Latest news with #COIB
CBS News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio settles over NYPD use during presidential campaign
Former mayor Bill de Blasio fined for using NYPD on out-of-town trips Former mayor Bill de Blasio fined for using NYPD on out-of-town trips Former mayor Bill de Blasio fined for using NYPD on out-of-town trips Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has reached a settlement with the city for using NYPD officers as his security detail on trips during his 2020 presidential campaign. The city's Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) announced the settlement Wednesday after years of litigation. "Today, I settled an outstanding case with the NYC COIB. I acknowledge that I made a mistake, and I deeply regret it. Now it's time to move forward," de Blasio said on social media. De Blasio made history in June 2023 when the COIB served him its largest fine ever -- $155,000 -- and ordered him to reimburse the city $320,000 for violating the City Charter. In response, the former mayor's lawyers filed a suit to stop the board from collecting the money. The COIB said in a statement Wednesday that de Blasio had already paid $100,000, and will pay a total of $329,794.20 in restitution and fines. What is de Blasio accused of doing? Before he announced his presidential run in September 2019, the COIB told de Blasio it would be a "misuse of City resources" to pay for his NYPD detail to join him on the campaign trail, including travel, hotel and overtime costs. Nonetheless, de Blasio took his security detail on 31 out-of-state trips between May 2019 and September 2019. The historic fine came after the Department of Investigation criticized de Blasio for his use of the security detail even when he was in New York City. That report said he used his detail to run errands, pick up coffee and food, and cart his family and friends around like Uber drivers. "It's not security. It's essentially concierge service," former Department of Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnet said in October 2021. De Blasio served as mayor from 2014 to 2021 and later ran for the state's newly redrawn 10th Congressional District but dropped out. In recent months, de Blasio publicly defended Mayor Eric Adams during his federal corruption investigation, and appeared alongside the mayor to announce $167 million toward early childhood education. Renee Anderson Renee Anderson is a digital producer at CBS New York, where she covers breaking news and other local stories. Before joining the team in 2016, Renee worked at WMUR-TV. contributed to this report.
Politico
26-03-2025
- Business
- Politico
Cuomo, who leads the field for New York City mayor, operated consulting firm after leaving public office
NEW YORK: Andrew Cuomo pulled in more than $500,000 last year from a legal consulting firm he established after leaving the governor's mansion, a new financial disclosure showed. And he remains a multimillionaire. The revelations in the form — required for all New York City mayoral candidates and released by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board Wednesday — provide the first indication of how Cuomo has been subsisting since resigning from office in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations he has denied. Innovation Strategies LLC is headquartered at the mayoral hopeful's tony Manhattan apartment ( formerly occupied by his daughter ) and, according to the disclosure form, counts Cuomo as its sole member. According to state business records, the consulting outfit was formed in April 2022, about eight months after Cuomo left office. Cuomo's campaign did not disclose a list of his clients. He has also started to collect his state pension, receiving around $55,000 last year in addition to between $155,000 and $310,000 in interest and dividends. Filings with COIB don't show the exact values of investments. But it's clear the governor is not struggling for cash — in fact he's not only leading the polls but leading his top Democratic rivals in personal wealth. A group of 26 investments and retirement funds boast an aggregate total of between $1.4 million and $3.5 million. Four additional investments were valued at $500,000 or more. So while the former governor's net worth isn't precisely clear from the filing, he has at least $3.4 million — and potentially a whole lot more. Cuomo had a net worth of somewhere around $10 million at the start of his final year in office. Half of that came from his memoir on the pandemic that he was paid $5.1 million to write. It's never been clear how much of this the governor wound up holding on to. He said while filing his taxes that year that all of an initial payment of $3.1 million would go to taxes, a trust fund for his daughters and a $500,000 donation to the United Way. Details on what happened to the remaining $2 million he was due didn't materialize before he left office. The money from that deal has since been subject to a series of probes from the state's ethics commissions — which at one point, attempted to recoup the $5.1 million over allegations he misused state resources to write the memoir. Cuomo lost a lawsuit seeking to block one of these probes last month. There was no mention of the book in his latest financial filing.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mayor Adams aide under NYC Council probe didn't recuse from ex-employer dealings due to ‘miscommunication'
Nate Bliss, a senior aide to Mayor Adams, didn't recuse himself for years from city government business dealings with his ex-employer — and is now blaming the slipup on a 'miscommunication' with the city's ethics agency, the Daily News has learned. Bliss, who's facing a City Council probe over his ties to his ex-employer, Taconic Partners, wrote in a letter to Council investigators last Friday that four days before he left Taconic to join Adams' administration on Jan. 24, 2022, he contacted the Conflicts of Interest Board. Bliss, chief of staff to First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, wrote his conversation focused on whether he needed to recuse himself from engaging in his government capacity with Taconic, which has significant city government business interests. Specifically, he wrote he disclosed to COIB he planned to while at City Hall continue holding stake in a Taconic-managed real estate investment fund. 'I was advised that a general conflict did not exist and that no formal recusal was necessary,' he wrote in the letter obtained by The News. But Bliss wrote he now believes 'there was a miscommunication with COIB' in 2022 about 'the nature' of his fund stake because he got different advice when he reached back out last month — after NBC4 first reported on it. '[I] was advised that I should formally recuse myself from any involvement in any Taconic project,' he wrote of a Jan. 22 exchange with COIB. 'I have and will continue to heed that guidance.' Bliss didn't elaborate on the alleged 2022 miscommunication, and Adams' office wouldn't comment. COIB Executive Director Carolyn Miller declined to comment specifically on Bliss, citing confidentiality rules. As first reported by The News, the Council Oversight and Economic Development Committees launched the Bliss probe last week after it emerged that his jump from Taconic to City Hall happened less than three months before Adams' administration picked Taconic to execute 'Innovation East,' a major redevelopment of the city's Manhattan public health lab. In an initial Jan. 27 request, the committees asked Bliss to, among other matters, furnish records about which properties the Taconic investment fund is invested in and how much money Bliss has been paid by it since joining the administration. Besides disclosing the recusal matter, Bliss wrote in Friday's letter he hasn't received money from the fund since 2022 because his 'carried interest' in it is part of a Taconic 'compensation package' that only generates a return upon liquidation. He said he doesn't know when that may happen. He wrote the fund has invested in six properties — four in Manhattan, one in Westchester County and one in New Jersey — but didn't identify them. He did say the lab Taconic's set to redevelop isn't one of them. Council Oversight Committee Chairwoman Gale Brewer told The News Wednesday she appreciated Bliss' quick response, but said he left questions unanswered. 'We need to know what these other properties are,' Brewer said of the six buildings. Brewer also called it 'strange' Bliss was first told to not recuse. 'We need to know if there was a change in the type of information he was providing [to COIB],' she said. Under local law, city officials are barred from working on issues related to private entities they hold financial interest in. Miller, the COIB executive director, also said officials must by law recuse themselves — not take meetings, receive documents or be copied on emails — about issues involving companies they have financial relationships with, and COIB can levy fines for violations. Bliss' letter says he has had 'no involvement while at City Hall with any project involving' Taconic. Taconic, though, listed Bliss in filings as a lobbying 'target' last year as it sought to secure permits from Adams' administration for Innovation East, which would turn the First Ave. lab into a 500,000 square-foot 'life sciences hub.' Referring to the lobbying disclosure, Bliss wrote he 'can find no record, nor do I recall any discussion or meeting regarding this or any other Taconic project.' The entity that officially picked Taconic for Innovation East was the Economic Development Corporation, which Bliss helps oversee as chief of staff. The EDC said last week Bliss didn't participate in that selection. Besides being chief of staff, Adams appointed Bliss in 2022 to chair the Land Development Corporation, an entity that must ultimately sign off on the Innovation East project. Adams spokeswoman Liz Garcia said Bliss' recusal will cover any LDC action on Innovation East. All but one of LDC's other four members work at the EDC or under Torres-Springer, with several of them reporting to Bliss. Garcia wouldn't say if those members will need recusals. Before any LDC moves, the Council needs to approve a zoning application undergirding Innovation East, and a vote's expected next week. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' office said the Council can by law only consider 'land use merits' of Innovation East as part of next week's vote and that any 'conflicts of interest concerns' must be handled by committees.
