What to Know
- Auditors found that the campaign of former congressman Anthony Weiner misused campaign funds
- Weiner allegedly spent over $1,500 of campaign funds on personal cellphone bills and dry cleaning
- The campaign was fined $27,724 for post-election expenditures, including $46,169 to a consultant
Ex-mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner continues his precipitous fall from grace; this time, he's been slapped with $64,956 in fines by the city Campaign Finance Board Thursday for misusing campaign funds over the past decade.
The board unanimously voted to fine his campaign for ten violations of campaign law, including accepting contributions from corporations and making impermissible post-election expenditures.
Weiner's campaign spent $1,539 on dry cleaning and bills for two cellphones. The campaign said one of the phones was a personal line used for fundraising in 2013 and the other was acquired during his 2005 mayoral campaign.
He received a $2,308 fine for these violations since converting campaign funds to personal use is prohibited.
He was fined another $22,031 for spending $600 on TVs and over $56,000 on improperly documented labor.
The former congressman's campaign spent $115,268 post-election, including $46,169 to a consultant. The CFB found that the expense was impermissible because the campaign didn't provide documentation for the individuals they paid.
Local
Weiner allegedly accepted 21 over-the-limit contributions in excess of the allowable limit of $4,950, as well as two illegitimate gifts from corporations.
The campaign will have to repay $196,377 in unused taxpayer matching funds. A source close to the 2013 Weiner campaign said the amount is money left in his account; by law, it will be returned to taxpayers.
The source added that the CFB fine is minute relative to the amount of money raised and spent over 10 years. The audit dates back to 2006.
The CFB says Weiner has 30 days to appeal the near-$65,000 penalty through an Article 78 proceeding. Should he choose not to appeal, he has 30 days to pay the fine once a final decision is issued next week.
Weiner's ill-fated 2013 campaign imploded after reports of him sexting with multiple women resurfaced two years after he resigned from congress for the same behavior.
He entered rehab for sex addiction in September 2016, a month after his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, announced their separation.
