De Blasio, aides accused of ‘criminal’ fundraising activity
The chief investigator of the state Board of Elections accuses Mayor de Blasio of spearheading a fundraising effort to elect Democrats to the state Senate in 2014 that led to “willful and flagrant violations” of state law, a bombshell memo reveals.
Elections Board chief of enforcement Risa Sugerman and the board referred the matter to the Manhattan district attorney’s office for potential criminal prosecution after concluding that City Hall concocted a scheme to circumvent campaign contribution limits.
“There is considerable evidence in this case that New York City mayor William de Blasio organized a team dedicated to getting a sufficient number of Democratic New York State senators elected in 2014 to achieve a Democratic majority in the senate,” reads the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Post on Friday.
“The evidence indicates that de Blasio established a structure, both within and outside City Hall, and entered into an agreement with powerful unions… and political consultants… to raise and spend money to influence senate races,” Sugarman said in the damning 21-page memo to the elections board.
“The entire fundraising and campaign operation was run from City Hall by de Blasio staff in coordination with unions and Campaign for One New York officers and political consultants. The evidence demonstrates that the de Blasio team coordinated its fundraising activities with and intentionally solicited contributions for these candidates… in order to evade contribution limits and to disguise the true names of the contributors, conduct which may violate [two election laws, one of which is a felony],” she said..
Sugrarman added, “The violations discovered by this investigation can only be described as willful and flagrant.”
The donations solicited by de Blasio and his team were steered to the Putnam County Democratic Committee and Ulster County Democratic Committee, and then redirected to three Democratic candidates Justin Wagner, Terry Gipson and Cecilia Tkaczyk
New York’s campaign finance law bars donations of more than $10,300 to an individual senatorial candidate. But contributors can donate up to $103,000 to county party committees.
Those committees than can transfer unlimited amounts to candidates.
Nearly $1 million in donations that de Blasio and his team solicited from fat cats were funneled to three candidates through the county committees.
“Based on the evidence that these transfers were prearranged, reasonable cause exists to believe that all the contributions were made to the county committees simply as straw donors. Therefore, they should be considered contributions to the candidates and subjected to the candidate’s contribution limits,” Sugarman said.
‘I have determined that reasonable cause exists to believe a violation warranting criminal prosecution has taken place.’- Risa Sugerman, Board of Elections chief investigator
Sugarman then cites provisions of the election law that say it’s a Class E Felony to “knowingly and willfully” solicit and or coordinate donations “for the purpose of evading contribution limits.”
“It is recommended that this case be referred for further investigation and prosecution as appropriate,” Sugarman told the election commissioners..
The commissioners made the referral to the office of Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. on Jan. 11.
“I have determined that reasonable cause exists to believe a violation warranting criminal prosecution has taken place,” Sugarman wrote. ” The memo did not spell out exactly who could be or should be charged but repeatedly refers to “Team de Blasio” and the mayor himself throughout the documents.
Named as targets in the memo are de Blasio; his legislative director Emma Wolfe; Ross Offinger, de Blasio’s campaign consultant and treasurer of his political advocacy group Campaign for One; former Hotel and Trade union official Josh Gold; Jason Goldman of the United Federation of Teachers; political consultant Neal Kwatra;and the political consulting firms BerlinRose, AKPD Message Media and Hilltop Public Solutions.
De Blasio spokeswoman Karen Hinton said, “We are confident that all of our efforts were appropriate and in accordance with the law at all times. We will cooperate fully with the investigations.”
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