Democrat Dirty Laundry: Notorious Harlem Rep. Rangel Magically Finds Over $500K in Previously Unreported Assets

Notorious Harlem Rep. Rangel Magically Finds Over $500K in Previously Unreported Assets

Corrupt Dem Charged With Creating Tax Law Can’t Even Do His Own Taxes

SPIN CYCLE: Democrats Promised to ‘Drain the Swamp’ and Sweep Corruption out of Washington

“’Drain the swamp” means to turn this Congress into the most honest and open Congress in history. That’s my pledge — that is what I intend to do,’ Pelosi stated in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams.” (Brian Williams, “Rep. Pelosi poised to make history”, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, 11/8/06)

RINSE CYCLE: Ethical Storm Surrounding Corrupt House Dems Grows, Rangel’s Net Worth Suddenly Doubles After Filing New Disclosure Forms

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel , already beset by a series of ethics investigations, has disclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets.

Among the new items on Rangel’s amended 2007 financial disclosure report were an account at the Congressional Federal Credit Union worth at least $250,000, land in southern New Jersey and stock in PepsiCo and fast food conglomerate Yum! Brands. None of those investments appeared on the original report, which was filled out by hand and filed in May 2008.

Rangel, D-N.Y., filed the new paperwork Aug. 12, along with his months-late 2008 report. They were released by the House this week. The reports are required annually for members.

The new 2007 report contains more than a dozen differences from the original version, including amended amounts in previously disclosed accounts and different amounts of income from those holdings.

Rangel is already the subject of two separate investigations by the House ethics committee.

One ethics subcommittee is examining a variety of matters related to Rangel. He has been accused of violating city rules by maintaining multiple rent-controlled residences in New York; he failed, for two decades, to tell the IRS about income from a rental property in the Dominican Republic; and the Washington Post reported last year that Rangel was using official letterhead to solicit corporate contributions for an earmark-subsidized education center at City College of New York that bears his name.

One disclosure in the reports addresses the work of the other ethics subcommittee: a three-day conference in November to Sonesta Maho Bay Resort & Casino in St. Maarten. The trip sparked an investigation after a conservative group claimed Rangel and other lawmakers violated House rules by accepting money for a trip lasting more than two days that was paid for by companies that employ lobbyists.

But Rangel’s new financial disclosure form states that the trip was paid for by New York Carib News Foundation, which is affiliated with a newspaper aimed at New York’s Caribbean immigrant community. Rangel reported taking a similar trip to Antigua and Barbuda paid for by the same organization a year earlier.

Other lawmakers who went on the same trip and have been examined by the ethics committee were Reps. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick , D-Mich; Donald M. Payne , D-N.J.; Bennie Thompson , D-Miss.; and Del. Donna M.C. Christensen , D-V.I.

For Rangel, the trouble could go beyond ethics investigations. Former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was convicted in 2008 of filing false personal financial disclosures, though the conviction was later thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct. (“Rangel’s Wealth Jumps After Disclosure,” CQ Politics, August 25, 2009)

To read the full article, click here: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003194205

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