Federal prosecutors are probing a charity set up by two powerful Queens lawmakers that pledged to help Hurricane Katrina victims — but only paid out a small fraction of the $31,000 raised for the relief effort, The Post has learned.
Law-enforcement sources said yesterday that the US Attorney is investigating the charity and its relief effort, called New Yorkers Organized to Assist Hurricane Families (NOAH-F), which was created by Rep. Gregory Meeks and state Sen. Malcolm Smith.
A Post probe found that the charity, New Direction Local Development Corp., gave out only $1,392 of the cash donations collected under the auspices of helping hurricane victims, according to federal tax records.
The law-enforcement source said the investigation has been ongoing, beginning before The Post began reporting irregularities with the charity two weeks ago.
Investigations of tax-exempt charities are typically conducted by the state Attorney General’s office. But a spokesman for Andrew Cuomo yesterday said they stepped aside because the federal probe was already under way.
“The Attorney General’s Office is not looking into it because another law-enforcement agency already is,” said a Cuomo spokesman, who would not specify which agency was probing the charity.
The Post reports have also raised questions about how the Meeks-Smith charity used hundreds of thousands of dollars, including taxpayer funds, for projects other than the hurricane relief effort.
Smith yesterday insisted he had no role in handling the hurricane relief money.
“I’m not involved in the day-to-day operation. I don’t sign checks. I don’t manage the books,” he said. “To the say that I had something to do with the funds not being spent is just outrageous.”
And he welcomed an investigation.
“I think it’s a good thing. We should find out what happened to the money,” Smith said. “If they made a mistake or did something wrong, that should come out.”
Meeks did not respond to a request for comment on the federal probe.