What about the deserving people who were denied these apartments.

23G rent fine for Rangel

By GEOFF EARLE

WASHINGTON — Scandal-scarred Rep. Charlie Rangel has agreed to pay a $23,000 fine for using a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office, The Post has learned.

Rangel, a Democrat now seeking his 22nd term representing Harlem, entered into an agreement with the Federal Election Commission to pay the fine.

“There was the determination that they had, in fact, violated the law,” said Kenneth Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, which filed the complaint against Rangel with the FEC.

The FEC found Rangel signed a rental agreement with “full knowledge” the unit was rent stabilized.

In fact, he leased four rent-stabilized apartments in his luxury Harlem building, and used a 10th-floor one-bedroom as a campaign office, in violation of city and state rules that say rent-stabilized units can be used only as a primary residence.

Rangel was paying a paltry $630 per month for the apartment, whose market value was $1,700.

An FEC spokeswoman declined to comment late last night.

A representative for Rangel did not immediately return a request for comment.

Rangel was censured by his fellow representatives in 2010 after being found guilty on 11 charges by a House ethics committee panel.

Those violations stemmed from reports in The Post that Rangel dodged taxes and concealed assets stemming from his Dominican Republic beach villa, and inappropriately used his office to raise money for his City College center.