Federal authorities are investigating New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's campaign fund-raising practices, including how money is raised from the real-estate industry, a new report says.
The probe is part of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's investigation into New York Police Department corruption, sources told the
New York Post this week, and include an investigation of the activities of former de Blasio campaign treasurer Ross Offlinger.
Earlier this week, the
Post reported that de Blasio accepted contributions from real estate investor Jona Rechnitz, who is suspected of giving the city's higher-ranking police officers expensive presents to gain favors.
Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg, another target of the probe, both served on de Blasio's inaugural committee.
Rechnitz, one of the biggest bundlers for de Blasio's campaign, recently donated $50,000 to the mayor's nonprofit Campaign for One New York, and he and his wife gave $9,000, the maximum amount, to de Blasio's mayoral campaign in 2013.
Campaign spokesman Dan Levitan told The Post the campaign is "fully confident" that it "conducted itself legally and appropriate at all times." The campaign said it would return the private donations from Rechnitz and his wife while keeping the bundled contributions, totaling more than $40,000. The mayor does not plan to return the money that went to Campaign for One New York.
Last month, de Blasio said he was disbanding that organization after groups called for a probe into its activities. The mayor, though, said the group had accomplished its mission.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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