http://m.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/greg_meeks_again_aw0ZfOmo0sD3oF13250sgM
The latest? A DC-based campaign-watchdog group –the National Legal and Policy Center — filed an official complaint last week against Meeks with the Federal Election Commission.
The group charges that the congressman used his Build America PAC to double-count donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee –possibly to hide unrelated irregularities.
It seems the PAC made out checks to the DCCC in the early 2000s, which the group duly deposited. For some reason, though, Meeks’ PAC listed one such check as voided in January of this year — nearly a decade later.
“How do you void a check many years after it cleared?” the NLPC asks in its letter to the FEC.
The group raises the possibility that the relatively recent voiding might be part of an effort to cover up “improper or illegal contributions” the PAC accepted from other sources.
Such odd behavior by Meeks’ PAC should surprise no one — especially not the FEC. Just three years ago, it slapped Meeks with a $63,000 fine for using his campaign committee to pay for personal expenses, among other violations.
On top of raising questions about the PAC’s check activity, the NLPC charged that Ponzi-scheme billionaire Allen Stanford made illegal in-kind contributions to Meeks’ campaign in 2008.
As The Post reported last month, Stanford threw a lavish fund-raiser for Meeks, for which the congressman’s campaign apparently reimbursed him barely a fraction of the cost — a possible attempt to skirt campaign-finance laws.
There’s good reason to trust the NLPC on these charges, too: Last year, its research into Meeks’ dubious purchase of a $1.2 million Queens home led to FBI and House Ethics Committee investigations.
The House probe, by the way, is tackling several notable Meeks issues — including his role in a possible Katrina-related charity scam, first reported by The Post, in which tens of thousands of dollars raised for New Orleans seem to have mysteriously vanished.
With the NLPC complaint, the committee might have yet another worthwhile lead to follow up.
Michael Benjamin
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