Multiple investigations into de Blasio fundraising

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio and his top aides coordinated an illegal fundraising scheme to help elect Democrats to the state Senate in 2014, the top investigator at the state Board of Elections accuses in a blockbuster memo that recommends the DA investigate City Hall.

In the damning eight-page report, delivered to the elections board on Jan.4, enforcement chief Risa Sugarman said the actions of the mayor, his political team and his state democratic allies led to “willful and flagrant violations” of state law.

“I have determined that reasonable cause exists to believe a violation warranting criminal prosecution has taken place,” Sugarman wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

From the Daily News:

The commissioners, during a closed-door vote, made the referral on Jan. 11, sources said, which is now part of a broader probe by the DA and Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office.

Sugarman’s memo paints a picture of a coordinated effort by the mayor and his allies — dubbed interchangeably as “Team de Blasio” and “Team Coordinated” — to deliberately circumvent legal campaign donation limits in three upstate races in what turned out to be an unsuccessful effort to help Democrats win control of the state Senate in 2014.

The memo did not spell out exactly who could be charged. Deliberately evading campaign donation limits would constitute a felony.

Unions like the powerful Service Employees International Union Local 1199, SEIU 32BJ, the state Nurse's Association, and the Communications Workers of America were among those who gave big amounts to the county committees though they never had before. Developers and powerful businessmen who had business before the city like supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis ($50,000) and Alexis Lodde ($100,000) also gave mega contributions to the county committees.

Sugarman wrote that by serving as “straw donors” that simply passed through the donations to the candidate campaigns, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee and the two county committees may have also violated the law.

From the Daily News:

A key donor to Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising was subpoenaed Thursday, as it became clear the growing investigation is zeroing in on whether his campaign broke rules pursuing checks from powerful interests seeking favors from City Hall, the Daily News has learned.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney and the Manhattan district attorney both demanded documents from an anti-horse carriage group that has steered hundreds of thousands of dollars to de Blasio in its effort to ban buggies from Central Park, according to a source familiar with the probe.

Supporters of that group, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets, NYCLASS, have written checks totaling $125,000 to Campaign for One New York, a so-called “independent spending” organization de Blasio formed to support his pet causes.

Late Thursday, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. demanded documents dating as far back as 2013 from the group, which steered $100,000 to Campaign for One New York in March 2015 and hundreds of thousands more to the mayor’s 2013 campaign.

From the Daily News:

On its face, it makes no sense.

A handful of sophisticated New York developers write big campaign checks to rural backwoods political committees miles upstate.

Upon closer inspection, however, it all becomes clear.

The developers were told the money wasn’t meant to help elect some yahoo constable in Moosebreath Corners, N.Y. Instead, it would help Mayor de Blasio in his quixotic quest to flip the GOP-controlled state Senate to the Democrats.

And the developers who chose to give just happened to be seeking — or had in the past received — lucrative benefits from the de Blasio administration such as zoning changes and tax breaks.

All of this is now under investigation by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.