High-ranking members of Congress were flown to a lush Caribbean resort this month for a three-day conference planned and paid for by several of the country’s most powerful corporations – a violation of federal ethics rules, critics say.
Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended the 13th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in sun-drenched St. Maarten, including embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel and New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne.
Three New York City officials attended, including Comptroller William Thompson and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr., as well as Gov. Paterson, who was the keynote speaker at a luncheon on the second day of the gathering.
The politicians were seen by The Post during the Nov. 6-9 conference, walking among the palm trees on the breezy grounds of the sprawling, terra cotta Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino.
Paterson’s office said he’d paid for his own travel and lodging during his visit. But other legislators enjoyed free airfare, meals and hotel rooms covered by the trip’s organizer – and paid for by donations from corporations such as IBM, AT&T, Verizon, Citigroup, Pfizer, Macy’s and American Airlines, a Post investigation discovered.
Officials with those companies were observed at the conference – sometimes acting as featured speakers at daily seminars and freely mingling among the pols at social events. Citigroup – which just last week received a massive bailout from the federal government – was one of the conference’s biggest sponsors, ponying up $100,000 to help finance the event, according to one of the lobbyists at the gathering.
A spokesman for Citigroup told The Post the company has financially supported the conference for several years, but would not reveal an amount.
Phone giant Verizon gave $35,000, according to spokesman Brian Malina. The yearly event – always held in a Caribbean country – is a big draw for black politicians, as well as for community activists, lobbyists and special-interest groups looking to promote their agendas.
According to conference organizers, the main goal is “promoting business relationships between some of America’s largest firms and the Caribbean’s most successful enterprises.”
But according to House ethics rules, members of Congress and their staffs cannot accept multiday trips from a corporation that “employs or retains a registered lobbyist. Included in this limitation are companies, firms, non-profit organizations (including charities), and other private entities that retain or employ a lobbyist.”
Though the conference’s organizer is listed as New York City-based Carib News Foundation, that group pays for the event through donations from private, for-profit companies.
Furthermore, according to House rules, members of Congress must seek prior written permission from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to take free multiday trips. They must also file reports with the Clerk of the House of Representatives listing all financial sponsors within two weeks of each trip.
The filings for the St. Maarten trip were due last Monday. But as of that date, only Rep. Payne’s filings were available.
A spokesman for Rangel said his disclosure forms were submitted last Monday – but by the end of the week his filing hadn’t turned up in the database of the Clerk of the House.
According to the filing submitted by Payne, a Democrat who represents northern New Jersey, his airfare, meals and lodging were paid for by Carib News, which spent up to $1,000 per participant.
But Payne’s disclosure didn’t list any of the corporations that gave money to Carib News for the trip, even though their banners were prominently displayed behind a podium in the conference room of the hotel, listed on the glossy program and visible on items inside a Macy’s gift bag distributed to participants.
Payne checked the “No” box next to the question on whether the travel was being sponsored by “an entity that employs a lobbyist.” If Payne had disclosed the corporate sponsors, the trip might not have been permitted by the House Ethics Committee.
Kerry McKenney, a spokeswoman for Payne, told The Post: “It was our understanding that the trip was sponsored by the Carib News Foundation. We are unaware of any corporate sponsors.”
One Democratic Texas congresswoman who went to the conference, Sheila Jackson Lee, didn’t file a disclosure because she had financed the trip out of her own budget, said a spokeswoman.
Democratic Michigan Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, who also chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, wrote in an e-mail, “My pre- and post-travel disclosure forms were submitted to the Clerk of the House within the specified time period.” But no record of her filings has appeared yet in the Clerk of the House’s database.
Democratic Congressional Black Caucus members Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Donna Christensen of the Virgin Islands also attended the conference, but have not yet filed disclosures, nor did they return repeated calls.
Carib News officials said they did nothing wrong. Karl Rodney, the group’s CEO, said the nonprofit is a charity and allowed to sponsor trips for elected officials. Carib News also publishes a newspaper covering the Caribbean community in New York.
But Kevin McKeon, a spokesman for the IRS in New York, said Carib News is not listed as a charity. There are no publicly available tax filings for the group, and it is not listed with the New York attorney general as required for charities based in New York state.
“I could find no record of a 501(c)(3) [the IRS code for a tax-exempt organization] by that name and address,” McKeon said.
Meanwhile, congressional ethics rules have become stricter in the past two years, banning free trips from any group – even charities – that receives money from any entity that employs lobbyists.
When the new ethics rules were adopted in January 2007, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the House had adopted a zero-tolerance policy when it came to gifts from lobbyists.
“Among other things, we will ban gifts, including meals and tickets, from lobbyists and the organizations that employ them, from financing travel for members or their staffs,” he said.
In its filings to the Ethics Committee for the St. Maarten trip, Carib News did not disclose the corporate sponsorships that were paying for the conference.
Rodney, the Carib News CEO, filed a “Private Sponsor Travel Certification Form” in October, checking the box that says, “I represent that the trip sponsor(s) has not accepted from any other source funds earmarked directly or indirectly to finance any aspect of the trip.”
“The Carib News Foundation is the sole sponsor for the trip,” said George Arzt, a spokesman for Rodney. “The corporations are contributors to the Foundation. Carib News Foundation pays for more than half of the symposium.”
Yet in his opening remarks in St. Maarten, Rodney, who has organized 13 annual conferences, thanked all of the corporate sponsors by name.
He expressed gratitude to AT&T for its sponsorship at all prior conferences and singled out Citigroup as being the biggest conference sponsor this year.
“And so we want to say thanks to Citi,” said Rodney. “It’s a great team to have working, and great partners.”
Citigroup Vice President Michael Flanigan, who attended the St. Maarten event and is listed as a member of the conference planning committee, didn’t try to hide his company’s association with the event during a speech he gave to attendees.
“This year was significant for Citi,” Flanigan said, speaking to a half-full room. “For the first time we are the lead sponsor of this premier event.”
Pols also thanked the conference’s corporate supporters in their speeches.
“And to the sponsors, by the way, all of you, we couldn’t do this without you,” Kilpatrick said at the opening session of the St. Maarten conference.
A national ethics watchdog group says the Caribbean conference ran afoul of Congress’ new ethics rules.
“This conference violated House rules, which strictly forbid corporations with lobbyists from sponsoring multiday Congressional trips,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center. “The congressmen and the organizers then covered up the sponsorship by not disclosing the corporate subsidies.”
It was unknown how much most of the corporate sponsors contributed to the conference, which also featured panel discussions on immigration, security and drug trafficking with former New York City mayor David Dinkins.
A spokeswoman for American Airlines said the company “is pleased to be one of many sponsors to help in the success of the conference,” although she would not say how much the airline had donated.
She said that the company sent its contribution directly to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which is not listed as a sponsor of the St. Maarten event.
Macy’s, which has also been a sponsor of the event for several years, gave each attendee a large orange tote bag loaded with conference materials, a Citigroup leather-bound ledger and a Ralph Lauren golf shirt embossed with the Carib News logo on the sleeve.
Several lobbyists were seen hanging out poolside with conference attendees at the resort, where premier rooms with balconies overlooking the azure waters of the Caribbean rent for up to $445 per night. Others rubbed elbows at a boozy happy hour in the hotel bar on the first night of the gathering.
The organizers also arranged a gala dinner at a ritzy hotel on the other side of the island at Oyster Bay. Two luxury buses ferried the Carib News attendees to the opulent resort, where participants enjoyed a sumptuous, candlelit feast on the beach.
gotis@nypost.com