John Liu (Christopher Sadowski)
The fund-raiser accused of funneling illegal contributions to embattled city Comptroller John Liu’s campaign told an undercover FBI agent posing as a deep-pocketed businessman that Liu would know the money came from him and be dished out through a variety of straw donors, according to a secretly made video played in court yesterday.
Special Agent John Chiue, posing as restaurant consultant “Richard Kong,” testified that in July 2011, he recorded former Liu bundler Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan with a hidden camera in the wooded backyard of Pan’s New Jersey home, discussing plans for a fund-raising event at which “Kong” would provide all the money.
Pan: “I say, ‘hey, hey, John, uh, I have 20 people, donating 800.’ Date and time, come here, he’ll run here. He’ll run over and then (unintelligible) ‘Hey, John, it’s all from . . .”
Chiue/Kong: “One person.”
Pan: “All from Richard.”
Chiue/Kong: “Yeah.”
Pan: “He knows.”
Chiue testified that the “he” in question was Liu, now one of the Democratic candidates seeking to succeed Mayor Bloomberg.
During a phone call two days before the event, Chiue explicitly asked Pan: “So J.L. knows that uh . . . that uh . . . the 20,000 is coming from me, right?”
“Well, I . . . I told him this whole event is yours,” Pan answered.
When Chiue then pressed to find out if Pan told Liu why he wanted to “make the contribution,” Pan insisted, “He got the hint.”
On another recording that the Manhattan federal jury hasn’t yet heard, Pan introduced Liu to Chiue during the August 2011 fund-raiser in Chinatown, saying: “Tonight his event,” according to a transcript.
Chiue then told the mayoral hopeful that he wanted to open a P.F. Chang’s or Pei Wei Asian Diner chain restaurant in New York City — leading to a potentially embarrassing moment in which the Taiwanese-born Liu admitted, “My wife loves to go to P.F. Chang’s.”
But Chiue complained that there are “many departments” to deal with in the city and that “the political climate isn’t . . . uh, favorable right now.”
After Chiue asked if Liu could help him “down the road,” Liu noted it would be “Twenty-two months away” — around the time of this year’s mayoral election.
“Well you could help me down the road just by placing a phone call, ‘Hey . . .’ you know. Plus I’ll be able to bring jobs to the city,” Chiue said.
“That’s good, right,” Liu said.
Later, while apparently speaking to the crowd, Liu praised “Kong” as a “wonderful person.”
“We just had a nice discussion about what, uh, he does and what he would like to do for New York City. I think it’s a great idea and looking forward to making sure that happens,” Liu added.
Liu, who hasn’t been charged, has steadfastly denied any knowledge of crooked contributions to his campaign. His lawyer didn’t return requests for comment yesterday evening.