Rep. Gregory Meeks Investigated Over $40,000 'Gift'

WASHINGTON -- New York members of the House are keeping the ethics committee awfully busy these days, with yet another member of the delegation being referred for investigation, this time Rep. Gregory Meeks.

The Office of Congressional Ethics revealed Friday that it has asked the full ethics committee to look into its finding that Meeks (D-N.Y.) had taken a gift of $40,000 from a friend and businessman named Edul Ahmad.

Meeks said the payment was actually a personal loan that he took in 2007 to help finish work on his new $860,000 home.

But Meeks failed to report the loan on any of his financial disclosure forms -- as required -- until 2010. The New York Daily News reported that Meeks came forward after the FBI started investigating Ahmad and discovered the payment.

Ahmad was recently arrested by the FBI in connection with a mortgage fraud case.

"During the course of its review, the Office of Congressional Ethics learned that the $40,000 Representative Meeks received from Edul Ahmad appeared to lack the normal indicia, including a set interest rate or repayment terms, of a legitimate loan," the OCE said in referring the matter. "Therefore, this $40,000 transferred to Representative Meeks in 2007 appears to have been a gift."

Meeks' lawyers argued that the OCE does not have jurisdiction because the payment happened in 2007, and the OCE is only supposed to investigate matters starting in 2008. They also said the OCE broke its own rules by not telling Meeks about the case against him.

When Meeks reported the $40,000 as a loan, he also took out a $59,000 home equity loan to pay it back, but then failed to declare the new loan on his disclosure forms until later. The Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the full committee not investigate the second loan from 2010, saying that unlike the first one, Meeks documented it, and it had scheduled interest and a payment plan.

"I agree with the Committee's dismissal of the 2010 loan allegation," Meeks said in a statement. "I hope that the Committee will soon dismiss the remaining allegation, which was unsupported by Office of Congressional Ethics’ (OCE) report and findings. I will respect the Committee's review process and withhold my comments until it completes its work."

This session of Congress has already seen two New Yorkers quit amid ethics probes. Rep. Chris Lee (R) left office after allegedly soliciting sex on Craigslist and sending a shirtless photo of himself. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D) quit after Tweeting obscene photos of himself in the spring.

And that followed a session in which Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) resigned amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with young male staffers, and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) was censured for wide-ranging ethics violations.

Comments

[Djelem]

12:53 PM on 08/08/2011

It was not a gift, it was a BRIBE! It's time to get the guillotine out of the shed and hone up the blade. I don't believe there is one honest politician out there.

[iwantthetruth27]

12:42 PM on 08/08/2011

Wow, another crooked politician!!! What a shock

[derspado]

12:38 PM on 08/08/2011

Dems and Mortgage Fraudsters just go hand in hand in this country.

[Djelem]

12:56 PM on 08/08/2011

Politicians; Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever, and all crooks go hand in hand in this country.

[American 69]

10:00 AM on 08/08/2011

Really stupid ! He should resign....period. In today's political atmosphere, if you're not "squeeky clean", you're suspect. This just looks like a bribe......

[FOXYROSE]

09:29 AM on 08/08/2011

Just another corrupt politian - they are elite and above the laws they write - most of them are all the same - clean house America. Nancy never drained the swamp - it's full of crap.

[Gidster]

10:40 AM on 08/08/2011

How do you think all of these guys, Rangle, Meeks, Waters, are being investigated?

I find it odd that only AA Congress people are being investigated, while felons like Issa are ignored.

[George Hanshaw]

11:51 PM on 08/07/2011

Did he hide it in the freezer???

[enstncls]

06:48 PM on 08/07/2011

Isn't that Hastings with him on the photo? Must be the "put it in the pocket club". Wasn't Hastings impeached as a federal judge and had to leave after an FBI investigation on kick backs?

[gracegmb5]

05:04 PM on 08/07/2011

Love how Huff Post uses the word REP in front of his name. to make readers think Meeks is a Republican, then a few lines down they admit he was a Democrat. It happens all the timme and I think most people are getting used to it. Especially those of us who read beyond the first line of a news report.

[Brian J Conway]

07:43 PM on 08/07/2011

Rep. is the common abreviation for Representative, the title of a member of the House. I'm
a Republican too, but I was not confused by the beginning of the story.

[gracegmb5]

08:53 AM on 08/08/2011

I
m not confused either Brian but for the reader who is uninformed and doesn't go beyond the headline it does the job the liberals intend. I know such persons. I spend time trying to convince them of just such a fact and am frausteraed by the fact they think I'M STUPID. Sorry for venting my frausteration.

[wtf u say]

02:48 PM on 08/07/2011

If he gives me $5,000 gift he can buy, errr ... have my vote for one election! Of course I will have to register in his district; wonder if there are any homeless in his area that would sign the form for me?

[Gidster]

10:45 AM on 08/08/2011

Or maybe there are a few multi billion dollar "Small businesses"   that pay no taxes, that can spend a few million on disinformation adds to make my strip worker's and women's rights, and put the tax burden on the elderly, sick and poor......

[Iconcoclast]

02:11 PM on 08/07/2011

Someone has a subtle sense of humor by a showing Meeks next to the crook Alcee Hastings.

[oceanview136]

02:06 PM on 08/07/2011

Of course this was dishonest, but how many politicians, have been investigated for inappropriate behavior !! It seems that bad behavior, runs rampant in political circles !!!!!!!

[icesailor]

11:52 AM on 08/07/2011

WHAT?

I thought that the Majority of the Supremes said that donating money to Pols was a part of Free Speech! I don't remember them saying that it didn't include a black businessman giving money to a black Politician.

In that case, why aren't the Fed (holdover from Bush) investigators investigating the Koch brothers Dick Armey and Karl Rove? What THEY are doing is outright bribery.

GIVE ME A BREAK

[SECT Dem]

12:27 PM on 08/07/2011

This was money into his pocket, not a campaign contribution.

[lj9283]

01:20 PM on 08/07/2011

and he paid it back with 12.5% interest.

[icesailor]

05:01 PM on 08/07/2011

What's the difference. Someone gives him money out of the kindness of their heart? And wanted nothing in return?

When he gets out of politics, the left over campaign contributions seem to be able to be kept and not returned.

Yiou were never a Dem-Liberal/Progressive. Just a RW tool, through and through. You get your instructions from the same RW playbook you all march to. It shows.

[rotinfx16]

11:10 AM on 08/07/2011

Why all the shock. Do you really think most politicians run to serve you? They run to get wealthy, and how they get that wealth is not important. But you just keep putting people in office based on party affiliation, so don't complain.

[bluguy8]

11:04 AM on 08/07/2011

Please . Why aren't they investigating Michele bachmanns farm subsidies ?
She doesn't look like a farmer to me. Most farmers don't use Botox

[Conservative Charlie]

12:00 AM on 08/08/2011

Farm subsidies are legal. I would prefer that they not exist, but currently the do; and if you qualify they are legal.

Taking, and hiding, $40,000 has the potential to be illegal.

Big difference.

[Gidster]

10:53 AM on 08/08/2011

Did he hide it?

Or did he, Like many politicians of both parties, neglect to report all of his income?

Do you have this level of poutrage for Justice Thomas who failed to report his wife's significant income from a conservative think tank on financial disclosure forms for at least five years, and his tens of thousands in "Gifts" from Harlan Crow? Who had cases before the court, and whom Thomas in every case judged favorably to Crow?

Or Alito and Scalia's open fund raising and attendance of political rallies, and corporate "Strategy" meetings?

Republicans seem to be silent on this ethics violation for a simple reason. They are doing their bidding on the Supreme Court today, and they don’t want to do anything that compromises their ability to enforce a political agenda in the United States judicial system.

[TimRivers]

10:50 AM on 08/07/2011

Maybe Meeks should hire Joe Barton's people to learn about how to become a corporate shill and still remain a relevant member in Congress!

[Gidster]

10:54 AM on 08/08/2011

Remember, it's only OK if you are a Republican......