State Senator James Sanders Jr. (D-Rochdale Village) today fired back
against accusations that he demanded a kickback in order to provide
discretionary funds to a money seeking group. He called the story,
which ran in today’s New York Post, completely bogus and a blatant
attempt to taint his image as he prepares to run for a congressional
seat.
“I believe this a politically motivated, slanderous hit piece,” Sanders said. “The truth is being stood on its head. I built my political life as a reformer, one who has worked tirelessly to clean up our community and to be accused of seeking a kickback defies reality. To be accused of such a crime is an attempt to tarnish my history of standing against corruption. We shall have our day in court. The money seeking group will have to answer for their perjury and the puppet masters responsible for using them to smear me will have to answer for their actions.”
The kick back incident was alleged to have taken place while Sanders was still a City Council Member, but after he won his current State Senate seat. In the NY Post story, the leaders of the money seeking group state that in a September 25, 2012 meeting, Sanders offered them $1.7 Million in taxpayer money to expand their business in exchange for a $250,000 cut.
The money seeking group filed a civilian crime report with the office of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara regarding the kickback claim, three years later, according to the Post story. Sanders is going to Bharara’s office tomorrow, with an attorney present, where he will offer to take a polygraph (lie detector test) to clear his name, but he wants the money seeking group to also take one.
“These specious allegations cannot go unanswered. There are laws afoot and one of them is called perjury,” Sanders said. “We are calling upon U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to enforce the law on perjury, the law on giving a false statement.”
Sanders was quick to point out several holes in the money seeking group’s story. First, it is unlikely that he was even in town on the day of the alleged meeting. Sanders’ chief of staff at the time Donovan Richards, now a City Council Member and an aide Mike Lopes, who were purportedly involved in the discussion have both said they have no recollection of the incident. Several months before, Lopes had already taken another job and by that time and was no longer employed by Sanders.
Also, the money seeking group does not have 501(c)3 status and could not have received discretionary funding in the first place. Even, hypothetically, if money were to have been given, it would have had to go through a city agency – the Parks Department, because the land they wanted to utilize was park land. The Parks Department would have then reimbursed them for the money they spent if they were able to document their expenditures with receipts.
“Capital money is the hardest money to distribute,” Sanders said. “There are so many restrictions that it would be the most difficult money to do any skullduggery with. Plus the city’s budget had already been finalized on July 1st, months before this meeting was supposed to have happened. There is no way I could have given them any money.”
Sanders went on to explain that he has only had brief conversations with money seeking group regarding their work, but nothing that involved financing. The money seeking group has had run-ins with other non-profits in the community, and allegedly threatened the life of the leader of one of those groups, causing the police to intervene.
“This is a group of dubious distinction,” Sanders said. “This group is not unknown to the police.”
About four months ago, Sanders tried to broker peace between the money seeking group and the non-profit that they were allegedly feuding with, but it went nowhere.
“I said “Is there anything I could do to bring peace between your organizations and they said, ‘There is nothing you can do.’ After that I left because there was no sense in me sitting there, and that was the last interaction I had with them.”
“I believe this a politically motivated, slanderous hit piece,” Sanders said. “The truth is being stood on its head. I built my political life as a reformer, one who has worked tirelessly to clean up our community and to be accused of seeking a kickback defies reality. To be accused of such a crime is an attempt to tarnish my history of standing against corruption. We shall have our day in court. The money seeking group will have to answer for their perjury and the puppet masters responsible for using them to smear me will have to answer for their actions.”
The kick back incident was alleged to have taken place while Sanders was still a City Council Member, but after he won his current State Senate seat. In the NY Post story, the leaders of the money seeking group state that in a September 25, 2012 meeting, Sanders offered them $1.7 Million in taxpayer money to expand their business in exchange for a $250,000 cut.
The money seeking group filed a civilian crime report with the office of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara regarding the kickback claim, three years later, according to the Post story. Sanders is going to Bharara’s office tomorrow, with an attorney present, where he will offer to take a polygraph (lie detector test) to clear his name, but he wants the money seeking group to also take one.
“These specious allegations cannot go unanswered. There are laws afoot and one of them is called perjury,” Sanders said. “We are calling upon U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to enforce the law on perjury, the law on giving a false statement.”
Sanders was quick to point out several holes in the money seeking group’s story. First, it is unlikely that he was even in town on the day of the alleged meeting. Sanders’ chief of staff at the time Donovan Richards, now a City Council Member and an aide Mike Lopes, who were purportedly involved in the discussion have both said they have no recollection of the incident. Several months before, Lopes had already taken another job and by that time and was no longer employed by Sanders.
Also, the money seeking group does not have 501(c)3 status and could not have received discretionary funding in the first place. Even, hypothetically, if money were to have been given, it would have had to go through a city agency – the Parks Department, because the land they wanted to utilize was park land. The Parks Department would have then reimbursed them for the money they spent if they were able to document their expenditures with receipts.
“Capital money is the hardest money to distribute,” Sanders said. “There are so many restrictions that it would be the most difficult money to do any skullduggery with. Plus the city’s budget had already been finalized on July 1st, months before this meeting was supposed to have happened. There is no way I could have given them any money.”
Sanders went on to explain that he has only had brief conversations with money seeking group regarding their work, but nothing that involved financing. The money seeking group has had run-ins with other non-profits in the community, and allegedly threatened the life of the leader of one of those groups, causing the police to intervene.
“This is a group of dubious distinction,” Sanders said. “This group is not unknown to the police.”
About four months ago, Sanders tried to broker peace between the money seeking group and the non-profit that they were allegedly feuding with, but it went nowhere.
“I said “Is there anything I could do to bring peace between your organizations and they said, ‘There is nothing you can do.’ After that I left because there was no sense in me sitting there, and that was the last interaction I had with them.”
Source: The Office of New York State Senator James Sanders, Jr.
What's so sad is that the Senator faught tirelessly for his reputation. Where was your reputation when we showed proof that RDRC owed myself Chef Moses $1,000 for services rendered which haven't been paid to date? As far as protecting your constituents, you were told of the situation and it wasn't taken care of till this day. Take a polygraph for that one because we have the proof......
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