By Rachel Pulaski
Tax cheat and crook Charlie Rangel is back in the news again for not disclosing funds. In 2010, Rangel lost his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee because of an investigation into 2 corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean. Later that year, the House of Representatives formally censured him after he was found guilty of 11 ethics violations. Violations included failure to disclose over $600,000 in assets on a financial disclosure report as well as short changing the IRS for 17 years on rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic. He also raided his PAC for $393,000 to pay legal fees.
Now, Rangel and New York City Councilwoman Inez Dickens are in the hot seat for not disclosing $200,000 in funds for their Harlem political club they have had since 1999.
NY Post reported:
A Harlem political club, which benefits from taxpayer money and boasts Rep. Charles Rangel and Councilwoman Inez Dickens as district leaders, has received more than $200,000 in donations since 1999 but didn’t report the income or even register with the state, officials said.
Dickens also happens to be the Martin Luther King Jr. Democratic Club’s landlord, collecting monthly rent.
Yet her campaign paid $4,125 to the club for space during her 2009 council run — taxpayer-matched campaign cash that in part would have boomeranged back to her as rent.
“It’s disturbing to see taxpayer dollars pay for the operating costs of a council member’s building,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the Citizens Union, a government watchdog. “That a building she owned pocketed money that came from her campaign is unethical and possibly a violation of law.”
