TROUBLE AHEAD:Xing Wu Pan, who maintains this office in Manhattan’s Chinatown as well as two in New Jersey, leaves federal court last night after being charged with funneling fake contributions to the campaign of city Comptroller John Liu.
HAD BETTER DAYS: Comptroller John Liu arrives at his office yesterday, as his Chinatown money man Xing Wu Pan faced federal charges. (Chad Rachman/New York Post)
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A top fund-raiser for Comptroller John Liu was busted by the feds yesterday for allegedly providing the city’s chief fiscal officer with thousands of dollars in sham donations in order to evade campaign-finance laws.
The charges against Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan yesterday delivered a devastating blow to Liu’s ambitions of running for mayor in 2013, and have raised questions about his role as the city’s top fiscal officer.
Pan, 46, of New Jersey was charged with attempted wire fraud and conspiracy for allegedly funneling $16,000 in donations through 20 phony “straw donors” to Liu’s 2013 campaign account.
The $16,000 was nearly four times the $4,950 individual limit allowed for citywide campaigns, according to the federal complaint filed by the Manhattan US attorney.
Each straw donor was listed as providing $800 to Liu.
The alleged scam also enabled Liu to qualify for thousands of dollars more in taxpayer matching funds to fatten his campaign kitty.
Pan received the $16,000 from an undercover FBI agent who spoke to him in English and Mandarin during recorded conversations that are part of a probe of Liu’s campaign finances. The sting started in March and continued with meetings through the summer.
During the taped conversations in Manhattan, Pan said he had previously funneled illegal straw donations to Liu and at least one other local candidate, the complaint said.
Pan even allegedly set up a sham downtown fund-raising event for Liu on Aug. 17, where he introduced the undercover agent-donor to the comptroller. The defendant also had the agent hand over the straw-donor cards with $800 contributions to Liu’s treasurer, Jia Hou.
On Oct. 20, the FBI confronted Pan about the alleged fund-raising scam. Pan admitted to the illegal scheme and confessed that the straw donors were family members, co-workers or friends, the complaint said.
The Liu camp knew Pan well. He personally contributed at least $3,150 to Liu campaigns going back to 2005 — including his successful race for comptroller in 2009.
Pan’s political activity extended beyond Liu. He was listed as a Chinese-American co-chairman and fund-raiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Pan himself contributed $4,000 to that campaign. But much of that money was returned in September 2007 — at the same time the Clinton campaign returned funds collected from Norman Hsu, the disgraced national Democratic fund-raiser sentenced in 2009 to more than 24 years in prison for operating an $80 million Ponzi scheme and for illegally funneling contributions to candidates through straw donors.
A real-estate developer, Pan is listed as president of Golden Arrow Property, with New Jersey addresses in Mendham and Jersey City. He also has an office on East Broadway in Chinatown.
Pan, who surrendered to authorities at 11 a.m. yesterday, was released last night after posting a $100,000 bond.
The feds said they have zero tolerance for fund-raising scams.
“Corruption in campaign finance corrupts the entire political process, and it can call into question the legitimacy of our elections,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
“As alleged, Oliver Pan engaged in a deliberate and flagrant attempt to subvert the campaign-finance laws and manipulate the city’s matching fund system.”
The FBI’s New York director, Janice Fedarcyk, said, “Pan violated the letter and the clear intent of the limitation on individual campaign contributions. His use of straw donors to conceal an impermissibly large contribution was an assault on the integrity of the electoral process.”
As he entered his Manhattan office yesterday afternoon, Liu told The Post, “I’m saddened by what I’ve read today. If it is true, the conduct was clearly wrong and my campaign was not told the truth.”
Liu acknowledged that the charges said he attended a fund-raiser with Pan and the straw donors, but declined to elaborate.
Asked about whether his campaign is conducting an accounting of donations tied to Pan and whether those would be refunded, Liu declined comment.
Sources told The Post that top political advisers to the Liu campaign are already debating whether he is too tainted to run for mayor, or even seek re-election,
“How can he mount a race for mayor when his campaign is under investigation? Who is going to give him money?” one source said.
The left-labor coalition that backed Liu’s candidacy for comptroller will abandon him. “No union is endorsing this guy,” the operative said.
Pan is well known in the city’s Chinese ethnic communities — particularly Chinatown and Flushing.
Jimmy Zheng, president of the Fujianese of America Association, said Pan was known for helping immigrants with translating business documents and government forms. He also said Pan would arrange for local politicians to speak in Chinatown and Flushing.
Additional reporting by David Seifman, Josh Margolin and Lachlan Cartwright