Farriella for News
Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks (b.) took loans worth $55,000. A source said the loans were related to construction and renovations on the pol's home.Posted on 06/20/2010 6:43:14 PM PDT by jazusamo
Congressman Gregory Meeks has received tens of thousands of dollars in personal loans that he didn't report publicly, the Daily News has learned.
Meeks (D-Queens) admitted to The News late Friday that in the past three years, he has obtained two loans totaling $55,000 that he did not reveal on the financial disclosure forms he's required to file with the U.S. House clerk.
He says he obtained one loan with an initial principal of $40,000 in 2007 and says he since has paid it back. Meeks says he got a second personal loan in 2008 with an initial principal of $15,000 that he's still paying back.
The congressman said that on Friday he filed amended financial disclosure statements that reflect the existence of the two loans.
His office, though, failed to respond to repeated requests for copies of the amended reports.
Meeks refused to disclose the purpose of either loan, but a source familiar with the situation said they were related to construction and renovation of his ornate, $830,000 home in Jamaica.
He also refused to explain why he'd suddenly confirmed the existence of the two loans. In previous filings, he'd revealed other minor items that weren't listed on his disclosure forms, records show.
The existence of the loans emerged Friday, shortly after The News questioned him about another loan he, for the first time, had disclosed.
Released Friday, the form stated that sometime last year, Meeks got a "personal loan" of $50,000 to $100,000 from a Queens businessman named Ed Ahmad.
One of Ahmad's businesses sells construction supplies and kitchen and bathroom appliances for homes. Saturday, an employee at Ahmad's real estate office said he was in a meeting and couldn't come to the phone to discuss the loan to Meeks. He did not return subsequent calls.
In 2001, Ahmad testified before a state task force on reapportionment of political districts, identifying himself as president of the New York New Concept Democratic Club. In his testimony, he noted that he had received a citation from Meeks for his charitable work.
Meeks' statement to The News implied he paid interest on at least one of the loans, but he refused to disclose the interest rate, whether the loans required any collateral or their due date.
Under House rules, members of Congress must obtain special permission from the Ethics Commission for personal loans and provide documentation setting forth the terms.
Meeks purchased his massive, 109th Road home from developer Richard Dennis, who built it for him, obtaining mortgages totaling $701,922 for a sale listed at $830,000.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have subpoenaed documents from Meeks and several other Queens politicians, including Meeks' ally, state Senate President Malcolm Smith, in an ongoing corruption probe.
In April, Meeks turned over documents related to his house, as well as records related to his sponsorship of taxpayer dollars for various nonprofit organizations based in Queens.
mmm mmm mmm
But... Someone supposedly gave Alvin Greene 10k to run for the Senate. Paging James Clyburn and the Black Caucus, investigation required over here!
good post.
If anyone wants to declare ‘double standard’ for the Dems, remember they don’t have ‘standards’.
Anything goes if you’re a dem!
Who is running against him?
I really don’t think a Dem is running against him and a Repub doesn’t have a chance in the district. He’ll be relected unless he’s indicted and convicted and that won’t happen before the November election.
(pic by Ellis Kaplan) $$ MAN: The Post exposed questions over a Hurricane Katrina charity founded by Rep. Gregory Meeks, who also created a mysterious charity to aid Queens kids.
EXCLUSIVE A nonprofit founded by Rep. Gregory Meeks took in more than $1.2 million in taxpayer money over the past 15 years with little to no oversight as to how it was spent, The Post has found. Meeks funneled pork-barrel money to the Rockaway Peninsula Civic Association as a state assemblyman in the 1990s. He incorporated the charity, which was once based at his parents' house in Far Rockaway, in 1983. It is the second suspicious nonprofit linked to the Queens Democrat.
The organization had grand plans for a comprehensive after-school program for "at risk" students, similar to the successful Jackie Robinson program in Brooklyn. But its David N. Dinkins Center for Physical Culture fizzled by 2005, leaving only a skeleton program for seniors. That program continued to receive city money until 2008, although it is not clear how it spent the cash since the association has no offices or staff. It supposedly organizes activities at a city-run community center, but purchases no materials.
Mildred Kenchen, 82, the lone senior at the program Friday morning, said about 12 members meet to do arts and crafts, knit or play games with occasional trips for lunch or to the movies. Hilda Gross, the president of the association -- and a friend of Meeks' late mother -- usually shows up, but wasn't there Friday. Kenchen said the seniors have always paid their own way for big trips, saving up for out-of-town jaunts. "Each month we put so much aside," she said.
City Councilman James Sanders, who routinely sent money for the senior program, stopped the cash last year because the nonprofit's paperwork was in disarray, according to his office. Payments to Rockaway Peninsula were criticized by the good-government group Change-NY in the 1990s as an example of a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the group escaped scrutiny by routinely refusing to file nonprofit reports. The organization's tax filings from 1996 to 2001 were not filed until February 2003, a violation of charity laws.
The documents were slipshod and handwritten, and did not fully detail how the taxpayer money it received was spent. The returns for 1996, 1997 and 1998 make vague reference to the "acquisition" of a community-center site for the Dinkins program. But the headquarters for the program, which did its work in local schools, was the second floor of a dilapidated house on Beach Channel Drive in Far Rockaway. The group did not purchase the apartment, according to property records.
The organization spent just over $1.1 million on the Dinkins program from 1996 to 2005, according to its tax forms. But the forms lack details on who received salaries and stipends. Joel Zuller, the Brooklyn accountant who prepared the form, did not respond to requests for comment. Gross said she took no salary and when the city money stopped, the group funded itself. "My work is done out of the goodness of my heart," she said.
Meeks refused to answer any questions about the charity Friday. Dinkins, whose name was used for the program but who does not appear to have been involved, did not return calls.
Meeks was subpoenaed in April as part of a federal probe into the New Direction Local Development Corp., a Queens charity he founded with state Sen. Malcolm Smith. Smith is also under investigation. The Post revealed that the group took in hundreds of thousands of dollars, including taxpayer money, with little accountability for its spending. A Hurricane Katrina relief fund set up by the charity spent only a fraction of its collected money for victims.
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