As the scandal around his mayoral campaign fund-raising grows, City Comptroller John Liu insists he's still running for mayor in 2013. He also said that his campaign treasurer 25-year-old Jia "Jenny" Hou, arrested for fraud, was not set up for a fall: "Jenny is a very capable young individual and she is capable as compared to anyone of any age. I’m not hanging anyone out to dry."
Still, the Daily News reports, "Hou — who was paid just $27,678 by Liu’s campaign but given the important title of treasurer — was placed by the feds at the center of an alleged conspiracy to illegally raise political contributions from big-money givers whose identities were elaborately hidden from public view through the use of straw donors. Her age and inexperience have generated the question of whether she was positioned to take a fall for higher-ups who actually engineered the alleged scheme. The federal complaint against Hou did not accuse Liu of knowing what was going on, but hinted strongly that he was aware."
Hou, who was born in Beijing and graduated from Rutgers, is accused of taking much larger donations than legally allowed and funneling them through straw donors. A source said that Hou is taking heat for Chung Seto, Liu's campaign manager, "[Hou] seems like a nice young girl. Everyone knows Chung runs the show."
The source adds that Hou’s father, Jian Li (Peter) Hou, who has been a longtime Liu supporter, will probably encourage her to testify against Liu in exchange for a deal from the feds, "There’s no way he lets his daughter do time to save Liu." Hou faces a maximum of 60 years in prison if convicted.
A staffer in the Comptroller's office told the Post, "She’s going to bring him down."
