Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance announced that Republican operative John Haggerty was indicted for allegedly stealing $1.1 million of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's money. The Post explains, "The indictment came after The Post ran a series of stories detailing how the mayor wired $1.2 million to the state Independence Party in two transactions right before the [2009] election so it could transfer $750,000 to Haggerty, a once-trusted member of Bloomberg's campaign team, for the poll-watching effort."

The Daily News adds where the money probably went, "Haggerty worked in Bloomberg's Sixth Ave. campaign office but was not on the payroll, and told staffers there he was a volunteer. He has never explained how he spent the bulk of the $750,000, but the Daily News reported in February that he bought out his brother's share of their $1.6 million family home six days later."

The Manhattan DA's office charged Haggarty and his "Special Election Operations" with grand larceny, money laundering and falsifying business records:

SPECIAL ELECTION OPERATIONS, LLC, was purported to be a vendor for the Election Day operation, to be paid for extensive work by the Independence Party. At the time the work needed to be done, the company had not even been created, and Mayor Bloomberg and his campaign staff did not know about its purported existence or its alleged involvement in the Election Day operation... HAGGERTY created the company on December 3, 2009 - a month after Election Day - and within days opened a bank account in the company's name. On December 11, 2009, the Party wired $750,000 from its housekeeping account to the SPECIAL ELECTION OPERATIONS account. HAGGERTY then used approximately $600,000 of the stolen funds to purchase a home.

After Election Day, HAGGERTY tried to conceal his theft and laundering of the money by falsely telling Mayor Bloomberg's campaign workers that he had actually made significant expenditures on ballot security and poll watching. To corroborate those false claims, HAGGERTY presented a campaign representative with three bogus paychecks for poll watchers.


Vance said, "This case is about theft and greed, but it is also about transparency and the integrity of the electoral process. Haggerty grossly abused his position within the campaign that trusted him with important matters. At a time when the public is particularly distrusting about our state government processes, his use of a shell company to conceal his involvement from the public simply further breeds cynicism."

The Post also reports, "The mayor had been so pleased with his efforts that he sent him a separate $120,000 contribution three weeks after the election so Haggerty could launch his own political action committee." The mayor declined to comment on the matter, saying only, "The district attorney, as you know, has asked us not to comment on the case and we'll respect the district attorney's wishes... There's nothing else I can say about this."

Haggerty is now "volunteering" for gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino's campaign; Paladino's spokesman told the Daily Politics, "Unlike a typical career politician, Carl Paladino doesn't throw his friends under the bus. John Haggerty joined our campaign just 45 days ago and he quickly became a part of our family. He's a loyal and straightforward man of character. And, like all Americans, he enters this investigation with the presumption of innocence. We are satisfied with John's version of events and he will remain on our team in his present capacity."