No wonder this sap-happy sucker is always smiling.
The married father was porking his mistress on the taxpayers' dime.
Posted on 12/01/2007 11:41:58 AM PST by Liz
TALKING POINTS MEMO is swimming in credit card receipts from Rudy Giuliani's administration; one thing in particular has struck us: in 2001, apparently with an eye to future globetrotting, Giuliani's administration sent a check for $400,000 to American Express.
Though the amount was billed to the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office, an office that provides lawyers for indigent defendants, the money served as an advance against Giuliani's future travel, and other expenses later incurred by the mayor's office and his security detail.
The unusually large prepayment, as yet unreported, adds weight to the theory that the Giuliani administration was using accounting gimmicks to obscure his office's travel expenditures.
With $400,000 prepaid on the Amex account, the mayor and his staff drew down on the credit card for a number of trips, including a handful out to the Hamptons, where Judith Nathan had her condo. Giuliani's administration ultimately spent approximately $100,000 of the $400,000 before leaving office in January, 2001.
Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, confirmed to us that his administration put a stop to the practice of putting funds for future travel in bulk on a credit card. Shortly after Bloomberg took office, American Express refunded $298,000, the remaining unused balance on the account.
The move came shortly after the city comptroller sent the mayor a letter critical of the Giuliani adminsitration's practice of billing obscure city agencies for mayoral travel expenses. But Loeser declined to comment when asked directly why the administration did this, and declined to comment when asked directly if the Bloomberg administration thought the Giuliani approach was problematic.
"We process spending and travel differently," he said. "We use a different method. If we have government funded travel, we go through the city's travel agent."
Prepaying a city credit card with such a large amount is a procedure that "appears to be intentionally opaque," a high-level budget official under a previous administration told us. "You're not able to see clearly what [the money] is being used for," the official said, "because it's bundled in an AmEx card as opposed to as direct payments to vendors."
The unusual $400,000 prepayment is revealed in a letter from Giuliani's deputy director of fiscal operations that was contained in a package of documents City Hall released today, in response to reporters' questions about Wednesday's Politico story.
You can see the letter here (link at site).
Giuliani's administration had done a similar thing in June of 2000, cutting city checks for $54,000 worth of "prepayment" and billing them to the New York City Loft Board and other backwater agencies.
Now American Express rewards points to cardholders that are generally convertible to airline miles, other 'goods' or services—PLUS AMEX provides a cash discount for use of their pay-cards. If the Giuliani's city account earned AmEx reward points, it would have earned 102,000 of them on the actual expenses incurred against the amount Giuliani prepaid with government funds.
So what happened to the points, the products or services received in exchange, or the discounts earned through prepayment?
Did Mayor Giuliani, his mistress, his buddies, and associates in NYC government receive any taxable benefit as a result?
Was Jooty shopping at Vera Wang with government AMEX credits?
As Mayor, what was Giuliani's policy regarding earned benefits? Were converted points given to others.
If so, did the recipients report the value of them (if exceeding $ 25.00 per person, per year), to the Internal Revenue Service?
Were existing procurement rules followed in this apparent no-bid, non-competitive financial services contract?
And to what degree was value received by the City of New York for handing over $ 400,000 to American Express, which—at market rates—certainly derived value from the use of an unearned, enormous prepaid sum---the float, as its called?
Did Giuliani put this out for bid?
Could $400K prepayment to another credit card provider have offered comparable value, maybe lower rates of interest, or lower fees?
Giuliani's got a lot of questions to answer.
This story is beginning to develop legs.
Nice.
Everyone say goodbye to Rudy.
What's next? I won't be surprised to learn that he's a registered sex offender.
What a pair: He and the Huckster. I agree with freepers who say Huckster is training votes from Fred and Hunter to help Rudy. Does any seriously believe Huckster can win?
After I reviewed recent posts, it looks like FR is approaching a promotional site for the Huckster (an indirect way to help Rudy). Several Huckster fans are growing frantic here posting and posting and posting.
The corrupt Rudy Giuliani cooking the books to whet his sexual desires on the backs of his constituent taxpayers.
No wonder this sap-happy sucker is always smiling.
The married father was porking his mistress on the taxpayers' dime.
Say “Goodnight and Goodbye”, Rudy.
Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Not a lick of difference between them.
EXCERPT City Said to Have Paid Bills as Giuliani Affair Began
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, NY TIMES Published: November 29, 2007
Late in his tenure as mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani billed tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses to little-known city agencies as he was beginning an extramarital affair. The report, on the Politico Web site, cited documents obtained under the New York State Freedom of Information Law. But it was unclear from those documents whether Mr. Giuliani allocated those travel costs, from 1999 through 2001, to obscure city offices in an attempt to conceal expenses associated with the relationship or for some accounting purpose.
The administration of Mr. Giuliani’s successor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, said in 2002 (several months after taking office), that the Giuliani administration had kept the budget for the mayor’s office artificially low by paying more than $5 million in salaries through other city agencies.
The agencies to which Mr. Giuliani billed the travel expenses were outside the mayor’s office. The New York mayor always travels with a security detail, and the expenses for the police detectives assigned to protect him are normally paid for by the Police Department when he travels on city business. Asked about the travel expenses during the Republican presidential candidates’ debate, Mr. Giuliani denied any wrongdoing. “I have nothing to do with the handling of their records,” he said. As far as he knew, he said, the records were handled appropriately.
SOURCE http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/nyregion/29campaign.html?fta=y
“The corrupt Rudy Giuliani cooking the books to whet his sexual desires on the backs of his constituent taxpayers.”
I sure hope we can tie Rudy to “misappropriation of funds”. That would finish off the flake!
Rudy agrees with that:
"Most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." - Rudy Giuliani
I guess he meant personally, not just on policy...
No matter how many stakes are driven into Rooty's presidential aspirations, the Rudester comes back from the dead, climbs out of his coffin with the same evil smirk, to wreak havoc on our political process again and again.
Rooty's got the resilience of Count Dracula and the rap sheet of a calculating conman......not exactly star material for the White House.
Come on, guys. This shows that Rudy can THINK AHEAD of the box. He is a PLANNER. He has a forward focus!
The wooden stake in Rudy’s vampire heart? The fame he gained from his World Trade Center leadership has enabled him to drink the blood of conservatives for quite a while.
Or put another way, Rudy! the Republican Party’s Bill Clinton.
I am convinced Giuliani would likely choose Bill or Hillary as VP, or for Cabinet jobs.
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