New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel will pay a $23,000 fine for using a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
The Federal Election Commission found the Harlem Democrat guilty of violating rent control policies during his 21st term in Congress.
Rent control policies in New York reduce an apartment’s price so long as the renter has lived there continuously since 1971.
The FEC found that Rangel signed a rental agreement with “full knowledge” the unit was rent-stabilized, yet never assumed full residency.
“There was the determination that they had, in fact, violated the law,” Kenneth Boehm told the Post. Boehm is the chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, the group that filed the FEC complaint against Rangel.
Rangel paid just $630 per month for his 10th floor campaign office — less than half the unit’s $1,700 market value.
In 2010 Rangel was found guilty by a House Ethics Committee panel for concealing assets and violating the tax code.