Lawmakers’ Charity Was SUPPOSED To ‘Empower’ Minority Kids, Spent Money On Limos And Concerts Instead

I love this kind of investigative work.

According to this, a bunch of liberal lawmakers in New York have been pulling everyone’s leg.

You see, they had a charity (the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc.) that was supposed to help “African American and Latino youth through education and leadership initiatives.” How would they do that? By “providing opportunity to higher education.”

That’s code for handing out scholarships, right? Any reasonable person would assume that.

They did nothing of the sort. Rather, they used the money they collected– $500,000, to be exact– on rap music and limos.

The group collects money from companies like AT&T, the Real Estate Board of New York, Time Warner Cable and CableVision, telling them in promotional materials that they are “changing lives, one scholarship at a time.”

The group — called the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc. — instead spent $500,000 in the 2015 – 2016 fiscal year on items like food, limousines and rap music, the Post found.

The politicians refused to divulge the charity’s 2017 tax filing to the Post despite federal requirements that charities do so upon request.

Its main activity is holding and selling tickets to an elaborate party each year intended to raise money for its stated mission of providing scholarships for youth. But year after year, essentially all the money simply seems to go to festivities.

I’m getting serious Corrine Brown vibes right now. How’s prison, BTW?

The charity’s treasurer, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow of Westchester, expressed no knowledge of the charity’s activities.

“I just sign the checks they give me,” he said.

Hm. Sounds promising.

State. Sen. Leroy Comrie of Queens, the group’s number two, refused to come out when Post reporter Isabel Vincent stopped by his office. All of the politicians mentioned are Democrats.

Of course they are.

At the end of the day, this group hasn’t handed out one scholarship in two years. Even when the group participated in charitable work, it was lame at best.

The charity gave $35,745 of its $564,677 in revenue to scholarships in the 2014 to 2015 fiscal year, according to the Post.

That’s it? Oh wait. There’s more. That same year, the group spent “$85,000 on a concert with Eric Benet and Regina Belle, and $157,000 on food, according to the Times-Union’s analysis of its tax filings.”

They spent more on concerts and food than actual scholarships.

What a sham.

h/t Daily Caller