Rangel’s Financial Disclosures Omitted Data Over 30 Years, a Report Says
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group.
Despite Congressional rules that require members to list the purchase or sale of any assets, Mr. Rangel accumulated from $239,026 to $831,000 in assets that were not listed in subsequent reports, according to the report by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates greater transparency by elected officials.
Lawyers for Mr. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem whose personal finances and fund-raising are being investigated by the House ethics committee, or Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, have said that sloppy bookkeeping led him to file incomplete or inaccurate financial disclosure forms.
When asked about the report on Wednesday, Mr. Rangel’s spokesman, Emil Milne, said the congressman had already acknowledged the errors and was seeking to correct them.
But the analyst who prepared the private group’s report said that the assortment of inconsistencies was serious enough for the ethics committee to make Mr. Rangel’s filing history a part of its investigation.
“Although he predicted on Sunday that his multitude of ethics woes would soon disappear, these new findings show that the ethics committee clearly needs to take a close look at Rangel’s filings,” said the analyst, Bill Allison, senior fellow of the Sunlight Foundation. “Congress needs to revisit its entire financial disclosure-reporting procedure to ensure that filings provide accurate, understandable and complete information about lawmakers’ wealth.”
In some cases, Mr. Rangel listed assets without stating when he acquired them. For instance, his disclosure form for calendar year 2006 lists 13 mutual funds with values from $54,013 to $286,000 but omits any acquisition date.
In other instances, assets disappear from his disclosures, with no suggestion of whether they were sold or exchanged. Investments he had valued in 2004 at $95,004 to $250,000 were omitted in a later filing with no indication of whether they had been sold or at what price.
The Sunlight Foundation report also noted that Mr. Rangel did not list any royalties or advances he may have received from his book “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since” (MacMillan 2007). Mr. Milne said Mr. Rangel received no proceeds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/nyregion/05rangel.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
LOL
Does any democrat pay taxes? More of that culture of coruption from the democrats.
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group.
Despite Congressional rules that require members to list the purchase or sale of any assets, Mr. Rangel accumulated from $239,026 to $831,000 in assets that were not listed in subsequent reports, according to the report by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates greater transparency by elected officials.
Lawyers for Mr. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem whose personal finances and fund-raising are being investigated by the House ethics committee, or Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, have said that sloppy bookkeeping led him to file incomplete or inaccurate financial disclosure forms.
When asked about the report on Wednesday, Mr. Rangel’s spokesman, Emil Milne, said the congressman had already acknowledged the errors and was seeking to correct them.
But the analyst who prepared the private group’s report said that the assortment of inconsistencies was serious enough for the ethics committee to make Mr. Rangel’s filing history a part of its investigation.
“Although he predicted on Sunday that his multitude of ethics woes would soon disappear, these new findings show that the ethics committee clearly needs to take a close look at Rangel’s filings,” said the analyst, Bill Allison, senior fellow of the Sunlight Foundation. “Congress needs to revisit its entire financial disclosure-reporting procedure to ensure that filings provide accurate, understandable and complete information about lawmakers’ wealth.”
In some cases, Mr. Rangel listed assets without stating when he acquired them. For instance, his disclosure form for calendar year 2006 lists 13 mutual funds with values from $54,013 to $286,000 but omits any acquisition date.
In other instances, assets disappear from his disclosures, with no suggestion of whether they were sold or exchanged. Investments he had valued in 2004 at $95,004 to $250,000 were omitted in a later filing with no indication of whether they had been sold or at what price.
The Sunlight Foundation report also noted that Mr. Rangel did not list any royalties or advances he may have received from his book “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since” (MacMillan 2007). Mr. Milne said Mr. Rangel received no proceeds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/nyregion/05rangel.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
LOL
Does any democrat pay taxes? More of that culture of coruption from the democrats.