State Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson steered $100,000 in taxpayer cash to a struggling private radio station broadcasting to his Brooklyn constituents.
Sampson gave the money — his second-largest member item in 2009-10 — to the One Caribbean Foundation, a group that did not even have tax-exempt status at the time.
The supposed charity, which is tied to the One Caribbean Radio station in Brooklyn, received the first part of the money this month — nearly $40,000.
Most of the member-item cash is earmarked for the salaries of the charity’s executive director and two other staffers. All three of the women currently work without pay at the for-profit radio station.
Other money is designated for office supplies, including a microwave oven and a film projector, food and beverages, a cleaning service and extermination company.
The foundation is run out of the radio station’s Fulton Street office and the Elmont home of its founder, Edmon Braithwaite.
Braithwaite, who started One Caribbean Radio in 2007, denied he was using the state money to pay the expenses at his money-losing station.
“What we’re doing here is straight up. There’s nothing for us to hide,” he said.
He said the foundation’s first project would be to offer radio-station internships to students from area high schools.
The station reaches immigrant listeners and others with a variety of music and talk programming and provides a platform for local elected officials, including Sampson. It is broadcast on HD radios and online.
Braithwaite said he approached Sampson to fund the project after the senator appeared on the station. Braithwaite immigrated to the United States from Guyana and Sampson is of Guyanese heritage.
The senator’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
Sampson’s other member items in recent years have gone to well-established charities, schools and community groups including Albany Law School, which got $150,000, Sampson’s biggest grant in 2009-10.
Sampson is up for re-election Tuesday against Republican Rose Laney, who has barely mounted a campaign. Even if he wins, his post as majority leader could be in jeopardy.