The feds yesterday arrested City Comptroller John Liu’s campaign treasurer, Jia \u201cJenny\u201d Hou, alleging that she’s been funneling illegal donations into Liu’s campaign accounts while conspiring to mask the contributions using phantom \u201cstraw donors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hou faces up to 60 years in prison. So the comptroller, who insists that he’s pure as the driven snow, has to be wondering today what she knew, when she knew it \u2014 and whether she’ll be willing to cut a deal to soften the potential hard time.<\/p>\n
The indictment relates to fund-raising that took place in 2011 \u2014 presumably in anticipation of Liu’s once-all-but-certain mayoral run.<\/p>\n
That’s much less certain now that the feds say Hou instructed volunteers to falsify signatures on donor forms, offered to reimburse a friend $500 for a campaign donation and taught workers how to hide the evidence of what she’d done.<\/p>\n
Why the skullduggery?<\/p>\n
Every donation, legal or not, could net Liu’s campaign up to $1,050 in public matching funds \u2014 which means, if the feds are right, that his staff was actively engaged in defrauding taxpayers of substantial sums.<\/p>\n
And, in Liu’s own words, Hou has been right in the middle of it: \u201cJenny is the heart of the ’13 [mayoral] campaign,\u201d he said last year \u2014 which, in turn, seems to mean that conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice are part and parcel of John Liu’s life.<\/p>\n
Obviously, Hou’s arrest \u2014 and that of a top campaign donor last year \u2014 must lay to rest his mayoral ambitions.<\/p>\n
More immediately, they mean that whatever moral claim he has remaining on the office he now holds has expired.<\/p>\n
Though Liu himself isn’t named in the federal complaint, it’s simply not credible that he was unaware of Hou’s activities.<\/p>\n
Yesterday’s complaint repeats details of the FBI sting last year in which a top Liu fund-raiser took $16,000 from an undercover agent to give to Liu’s campaign, with the sum split into smaller checks from 20 straw donors.<\/p>\n
But Liu, the fund-raiser asserted, would know the real source of the illegal cash.<\/p>\n
And as Hou and a campaign worker puzzle over how best to hide evidence of straw donations, Hou tells the volunteer that Liu \u201cnever gave me clear instructions on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
No clear instructions?<\/p>\n
Seems pretty clear to us.<\/p>\n
After all, the FBI says she illegally withheld the names of campaign bundlers \u2014 one of whom was her own father, who himself made donations $2,000 above the legal limits, according to campaign documents.<\/p>\n
Liu is undeniably close to his campaign treasurer. So, again, how is it possible that she could’ve done what the complaint alleges without his knowledge?<\/p>\n
Yes, crimes must be proven in court.<\/p>\n
But John Liu is entrusted, by custom and in law, with the oversight of billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n
If he can’t keep his nose clean regarding his campaign accounts, what faith can New Yorkers have in his ability to manage the city’s fiscal affairs?<\/p>\n
None whatsoever.<\/p>\n
John Liu needs to go.<\/p>\n
Read more: http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/opinion\/editorials\/time_really_up_john_p5xpoSO8T0kzTqhqr4flJP#ixzz1nwpFiVVr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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