Judge says crooked pol Monserrate is like Nixon

Federal Judge McMahon rejected Hiram Monserrate’s tearful plea to stay free so he could care for sick relatives. “You should have thought about them before (looting city tax dollars to finance his campaign).” Montserrate has to repay $79,000 tax dollars he connived while serving on the NY City Council w/ the rest to be paid by co-conspirator Javier Cardenas, who ratted out Monserrate. Monserrate steered $100,000 to Cardenas’ non-profit "Latino Initiative for Better Resources and Empowerment" which took a cut and laundered the rest for Monserrate’s failed 2006 state Senate bid. After sentencing, the convicted Democrat embraced the ex-girlfriend he roughed-up with a broken glass during a jealous rage, leading to his historic ouster from the state Senate seat he won in 2008.

THE NEVERENDING STORY---pols turn n/p into personal piggy banks with tax dollars.

* Queens state Senator Shirley Huntley steered $30,000 to her niece; Huntley was arrested and lost reelection.

* Ex Brooklyn councilman Larry Seabrook was convicted of funneling $1.5 million to his mistress, his sister, two brothers and other pals through a network of nonprofits.

* Ex Bronx state senator Pedro Espada was convicted of looting $545,000 from his federally funded health clinic for vacations, lavish parties...and $1 million to cover his legal fees.

* Ex Queens assemblyman and powerful labor leader Brian McLaughlin stole $3.1 million from public and private enterprises.....and got 10 years in prison.

*....an unlicensed counselor accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl, testified he ripped off his Hasidic Brooklyn charity and spent donations on tuition and at BMG Corset & Lingerie, and other stores...

L/E should rigorously investigate the latino criminal uderworld---corrupt parasites undermining the US political system----proof-positve here that govt documents were falsified to hide the corrupt use of tax dollars. L/E might find the latino underworld doled out tax funds to finance drug habits, sex romps and other outrageous conduct.

Hola. Hispanic Federation honchos--Roberto Ramirez (left) and Luis Miranda--look like they have a BIG secret.

The federation has ties to latino crime family nonprofits---which are corrupt political machines.

Twi$ted web of political nonprofits in Bronx, NY / By CANDICE M. GIOVE; w/ Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein

EXCLUSIVE The dating life of Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera (ousted from office by voters) has shed light on a web of Latino nonprofits in The Bronx — groups that benefit a close-knit network of political insiders as much as the community.

Rivera installed a boyfriend, Vincent Pinela, as head of the Bronx Council for Economic Development, a taxpayer-funded nonprofit he admits being unqualified to run. He alleges she used the group to fund their dates and her campaign.

But the Bronx economic council is only one nonprofit of many organized under the Hispanic Federation, which has taken in $24 million in taxpayer money since 1998. The federation has ties to almost every Hispanic lawmaker in The Bronx, including Rivera, but primarily benefits two men: political strategist Luis Miranda, who co-founded it and once served as its president, and Roberto Ramirez, a former Bronx Democratic Party boss. The men run a private political consulting firm, the MirRam Group. It’s paid by the Hispanic Federation and is hired by politicians who steer taxpayer money to the nonprofit.

A NY Post investigation has found:

<><><>* The Hispanic Federation paid MirRam and Miranda Towns, a firm registered to Miranda and his wife, $681,644 between 1999 and 2008 for “consulting,” records show.

<><><>* In 2005, the federation paid MirRam $88,000 to survey Latinos on topics including the mayor’s race. At the same time, MirRam was paid $1.37 million by Fernando Ferrer, then a mayoral candidate.

<><><>* Ramirez and Miranda gave political allies jobs at the nonprofit. Ex-Secretary of State Lorraine Cortez Vazquez, who had been Ramirez’s chief of staff, made more than $180,000 a year there.

<><><>* The Hispanic Federation paid MirRam $33,000 this year to lobby the City Council, records show.

<><><>* The group often pays out small amounts, from $400 to $800, to individuals without detailing why on official documents as required by law. A source in the group said these are sometimes payments for favor. "I have to pay a lady who is bringing latino seniors to a political event,” the source said. “They promised to send the lady to the Dominican Republic with her family in exchange for rounding up votes.” An Hispanic Federation spokesman lied---and said the payments were for families of victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed in Queens in 2001, or "other people in need."

Miranda launched the Hispanic Federation in 1990, the year Ramirez won an Assembly seat in Fordham. Ramirez left politics in 2000 and handed the party reins to Assemblyman José Rivera, father of sexpot Naomi, in 2002. Insiders say that if you want influence in The Bronx, you have to deal with the Hispanic Federation and, by extension, MirRam consultants. Nonprofits, for instance, pay the Hispanic Federation to do their bookkeeping.

Rivera's Bronx Economic Development council was charged $12,000 a year for Hispanic Federation services according toher boytoy Pinela. Every year, the federation throws a fund-raising gala packed with politicians---a bash at the Waldorf-Astoria last Apri1 brought out mayoral hopefuls City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson and New York Giant Victor Cruz.

But the blurring of a nonprofit and a consultant group means there’s little or no accountability, said the source inside the Hispanic Federation. “If we were helping the Little League around the corner to get bats or gloves . . . the ends justify the means,” the source said. “But when you are giving extra money to a senior center because they delivered people to a [political] event, it’s a different story.”

A federation spokesman called the allegations “simply untrue,” saying it only provides funds for those in need of disaster relief. As for payments to MirRam, the group noted that Miranda was no longer its president and MirRam is “arguably the top Latino lobbying and strategic consulting firm in our city.”

SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/twi_ted_web_in_bx_Fxatn1KxaBpb4reW6SaeqI#ixzz24f02JyRG

With Chicago connections, Hiram coulda stolen TRILLIONS...and even become president...

True....so true.

Man, I really get bummed when people suggest Obama should only appoint "honest, competent people" to high govt posts. Give the guy a break---Obama is a product of the Chicago political machine---he’s never in his life met anyone who is "honest and competent."

Just look at his first Cabinet appointees: a treasury secretary who couldn’t figure out how to pay his own taxes. His attorney general actually thought selling guns to savage Mexican drug cartels was a good thing.

Then there's Obama’s secretaries of commerce given the power of job creation and economic growth. Where have they been the past four years? Getting into Vegas hot tubs with Obama's GSA people?

Heck, we're dammed lucky Obama appointed only one czar who was a card-carrying Communist (that we know of).

So Susan Rice adjusted her jock strap and went on Sunday talk TV? Big frickin' deal. So she misled everyone about Benghazi, saying a YouTube video caused the deaths of four Americans?

Come on. Down in Chicago everybody knows Pearl Harbor was sparked by a Charlie Chan movie.

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