קאנגרעסמאן ווינער 47000 אין שטראפען
Weiner campaign fined $47G
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 17, 2004
WASHINGTON - Rep. Anthony Weiner, a potential New York City mayoral candidate in 2005, has been fined $47,000 to settle fundraising violations in his 2000 campaign for Congress.
The civil penalty stems from an audit by the Federal Election Commission, which issued its findings yesterday.
The FEC said Friends of Weiner took "excessive contributions from 183 individual contributors for the 2000 primary and general elections for which they could not produce documentation." The same audit found the Queens/Brooklyn Democrat's campaign had misreported a loan from the candidate and failed to file necessary paperwork for 29 contributions.
The campaign has agreed to pay the fine to settle the issues, the agency said.
Friends of Weiner also agreed to re-issue refund checks to four contributors totaling $5,000. Similar checks had already been issued by the campaign, but the contributors had not cashed them, the agency said.
"The vast majority of these would not be violations under the current rules," Weiner spokesman Anson Kaye said.
Kaye said the 183 contributions cited by the FEC were largely because of "bookkeeping errors that were technically incorrect."
The spokesman said he was not aware of any more audits being conducted by the FEC, adding the campaign has cooperated with the agency "through every step in the process."
The FEC finding marks the second time this year that Weiner's past campaigns have run afoul of the agency's rules.
In May, the FEC found Weiner received an improper $28,000 loan from his parents during the 1998 campaign.
Weiner, 40, has said that loan was an innocent mistake made when he was squeezed for money and his parents wanted to help.
The three-term congressman is considering running for mayor in 2005 against incumbent Republican Michael Bloomberg.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday
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