City Comptroller John Liu is having trouble keeping track of his own lies.
When The Post uncovered e-mails revealing that Liu has been paying his political guru with campaign cash to help run his city office, Liu just swore he had a letter from ethics officials certifying the dubious arrangement as A-OK.
But like most everything that comes out of Liu’s mouth, the assertion was false.
No such letter from the Conflicts of Interest Board exists, The Post’s Josh Margolin reported yesterday — just a bogus “contract” that Liu’s lawyer drafted and that explicitly bars his political chief, Chung Seto, from having any “supervisory role or authority” in the comptroller’s office.
Government watchdogs have never seen its like. “This is a clear, blatant attempt to circumvent the city’s ethics law. You can’t exempt yourself by contract from the ethics law or any other law,” said Susan Lerner, director of Common Cause New York.
It’s a bedrock rule of office that city officials separate their political activities from city business. All the more so for the comptroller, who oversees New York’s $70 billion budget and $120 billion pension funds.
But e-mails show Seto mixing both from Day One: referring financial advisers (and huge potential tax-funded fees) to the city’s pension czar, a Liu deputy; managing Liu’s official communications with the White House; even choosing decorations in Liu’s office.
Moreover, as The Post reported last year, Seto even joined Liu when he visited potential pension investors — where she presented herself as a top aide with a hand in making his office’s financial decisions.
This reputed “co-comptroller” may be next in line for arrest as the feds deepen their two-year investigation of Liu’s dubious fund-raising. Seto helped run the very campaign that the feds believe was a vast criminal enterprise that swallowed tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign cash from so-called “straw donors.”
The feds arrested Liu’s erstwhile campaign treasurer last month, but all indications are that she’s a small fish. Next up could well be the sharks: Seto and perhaps Liu himself.
Neither has any business being within a square mile of public office. They need to get out, immediately — before the feds cart them off in cuffs.