DelMundo for News
Rep. Gregory Meeks says loan trouble is all an 'oversight.'Posted on 07/08/2010 8:13:35 AM PDT by jazusamo
Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks made no payments for three years on a secret $40,000 personal loan - and repaid the cash only when the FBI started asking questions, the Daily News has learned.
Meeks received a check for $40,000 from Queens businessman Ed Ahmad in January 2007 to finish paying off his new $830,000 home, two sources familiar with the matter said.
There was no discussion about interest rates, due dates or collateral requirements for the loan, the sources said, and Meeks did not report it on his 2007 and 2008 financial disclosure forms.
The congressman made no payments on the loan until early last month, a few weeks after the FBI questioned Ahmad about the check, the sources said.
That's when Meeks sent Ahmad a check for $59,000, having tacked on an annual interest rate of about 12.5%, the sources said.
In an interview, Meeks admitted he could not find documents to back up the loan. He also did not respond to a News request for copies of cancelled checks.
"There was documents. I don't have them right now," he said in his first explanation of the loan since The News revealed its existence last month.
Meeks would say only that he got the loan from Ahmad sometime in 2007.
Ahmad and his lawyer, Steven Kartagener, declined to comment.
Meeks, a Democrat, said the loan carried an annual interest rate of 12.5% and was due within 10 years. He told The News he paid it back sometime last year, but could not say when.
"I don't remember," he said.
He revealed the loan for the first time on his 2009 form, which was filed last month.
If Meeks deliberately withheld this information, he could be charged criminally with filing a false statement, said Melanie Sloan, director of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"He's got a real problem with false statements," Sloan said of Meeks. "It doesn't sound like an accident."
Federal prosecutors already have subpoenaed documents from Meeks and several other Queens politicians in an ongoing corruption probe. Meeks insisted he was not the target of the probe.
"I'm not under investigation, nor is there any reason to investigate me," he said. "The only things that have been subpoenaed are records."
Meeks told The News the money he borrowed from Ahmad - a developer, importer and mortgage broker - paid for unspecified "needs" related to the opulent home he built in Jamaica, Queens, in October 2006.
The money was "for my family obligations, etc. I was in a new house. It's taking care of things for my family needs in the house," he said.
He said Ahmad "didn't build in my home. He had nothing to do with my home at all. I used the money to take care of things with my family. There are things that I did. You need to make sure the house is furnished. You need things. This house was my largest personal investment that I made."
Asked specifically what the money was for, Meeks replied, "Various things. Home furnishings, it could be. It's for my family."
One source familiar with the matter said the loan was used to help Meeks finish paying off his home and that Ahmad expected to be paid back.
Oh, here's the money
After the FBI showed up at Ahmad's home in late May and asked about the loan, he asked Meeks to pay him back. Late last month, Meeks produced a check for $59,000 through his lawyer, the source said.
Records show Meeks took out a home equity loan June 18 for $59,650.
In the interview, Meeks also admitted for the first time that he did not get approval from the House Ethics Committee for the loan, as all members of Congress are required to do.
The House Rules of Conduct state, "Before entering into a loan arrangement with a person other than a financial institution, members and staff should contact the committee for a review of the proposed terms, and a determination by the committee on whether the loan is acceptable under the gift rule."
Meeks, who has a law degree from Howard University, said he did not seek approval because, "My understanding is I didn't have to."
"I have complied with the Ethics Committee requirements. I told you about five times. These were oversights made back in 2007 that I regret, but I have corrected them. I've answered your questions."
"I'm done," he said, then hung up the phone.
ping
This sounds like a RACIST inquiry.
And now we really know why the CBC wants the civilian task force disbanded... They are finding too many black democrats guilty of what they are trying to prevent. Oddly enough, I don’t recall Meeks party affiliation being pointed out in the headline, either.
Just oversight by another crooked on the take elected official.
It must be racist because like you say, the CBC wants the OCE gutted and Pelosi has agreed. There’s been 8 members of the CBC looked at by the new panel that was the brainchild of Pelosi, looks like it worked too well. :-)
Isn’t it funny how all these politicians can afford very expensive homes. Amazing!
Looks like Meeks or a close friend came up with a new scam.
When taking a bribe or payoff just say it was a loan if anyone questions it several years down the road and pay it back through your lawyer. Would a lawyer lie? LOL!
Gregory Meeks....Affirmative Action Villain
Testy Meeks Disclosed Loan Only After FBI Inquiry
Submitted by Peter Flaherty on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 10:19
Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks made no payments for three years on a secret $40,000 personal loan - and repaid the cash only when the FBI started asking questions…
Meeks received a check for $40,000 from Queens businessman Ed Ahmad in January 2007 to finish paying off his new $830,000 home, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Meeks first disclosed the loan on his financial disclosure report that all members of Congress were required to file by May 17 for the preceding 2009 calendar year. Meeks filed late on June 15. Click here to download a 5-page pdf of the report. The Ahmad loan was made in 2007, meaning Meeks failed to disclose it on his 2007 and 2008 forms.
Meeks then filed two letter “amendments,” both dated June 18, but filed separately on June 21 and 23. Both state that “the loan has been repaid in its entirety,” but neither contained any specific loan terms. Click here to download a 2-page pdf of the letters.
Citing unnamed sources, the Daily News reports that Meeks made no payments on the loan until after the FBI contacted Ahmad earlier this year. Meeks cut a check for $59,000 to reflect the $40,000 principal and accrued interest of 12.5%, according to the News’s sources.
Meeks told the Daily News that he cannot provide documents to back up the loan, and that he “did not respond” to a request for copies of cancelled checks.
The FBI investigation is the apparent result of NLPC’s scrutiny of Meeks and other New York politicians.
In January, we exposed Meeks involvement in a charity called New Direction Local Development Corporation that raised money for Hurricane Katrina victims who never received it, among other questionable dealings. In March, we asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Meeks for paying $830,000 for a newly built home in 2006 that was worth more than $1.2 million. Click here to download a 26-page pdf of the Complaint.
The Complaint also asks for an investigation into Meeks’ relationship with indicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford, first reported in the Miami Herald. Former Stanford employees alleged that Stanford asked Meeks in 2006 to help retaliate against a former Stanford executive named Gonzalo Tirado in Venezuela who was attempting to blow the whistle on Stanford fraud. Stanford allegedly asked Meeks to contact Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. One month after Stanford made the request, Meeks flew to Venezuela to meet with Chavez. Tirado was indicted a year later.
In addition, Meeks took six trips to Caribbean destinations such as Antigua and St. Lucia, courtesy of a nonprofit called the Inter-American Economic Council, which was a Stanford-funded front group.
Meeks sits on the conference committee for the Frank-Dodd bill that would overhaul financial services regulation, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to a report by the SEC inspector general in April, the agency ignored specific information for eight years from several sources that Stanford was running a Ponzi scheme, just as it had ignored similar information about Bernard Madoff.
Neither Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who appointed Meeks to the conference, or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have had a thing to say about the propriety of Meeks’ participation.
If Meeks is getting a pass from the House leadership, there is evidence that the coverage by the New York media is starting to wear. He told the Daily News:
"I have complied with the Ethics Committee requirements. I told you about five times. These were oversights made back in 2007 that I regret, but I have corrected them. I've answered your questions."
"I'm done," he said, then hung up the phone.
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