NYC Campaign Fundraiser Arrested on Alleged Fraud

Posted on Nov 16, 2011

Runs With Scissors (CC-BY)

New York City Comptroller John C. Liu.

A fundraiser for New York City Comptroller John C. Liu was arrested Wednesday morning on suspicion of misrepresenting the origins of campaign donations. The arrest bodes poorly for Liu—the city’s chief officer in charge of revenue and audits—who is considered a possible successor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. —ARK

The New York Times:

The charges say someone approached Mr. Pan, 46, of Hudson County, N.J., in July of this year and said they wanted to donate $16,000 to the candidate, far in excess of the city-imposed limit of $4,950 for individual contributions.

Mr. Pan, according to the charges, sought to send the money to Mr. Liu’s campaign by using 20 straw donors — people who are recorded in campaign finance documents as giving to a candidate but actually serve as conduits for money from an unseen large donor, the person said.

… Mr. Liu has been struggling to address questions about his fund-raising after a report last month in The New York Times that found some people listed as his campaign donors said that they had never given money to Mr. Liu. In other cases, people named as donors could not be located, or were listed as employees of companies they did not work for.

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