The New York Times is raising further concerns whether Charlie Rangel, the embattled chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee who already is the target of an ethics probe on multiple counts, was soliciting charitable contributions to an academic center in his name at City College of New York from individuals and companies with legislative business before him in violation of federal law and ethics rules:
On April 21, 2008, Representative Charles B. Rangel met with officials of the American International Group, the now-troubled insurance giant, to ask for a donation to a school of public service that City College of New York was building in his honor. Mr. Rangel had already helped secure a $5 million pledge for the project from a foundation controlled by Maurice R. Greenberg, one of the company's largest shareholders and its former chief executive. And C.C.N.Y. officials, according to the school's own records, had high hopes for A.I.G. — a donation of perhaps as much as $10 million. The company has never made a contribution. But less than a month after Mr. Rangel met with its officials, the company turned to the congressman for help: A senior A.I.G. executive who had attended the fund-raising meeting wrote a letter directly to Mr. Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, urging him to support a provision of a tax bill that would save A.I.G. millions of dollars a year, according to Joseph M. Norton, a company spokesman.
"Mr. Rangel's exchange with A.I.G. last spring appears to be at odds with the public statements he has made since his fund-raising for the school became an issue":
When his approach to A.I.G. was first reported in The Washington Post in July, Mr. Rangel said that he could not recall any issues his committee might have considered in which A.I.G. had an interest. "I can’t think of one piece of legislation that impacts them, and there has never been a time that they've raised any legislation to me," the paper quoted Mr. Rangel as saying. Indeed, in Mr. Rangel's formal submission to the House ethics committee, asking it to review his use of Congressional stationery in soliciting money for the school, he wrote, "So far as I am aware, none of those whom I wrote had any pending requests into my office, lobbied me regarding any legislation before my committee, or asked me for assistance on legislation in which they had a special interest." Mr. Rangel, who had opposed the tax change A.I.G. was seeking — part of a much bigger piece of legislation — ultimately allowed it to be added to a bill he sponsored.
Last month the House Ethics Committee voted "to expand its investigation into Representative Charles B. Rangel to examine his role in preserving a tax loophole for an oil drilling company whose chief executive pledged $1 million to a City College of New York project that will bear the congressman's name":
The ethics committee statement did not set a timetable for the inquiry, but lawyers and congressional aides said that the expansion of the investigation means it is unlikely that the panel will complete its case by Jan. 3, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested last month.
Earlier Pelosi announced that she had received "assurances" the Ethics Committee would conclude its investigation of Rangel before the current session of Congress ends on January 3 which prompted concerns that the investigation is a charade:
"How serious can an ethics investigation be when you receive 'assurances' that it will be done in short order even though there are new allegations coming to light almost every week, and especially when the most devastating allegation — a direct quid pro quo for a donor — came to light just [last week]?" asked a House GOP aide. "It doesn’t pass the straight-face test."
According to Rangel, Speaker Nancy Pelosi "told me I am her chairman of the Ways and Means Committee as long as I want to be," and when Pelosi was asked if Rangel would keep his chairmanship she said "that's up to [House] Ethics," and then added "He'll be OK."
The Ethics Committee is investigating Rangel's failure to pay taxes on income received from a beach house he owns in the Domincan Republic, his use in Manhattan of four rent-stabilized apartments, and his fund raising activities for the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College.
Within recent weeks more questions concerning the financial dealings of Rangel have been raised, including pumping $80,000 in campaign cash into an internet company, Edisonian Innovative Works, run by his son, Steven Charles Rangel, attending a three-day junket at a Caribbean resort paid for by corporate sponsors, and "taking of a "homestead' tax break on a Washington, DC, house for years while simultaneously occupying multiple rent-stabilized apartments in New York City."
Rangel was one of four Democratic Congressmen who launched a political campaign in May 2006 to derail a federal racketeering prosecution against class action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP and several of its partners. Notwithstanding the efforts by Rangel and others, the indicted partners subsequently all pleaded guilty, and the law firm agreed to pay a $75 million fine and employ a compliance monitor.
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