On Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:18:41 -0700, Trailer trash lsrlts
<dd...@gnail.invalid> wrote nothing.
February 2012: Michael Grimm
In January 2012, The New York Times published a bombshell report
claiming that Congressman Michael Grimm together with a man under FBI
investigation for embezzlement, raised more than $500,000 in tainted
campaign cash by taking contributions in excess of federal limits,
taking contributions from foreign nationals, setting up “straw
donors,” and personally receiving envelopes filled with cash.
A few weeks later, it was reported that Grimm had collected $3,000 in
campaign contributions from proponents of a natural pipeline seven
months after the freshman Republican sponsored allowing the project to
move forward.
“Isn't that the way fundraising is supposed to work?” asked Grimm. “I
am doing what an elected official is supposed to do.”
By mid February 2010, The New York Times took a deeper look into
Grimm's past revealing a history no politician would ever want to
tout. Grimm, who had often boasted about his background as a small
businessman and his time working on Wall Street, had a long business
relationship with Carlos Luquis - before, during and after Luquis'
conviction for racketeering and fraud. Not only has Grimm hidden his
business dealings with his convicted felon friend, he also may have
lied about working at a Wall Street firm that was “sanctioned
repeatedly for gouging customers.”
Furthermore, The New York Times discovered that the New York State
Workers’ Compensation Board had ordered Grimm’s restaurant,
Healthalicious, to pay $88,000 for not carrying workers’ compensation
insurance. And in 2011, two of the restaurant’s former deliverymen had
claimed they were paid less than minimum wage and were not paid wages
for any work done beyond 40 hours per week.
During roughly the same time that the New York Times was uncovering
Grimm’s past, the New York Republican’s staff added to the
controversies surrounding the Congressman. On February 17, 2012 one of
Grimm’s Brooklyn staffers was arrested outside of a school and charged
with assault, menacing and endangering the welfare of a child.
Additionally, Grimm had decided to hire a different aide who once used
her political connection to land a construction job for her husband,
whose incompetent management resulted in the death of a 17-year-old
girl.
A few days later, the New York Daily News reported Grimm had once
written a letter urging a federal judge to spare a New York-based
developer with three bribery-related convictions from serving a day in
prison.