Lafazan didn't disclose two-year-old loan until last week

                                                                           

Josh Lafazan

                                                                                                                       

Although Nassau County requires public officials to disclose their debts, Nassau Legis. Josh Lafazan for two years did not report a 2020 loan of as much as $100,000 that he received from a billionaire couple.

Lafazan, a Woodbury Democrat who lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to Congress last month, waited until last Wednesday to amend his 2021 and 2022 Nassau financial disclosure forms to reflect a "student loan" from billionaire investor Bryan Lawrence and his wife Elizabeth. 

By then, Lafazan, who was elected to the county legislature in 2017, had already lost his primary race for the Democratic nomination to run for the 3rd Congressional District being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove); a political rival had requested a federal investigation into the loan; and alleged Lafazan disclosure forms that did not disclose the loan had been circulating for a month.

Last Friday, Lafazan's initialed and amended disclosures were released by the County Board  of Ethics pursuant to a Freedom of Information request.

The county requires elected officials and other county officers to file annual financial disclosures by May 15 of the following year.

The 2021 disclosure, covering the previous year of 2020, shows it was started on April 26, 2021 at 1:41 p.m. and completed on April 26, 2012 at 2:14 p.m. The amended disclosure shows the same start time but says it was completed on Sept, 7, 2020 at 2:20 p.m.

                     

The amended 2022 disclosure, for the 2021 year, says it was started May 16, 2022 but completed Sept. 7, 2022 at 2:23 p.m.

Nothing was listed under debts on the initial disclosures for 2020 and 2021. The amended disclosures showed this addition.. (note the amount category was improperly redacted.)

                                                                              

 

 

 

 

Neither Lafazan nor the county's legislative Democratic spokesman responded to inquiries asking why Lafazan waited so long to disclose the loan.

Lafazan's amendments to his county forms came more than a month after The New York Post on Aug. 6 questioned the loan.

The U.S. House of Representatives website shows that Lafazan filed two disclosures in May reporting the 2020 loan,  totaling between of $50,001 to $100,000.

Since the loan was made in September. 2020 -- before Lafazan started his Congressional campaign -- it would not violate election law limiting individual donations, the Post reported, unless it allowed him to pay for campaign expenses with money that was not his own.

Democrat National Committeeman Robert Zimmerman, who won the primary, asked for a probe by the Federal Election Commission.

“The FEC should investigate whether the initial loan was itself intended to influence and be funneled to the campaign or whether it was simply intended to free up other funds for the campaign,” said Zimmerman’s campaign manager Evan Chernack," the Post reported.

It reported the billionaire couple also donated more than $20,000 to the legislator's Congressional campaign; $5,800 was returned because it exceeded campaign contribution limits.

But forget federal election laws.

Nassau County law requires disclosure of all debts more than $5,000.

The County Administrative Code says the Nassau Board of Ethics may impose as much as a $10,000 fine for incomplete reporting on financial disclosure forms, which also can be to punishable as a Class A misdemeanor.

Here is the penalty section:

"A reporting individual who files an annual statement of financial
disclosure after the date for filing provided in this act or in accordance with the
Rules and Regulations of the Nassau County Board of Ethics; or who files an
incomplete annual statement of financial disclosure; or who knowingly and/or
willfully fails to file a complete annual statement of financial disclosure or who
knowingly and willfully with intent to deceive makes a false statement or gives
information which such individual knows to be false on such statement of
financial disclosure filed pursuant to this law may be assessed a civil penalty
in an amount not to exceed ten thousand ($10,000.00) dollars. Assessment of
a civil penalty may be made by the Board of Ethics with respect to persons
subject to its jurisdiction. The Board of Ethics acting pursuant to the law may
impose a civil penalty as aforesaid. Such a violation may also be punishable as
a class A misdemeanor regardless of whether a civil penalty is imposed."

In Suffolk County, two officials have been prosecuted in the past ten years for filing incomplete financial disclosure forms: former IT commissioner Donald C. Rogers and and Republican county legislator Rudolph Sunderman of Mastic.

In Nassau, no officials have been prosecuted for incomplete disclosure.

Instead, the Nassau Board of Ethics in the past has simply directed officials to amend the disclosures to include the unreported information -- after inquiries had been made the omissions.

This was the case, for example, with former County Legislator Roger Corbin (D-Westbury) who failed to disclose past foreclosures and other debts in 2006.

Corbin subsequently pleaded guilty to federal charges of filing false tax returns, tax evasion and filing false statements  and also served time for taking bribes from the developer of a New Cassel redevelopment project.

Let's see if the Board of Ethics takes any action against Lafazan.

Meanwhile Nassau Legislative Democrats still have not released the cost of taxpayer-paid county mailings that Lafazan sent constituents during his Congressional campaign. They are still deciding whether the cost is public record.