Asian-American political corruption

A fund-raiser for the New York City comptroller, John C. Liu, whose campaign finances are under federal investigation, has been arrested on charges of attempted wire fraud and conspiracy, people briefed on the matter said. The charges against the man, Xing Wu Pan, do not mention Liu, but say that Pan served as a bundler — or person who gathers donations from a group of contributors — for a citywide candidate in New York for the 2013 election. A person briefed on the matter said that the candidate was Liu. The arrest underscores the political peril for Liu, who is considered a rising star in New York politics and a possible successor to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Liu has quickly amassed more than $1 million in campaign contributions, but questions have surfaced about the legitimacy of his donations. The charges say that someone approached Pan, 46, of Hudson County, N.J., in July 2011 and said that they wanted to donate $16,000 to the candidate, far in excess of the city-imposed limit of $4,950 for individual contributions. Pan, according to the charges, sought to send the money to Liu’s campaign by using 20 straw donors — people who are recorded in campaign finance documents as giving to a candidate but actually serve as conduits for money from an unseen large donor, the person said. That allowed Pan to circumvent the limits, according to the charges. Campaign records from the 2009 election list Xing Wu Pan, the president of a company called Golden Arrow Property LLC, as a donor to Liu’s campaign who contributed more than $3,000. Liu has been struggling to address questions about his fund-raising after a report in The New York Times found that some people listed as his campaign donors said that they had never given money to Liu. In other cases, people named as donors could not be located, or were listed as employees of companies that they did not work for. Federal authorities are investigating Liu’s campaign fund-raising operation and have in recent days subpoenaed records from his campaign and from a city contractor whose employees were listed as having contributed thousands of dollars to his campaign. It is unclear whether the current inquiry is related to an investigation begun by Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in late 2009. That investigation, which had not previously been made public, focused on whether foreign money flowed to Liu’s 2009 campaign for comptroller, two people with knowledge of the inquiry said. Liu, one of a handful of contenders for mayor in 2013, initially insisted that his finances were in order, and brushed aside suggestions that he ask an outsider for help, saying that such a process might be too costly. After mounting criticism of his fund-raising, however, Liu selected Robert Abrams, who was the New York State attorney general from 1979 to 1993, to conduct a review. Liu has said that since the federal inquiry was disclosed that he might suspend that review. Liu has climbed quickly in politics in the city in part because of the passionate support he has received from Asian voters and businesspeople here. His campaign collected $1 million in contributions during the first six months of 2011, with contributions made up mostly of $800 donations from Asian-Americans around the country. The number eight is considered lucky in Chinese culture.