(Tax cheat) Rangel’s Financial Disclosures Omitted Data Over 30 Years, a Report Says

Rangel’s Financial Disclosures Omitted Data Over 30 Years, a Report Says
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Published: February 4, 2009

Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group.

Despite Congressional rules that require members to list the purchase or sale of any assets, Mr. Rangel accumulated from $239,026 to $831,000 in assets that were not listed in subsequent reports, according to the report by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates greater transparency by elected officials.

In some cases, Mr. Rangel listed assets without stating when he acquired them. For instance, his disclosure form for calendar year 2006 lists 13 mutual funds with values from $54,013 to $286,000 but omits any acquisition date.

Mr. Boehm said that after he became concerned that the congressman may not have reported all the rental income from the Dominican villa, he discussed the matter with a Post reporter. Mr. Boehm said he helped the reporter later with articles about Mr. Rangel’s joining an overseas trip that had been underwritten by corporate donors and about his use of a homestead tax credit in the District of Columbia that members of Congress are expressly forbidden from claiming.

“All we have asked of the congressman is to tell the truth,” Col Allan, editor of The Post, said on Wednesday. “We stand by our reporting.”

TALLYING UP THE RANGEL SWINDLE

(1) Democratic chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee Rangel took a "homestead" tax deduction meant for year-round DC residents - though he legally resides in New York.

(2) Rangel paid no taxes on his luxe property in the Caribbean;

(3) Has four rent-stabilized apartments (one is a campaign office);

(4) Improperly stored his car in a House parking garage;

(5) The NY Times reported oil-drilling businessman Eugene Isenberg made a $1 million pledge toward building The Rangel School for Public Service at City College of New York. Rangel later preserved a controversial offshore tax loophole that saved millions for Isenberg's company. The Isenberg-Nabors deal is, potentially, far more serious: It reeks of a quid pro quo between Rangel's official duties and fund-raising for his personal project. The Times reported that Rangel held meetings the same day, at the same hotel, with Isenberg to discuss the CCNY project and then with Nabors' chief lobbyist on the tax loophole.

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Rangel's multiple ties with tax-exempt foundations smell to high heaven. Rangel’s pricey real estate deals are entwined with his financial connections to several tax-exempt entities.

The IRS says the biggest potential for IRS fraud are tax-exempt non-profits doing deals with other tax-exempt non-profits----all posing as do-gooder "foundations" and “charities.” The NY Post reports at least three tax-exempt entities connected to Rangel‘s finances:

(1) The Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service (Rangel co-opted $2 million via Capitol Hill allocations, plus another $700,000 from Dept of HUD),

(2) The NY Carib News Foundation (organized financing for Rangel’s island-hopping luxe Caribbean trips),

(3) The Ann S. Kheel Charitable Trust---supposedly aids "disadvantaged neighborhoods" gave $440,000 to The Charles B. Rangel Center (the largest single donation in the charity's 4-year history). Theodore Kheel, Esq, VP of Grupo Punta Cana Operating Company, (mortgage holder on Rangel’s luxury villa), donated $17,000 to Rangel's congressional campaigns and $52,000 to a Rangel-run political action committee since 1990, federal filings show. (Ann Kheel is his late wife).

(4) The "tax-exempt Carib News Foundation" subsidized Rangel’s trips to luxury island resorts---perfect places to hide money from the taxman. The published list of known money-laundering havens includes Panama, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Dominica, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Panama, the Philippines, St. Kitts, Israel, and the Grenadines. Suspected tax havens include Cyprus, Gibraltar, Monaco, and Antigua.

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Suspected tax fraud and tax law violations can be reported here

IRS TOLL-FREE 1-800-829-0433 (You may remain anonymous).

EMAIL OAAG.Tax@tax.USDOJ.gov

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