of him that they are willing to give him hundreds and hundreds of dollars. So he is well aware of the questions that have been raised over the years.

In the 2005 campaign there were donations from employees of the Great Eastern Bank who supposedly donated to John Liu, while at the same time John's dad had been arrested for stealing a million dollars from that very bank (he was convicted). Who can believe that the employees of a bank would give money to the son of the bank robber who robbed the very bank they work at?

Are we supposed to actually believe that? Does John Liu think people are that stupid?

His majesty’s claims that he could not be held responsible are not credible. Of course he is to be held responsible and he will be. He just pretends that he’s fine and he continues to ignore the reality of his situation, which is one of the aspects of this story that I love the very most.

Doug

Anonymous said...

Hong Bong!

This crooked comptroller can't even run a decent game of Chinese Checkers.

The FBI ought to be checking the Queens Dem Machine for connections to China and its campaign contributions.

No wonder Ackerman decided to take a quick powder from his long career.
It was to be one step ahead of the "shoe shines".

And why do you think that uncle "Virginia" Joe Crowley wanted Grace Meng to get their nomination...for her looks?

It was for her daddy Jimmy's gangster money!

Anonymous said...

Boy is he looking like shit lately.

Having quickly lost a lot of his "boyish charm" he wthe baths much longer...like the old Farrington Men's Sauna.

What a goofy faced little rice queen.

Anonymous said...

Alice and Tommy Huang got more than a few mortgages from the Great Eastern Bank, allegedly.

And, what did John do for all these minimum wage earners. They got to call him Mr. Controller.

Could they in the end have been somehow rewarded? In some way?

Anonymous said...

Be a man Johnny and step down already.
You can't be doing your job with all of this hanging over your head.

Kurtlove666 said...

If you really think that Liu is getting away with all of this without the full backing and strength of the Chinese mob, and that Flushing is not a hotbed of illegal activity, then just go back to sleep. I am 100% certain that Comptroller Liu has the best interests of his constituents in mind each and every time he makes a decision.(That's sarcasm. I'm pretty well-known for it).

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ktvE2vfxSQ

Skip to 1:09

Anonymous said...

Captain Liu will go down with his shit.

You know these cocky Asiatics have got to save face even if it's covered in crap.

Anonymous said...

John Liu is Tommy Huang's cousin.

Do you expect honesty from such a crooked family?

Anonymous said...

Keep a very lose eye on the Grace Ming dynasty....she's also connected to all of this somehow...

Anonymous said...

Mr. Controller, John Liu, doesn'e believe that it's his responsiblity to account for where money comes from in his campaign, even though he's using bundlers. He's the NYC Controller?