Monday, April 2, 2012

The latest Liu lies


From the NY Post:

Nice try.

City Comptroller John Liu was telling a tall tale when he claimed to have a letter from city ethics officials allowing his campaign manager to oversee operations at the Comptroller’s Office.

The only document Liu could produce yesterday was a memo signed by his general counsel, which does not clear Chung Seto — the architect of Liu’s political climb — to run the Comptroller’s Office.

The six-page memo purports to set conditions for Seto to “donate her labor and services” because “the parties desire to work together to further their mutual and individual aims.”

City ethics laws require that elected officials keep their political operations completely separate from their government offices, unless the arrangement is approved by the Conflicts of Interest Board.

Susan Lerner, an attorney and executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause New York, said, “This is a clear, blatant attempt to circumvent the city’s ethics law. You can’t exempt yourself by contract from the ethics law or any other law.”


From the NY Post:

Embattled city Comptroller John Liu’s campaign treasurer is trying to cut a deal with the feds over charges she steered illegal contributions into his campaign war chest, according to court papers filed yesterday.

Prosecutors “have had discussions regarding a possible disposition of this case” with lawyers for Jia “Jenny” Hou, but “the negotiations have not been completed,” the papers say.

“We plan to continue our discussions but do not anticipate a resolution before [yesterday’s] deadline under the Speedy Trial Act,” Manhattan federal prosecutor Brian Jacobs wrote.


From the Daily News:

Embattled City Controller John Liu has insisted he wasn’t involved with his campaign’s daily operations, but an email exchange shows he was meticulous and closely instructed his neophyte ex-treasurer.

He even objected to an instruction from the city Campaign Finance Board, all over a matter of style on a simple donation form.

Jia (Jenny) Hou — the 25-year-old former Liu treasurer charged by the feds as having played a key role in a conspiracy to duck campaign finance laws — was told by the CFB in 2010 that changes needed to be made to the card donors had to fill out.

The form contained multiple questions with corresponding boxes that donors had to check to affirm, as required by law, that the contributions were from their personal funds.

CFB ordered that a simple affirmation line be used, and recommended the accompanying language.

Hou — who was arrested last month in the ongoing federal probe of Liu’s 2013 mayoral campaign — responded by objecting in her boss’s name.

“I fixed the phrasing into exactly what you quoted in your email,” she wrote on Nov. 25, 2010. “John would like to keep the check boxes.”

The email messages, obtained by the Daily News under the Freedom of Information Law, seem to support the notion that Liu — an actuary by trade — nitpicked his campaign staff just like he is said to do with workers in his office.


From the NY Post:

It’s a bedrock rule of office that city officials separate their political activities from city business. All the more so for the comptroller, who oversees New York’s $70 billion budget and $120 billion pension funds.

But e-mails show Seto mixing both from Day One: referring financial advisers (and huge potential tax-funded fees) to the city’s pension czar, a Liu deputy; managing Liu’s official communications with the White House; even choosing decorations in Liu’s office.

Moreover, as The Post reported last year, Seto even joined Liu when he visited potential pension investors — where she presented herself as a top aide with a hand in making his office’s financial decisions.

This reputed “co-comptroller” may be next in line for arrest as the feds deepen their two-year investigation of Liu’s dubious fund-raising. Seto helped run the very campaign that the feds believe was a vast criminal enterprise that swallowed tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign cash from so-called “straw donors.”

The feds arrested Liu’s erstwhile campaign treasurer last month, but all indications are that she’s a small fish. Next up could well be the sharks: Seto and perhaps Liu himself.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

go after the Working Families Party & Nate Smith.
Acorn/Working Families Party is behind this. or whatever new name they've got now.
they treat campaign workers like crap.
Nate Smith is working on Grace Meng's campaign.

Working Families Party do nothing for working people except exploit their labor and demean anyone who needs employment.

Char Shu Bow said...

Liu-ie the liar beats out Pinnocchio
once again!

What is it with these aging Chinese?

They seem to all wind up with these plump rubber faces.

Anonymous said...

Rhetorical question of the day: When will he be indicted or resign?

Anonymous said...

I regret the comments, here and elsewhere regarding anyone's ethnicity.

It has no place in the conversation and only helps John Liu continue his life-long policy of race-baiting and making false charges of racism.

Liu has serious problems and they have nothing to do with the color of his skin, it has everything to do with the content of his character.

Anonymous said...

I hope Jenny cuts a deal and throws John Liu and his cronies under the bus.

Anonymous said...

If you "regret" the comments posted here...then LOG OUT!

"QC" IS NOT for ponces.

Liu can make all of the charges of racism he likes but his mayoral race is over...end of story...end of Liu's higher political aspirations!

It's back to Taipei for him...for
no respectable financial firm will hire him here.

He will long for his good old days at Price Waterhouse Coopers, but they won't take him back.

He's a crook that's already lost face along with 2 careers...political and financial.

Anonymous said...

I regret the RACIST comments here, and I think the Editor agrees.

It has no place, it serves no good. It helps John Liu do what he's done his entire career and that is play the victim.

Anonymous said...

The nyc political scene has never been worse..............

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Wah, wah, wah...such anti Asian comments.

"Racism"...wah, wah, wah!

You must be one of Liu's butt sniffers.

Do truthful observations about Asiatic corruption embarrass you?

Orientals are often very adept at lying through their crooked smiles.

Now, there's a good "racial" comment for you...so go and pack your plump face (or whatever) with another pork dumpling.

An old Chinese saying:
"The mountains are high and the emperor is far away".

Translation:
Screw anyone you can to make money or gain power if nobody can catch you doing it.

Anonymous said...

you are proof that Bigots are indeed members of the un-smart as has been proven by every study of them ever undertaken.

I said that John Liu has a lifetime history of race baiting and has serious problems and has spent his career pretending to be a victim and that makes me a friend to him?

Is your IQ in single digits?

You (not me) HELP John Liu by being an ignorant bigot.

You say "Orientals are often very adept at lying through their crooked smiles." perhaps you're right.

Italians are OFTEN very adept at lying through their crooked smiles

French people very adept at lying through their crooked smiles

Americans are very adept at lying through their crooked smiles

People from the Congo very adept at lying through their crooked smiles

Get it?

Don't HELP John Liu play the victim, he's better at that then you are at blog posts.

Anonymous said...

will he change his name to LUCY ?

Anonymous said...

"A" hole Asiatic butt sniffer...
perhaps dirt has a higher IQ than U!

Liu is finished...capeesh...that's the issue...and his Taiwanese crooks' days in the sun are beginning to eclipse.

He's only hanging in to cut a deal to avoid jail time.

Now do you get the slant right...'ol single digit?

Anonymous said...

Dear Moron Bigot,

I am not only well aware of his political demise I have been cheering it on and I look forward to his perp walk and incarceration.

I am, and will always be, opposed to idiots who preach hate to any race of people.

Bigotry is always practiced by the stupid and the evil.

Anonymous said...

hate and bigotry is not the issue on Q.C.

liu .a supposedly TRUSTED civil servant mayor wan a bee,may have enabled his staff and bundler to fleece the hard working tax payers of campaign finance money (6-1) ratio .eg. for every $800. donated, he gets $4800. in taxpayer dollars.

this forces citizens to be really pissed off, especially democrats ,who may have voted for him previously.

be reminded that an American F.B.I. agent of Chinese heritage ,who spoke Mandarin, worked
undercover in this taxpayer rip off.

Anonymous said...

What about the well documented anti African American bigotry practiced by most Asians?

They dislike the darker people of color...and that's putting it rather mildly!

Anonymous said...

I agree and that makes me "crazy" when foreign born people from any number of nations come the the United States and then at some point participate in rallies and call this nation racist.

It's nonsense and worse.

There is racism in the US but we face it and almost every other nation on earth is massively worse.

I still think we are better when we turn away from it.

Back to the topic at hand.... I look forward to the arrest of John Liu, but also I kind of like this time, the time when I know damn well his arrest is coming but he apparently doesn't.

I might miss these days after the actual arrest.

Anonymous said...

OK,
let's talk about racism (or races).

Liu is definitely going to loose the mayoral RACE...period (if he isn't indicted beforehand)!

That's what's really important.

This overly ambitious arrogant pup has just hit his political "Bamboo" ceiling.

His star has fallen from the heavens.

And his future aspirations have just been dashed into splinters upon the rocks of corruption.

It's a federal crime to tamper with the electoral process.

Anonymous said...

Imagine...
a New York City comptroller
who can't control his own campaign.

That does not inspire any confidence.

Anonymous said...

I'm not at all PRE-judiced.

I'm just POST-judiced!

I reserve my decisions about anyone after the facts been revealed not before they are presented.

And we've seen an awful lot of Asian schemers and crooks being indicted and sentenced during the few past decades.

The feds have Liu cooked real good...with evidence to back up their case!

He'll be lucky if he avoids doing any time in prison.

Anonymous said...

Liu will skip jail only if some other high-up crook gets thrown under the bus to save Johnny's butt.

Anonymous said...

I don't care what anyone says,
Liu and Seto look like a puffy pair of steamed pork dumplings.

I hereby accept the label of "bigot".