BK Assemblyman's Chief Of Staff Stole $80K From Campaign: Feds

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Brooklyn Assembly Member Felix Ortiz's chief of staff stole more than $80,000 from his campaign funds and falsified records to cover up his scheme, federal prosecutors said.

The FBI arrested 29-year-old Maruf Alam, of Kensington, on Thursday after they found out that he had taken more than $80,000 in cash from a campaign fund connected to Ortiz's campaigns between 2012 and 2019 and then lied about it on disclosure forms. Ortiz, the assistant speaker for the New York State Assembly, represents Sunset Park and Red Hook.

"Alam failed to disclose large cash withdrawals, checks written for his benefit and other improper expenditures that he made from the Campaign Committee’s bank account," the arrest complaint says. "These false Disclosure Reports were designed to conceal Alam's fraud from the (New York State Board of Elections) and to defraud contributors to the Campaign Committee."

The complaint only identified Alam as an employee of an "Assemblyperson," but the New York Law Journal confirmed that he worked for Ortiz. A representative for Ortiz's office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Investigators comparing the campaign bank account to documents Alam filed with the elections board found that thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals were missing from the disclosure forms.

In one document, Alam claimed that the campaign committee only spent $5,700, when bank records showed more than $38,000 in expenditures. $34,000 of that was in cash withdrawals, according to the complaint. In another, he said there had been no donations when the campaign fund had actually been given more than $60,000 in contributions.

Throughout the seven year scheme, prosecutors said, large cash deposits started showing up on Alam's personal bank accounts that were "inconsistent" with his job as a New York State employee. Many of the deposits were on the same day that the unreported cash withdrawals were made from the campaign accounts.

Some withdrawals were even made in China when Alam's travel records show that he was traveling there, prosecutors said.

Ortiz told investigators that Alam was the treasurer of the campaign accounts and that he had not signed off on him, or anyone, making $80,000 in cash deposits, according to the complaint.

Investigators also interviewed donors who said they were under the impression they were contributing to Ortiz's campaigns for reelection, not for anyone's personal gain.

Alam appeared in in court on Thursday.