Meeks Taps Democratic Fund-raiser to Help Pay Back $40,000 Owed to Businessman

Queens congressman Gregory Meeks appears to have turned to a major Democratic fund-raiser to help him settle a secret $40,000 loan after the FBI began probing the deal.

Last month, Meeks borrowed $59,650 from a Westchester-based investment firm owned by Dennis Mehiel, a businessman and one-time candidate for New York lieutenant governor.

Days later, he paid $59,000 to Ed Ahmad, a Queens businessman from whom he borrowed $40,000 in 2007. The additional cash was meant to cover interest Meeks said he owed on the first loan.

Meeks originally borrowed the money from Ahmad in January 2007 to help cover the cost of his then- new and opulent family home, sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News.

The loan had no interest rate or due date – and for years Meeks made no payments on it, the sources said.

Meeks did not reveal the loan on his 2007 and 2008 House financial disclosure forms and told The News this week he could not find any documents associated with it.

Read more: (Benjamin Lesser and Robert Gearty, “Queens Pol Gregory Meeks Taps Democratic Fund-raiser to Help Pay Back $40,000 Owed to Businessman,” New York Daily News, 07/09/10)