Rangel Under Cloud of Suspicion
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The House ethics committee publicly admonished Rangel this week for allowing a private corporation to pay for trips he and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus took to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 -- a scandal that had become fodder for a New York Post cover. Rangel said Thursday that his staff erred in booking the trips.
Rangel is accused of improperly using House stationery to solicit donations for a school of public affairs named after him at City College of New York.
Rangel is being investigated for his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and income. That includes income taxes on a Caribbean villa in the Dominican Republic.
The unreported assets included the use of four, rent-controlled apartments in Harlem that brought in between $30,000 to $100,000; a federal credit union account worth between $250,001 and $500,000; a Merrill Lynch account valued between $250,000 and $500,000, and tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds.
In an incident that isn't under investigation but still embarrassing, Rangel's 1972 Mercedes-Benz was towed out of a House of Representatives parking garage in September 2008. The vehicle, which did not run and was under an expired registration, had been covered with a tarp in the garage, but the House prohibits storage of inoperable vehicles. (YouTube)
The ethics committee is also looking into questions about an off-shore firm asking Rangel for special tax exemptions.