Charlie Rangel discloses $660K more in assets

By JOHN BRESNAHAN 8/25/09 8:05 PM EDT

New financial disclosure reports filed by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) show that the veteran lawmaker failed to report more than $660,000 in assets during 2007, a potential violation of House ethics rules.

New financial disclosure reports filed by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) show that the veteran lawmaker failed to report more than $660,000 in assets during 2007, a potential violation of House ethics rules.

Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, also had previously stated that he sold a Florida condominium in 2007, but an amended report covering that year – filed in mid-August – now makes no mention of that transaction. It appears that Rangel no longer owns the condo as it is not listed on his 2008 financial report, filed last month.

The latest revelations on Rangel’s personal finances may prove problematic for the New York Democrat, who is already the target of a wide-ranging ethics investigation. That probe, which Rangel and House Democratic leaders had hoped would last a few months, is now coming up on its one-year anniversary.

The ethics panel is looking into Rangel’s use of several rent-stabilized apartments in a luxury Harlem apartment building, his failure to fully pay taxes on a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and the lawmaker’s fundraising on behalf of the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College in New York City.

The ethics committee recently broadened the Rangel investigation to include Caribbean trips taken by Rangel and four other lawmakers. The panel is seeking to determine if the trips complied with the House’s ban on corporate-funded travel.

Rangel has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but the new financial-disclosure reports for 2007 show at least $662,000 in previously undeclared assets held by the lawmaker.

These assets include several “empty” lots in Glassboro, N.J., valued at more than $3,000; a stock fund worth at least $250,000; an IRA account with more than $250,000 in assets; and investment fund account worth between $50,000 and $100,000.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26438.html#ixzz0PKZmtU26

NOTE: In 2006 and 2008, the Democrats talked about corruption in the Republican Party. One glaring difference is that Republicans resigned that were under the microscope. Rangel is still in Congress from NY with all these revelations. Is the House Ethics Committee going to do anything or is that reserved for Republicans. This man has frauded the taxpayers but no one seems to care on the Dem side of the House. Yesterday it was the Finance Chair of the Dem Senatorial Committee charged fraud. Dems are living up to the mantra that they are for sale to the highest bidder.