GOP Operative Charged With Stealing
Posted By
Karen on Jun 14, 2010 10:36am PDT
A top campaign operative involved in Mayor Bloomberg's 2009 re-election bid was charged with stealing the approximately $1.2 million in campaign funds that went missing. Veteran Queens Republican leader John Haggerty is now facing charges of first-degree grand larceny, second-degree money laundering and first-degree falsifying of business records.
Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. said that Haggerty used money earmarked for poll watching in northern Queens to create a sham election company called "Special Election Operations."
"The defendants's fraud was an audacious scheme, to steal funds in order to buy a house, cynically using our political party process to hide what was common thievery," said Vance.
The funds included $750,000 that Bloomberg gave to the New York State Independence Party.
If convicted, Haggerty faces 25 years in prison.
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