John Liu can still rake in the dough, but his legal bills are through the roof.
The embattled city comptroller – who continues to raise funds for what many expect will be a mayoral bid next year – took in $577,100 over the past six months, but spent a whopping $165,341 on attorneys’ fees, according to records released yesterday by the city Campaign Finance Board.
Liu spent $341,810 overall during the last filing period, meaning nearly half his expenditures went to his team’s legal defense.
Once considered a top-tier Democratic candidate for the mayoralty, Liu is now dealing with a federal probe into his campaign finances that has so far yielded charges against a donor and a treasurer.
His spokesman, George Arzt, pointed out his legal fees “make up only a small percentage” of the $6.4 million a mayoral candidate can spend on a race.
Arzt said the campaign is paying for attorneys for its staff, but he refused to name individual employees.
Among Liu’s expenses in the last filing period were two payments to former treasurer Jia “Jenny” Hou, who was arrested for participating in an alleged scheme in which contributors skirted campaign finance caps by dishing out large sums of money to “straw donors.” Those donors then gave the funds to Liu’s war chest in legal limits not exceeding $4,950 per person.
Liu paid Hou $3,075 on Feb. 1, before she was charged, and $2,554 on April 14, after she was arrested.
Arzt said Hou’s attorney’s fees have not been covered by the campaign since her indictment, even though Liu’s organization paid for them before that.
Overall, Liu has raised $2.6 million, spent $750,712 and has more than $1.8 million on hand.
During the last filing period, which began in January, he took substantial cash from the political arms of the city’s powerful labor unions, such as the Hotel Trades Council, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the United Federation of Teachers.
He also gave himself a donation of $4,150.
Of his total war chest, $349,598 qualifies for the city’s 6-1 matching program, which is backed by taxpayer money.
Liu’s fundraising trumped former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, who only reported raising about $500,000 in the last quarter in his bid for mayor. His final numbers were unavailable yesterday.
Thompson still owes the city nearly $600,000 in fines for campaign poster violations in 2009, when he challenged Mayor Bloomberg.