Convicted former Assemblyman Clarence Norman’s political committees played fast and loose with their campaign accounting………..

If an illegally large $5,000 donation came in, campaign treasurer Carmen Martinez said she would count some of the cash as rent reimbursement and deposit a legal amount as a contribution.

Norman’s re-election committee also funneled thousands to ally Alan Hevesi’s mayoral campaign by paying for campaign supplies on Hevesi’s behalf……

Norman told Martinez that it was a short-term loan, but Hevesi never paid Norman’s re-election committee back…..

Hevesi did pay $20,000 to a Norman political committee……that money never returned to Norman’s re-election committee.

Norman is on trial for allegedly swiping another batch of Hevesi-related money: a $5,000 check to his political committee.

Norman claims he knew it was payback for cash loaned to a Hevesi get-out-the-vote effort……it may have been “a big error” to deposit it into his personal account, but he didn’t mean to steal it.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com Link to the story is dead but the rest is …

On September 29, 2005 Brooklyn Demo boss Clarence Norman was swifttly convicted in the first of four criminal trials. Norman had to give up his 15-year party post, as well as his Assembly seat, after being convicted on two felony counts of violating state election law and two counts of falsifying business records.

Prosecutors are also seeking evidence that the disgraced Brooklyn Democrap boss Clarence Norman sold borough judgeships, and have subpoenaed documents related to his father’s church and Brooklyn prosecutors demanded documents from a local development corporation run by the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights, which is controlled by Norman’s pastor father, to see if the pol funneled alleged judge-bribe money into or through the church.

Prosecutors have previously said that they have been poring over Norman’s bank accounts and other financial documents in an effort to trace whether he received bribes or kickbacks. Sources close to the case said prosecutors also suspect that Norman may have used other institutions to stash his cash.

And what about the detour campaign donations make into the coffers of some govt-created “non-profit organization” where it will be laundered, before moving offshore. I say we need a law that forces travel agencies to reveal the number of trips politicans take to offshore banking havens.

Blast from the recent past.. culture of corruption is not one sided, the media only covers one side is all.