December 19, 2011 at 4:03 AM

http://gantdaily.com/2011/12/19/republican-operative-to-be-sentenced-monday-for-stealing-mayors-money/

Manhattan, NY, United States (AHN) – A Republican operative convicted of defrauding New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg of more than $1 million is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

John Haggerty faces 15 years in prison after being found guilty in October of grand larceny and money laundering in his role as an aide to Bloomberg during the 2009 mayoral race. The 42-year-old arranged to oversee a $1.1 million ballot security and poll watching operation for Bloomberg’s campaign but used the money to buy his late father’s home.

Raymond Castello, one of Haggerty’s lawyers, told the New York Daily News over the weekend they would ask the court for probation and no prison time. “What is the purpose of putting him in jail? Not only does he have no record, he has a career of public service,” said Castello, who led the defense during the trial in Manhattan along with Dennis Vacco, a former New York state attorney general.

Haggerty was a volunteer with the Bloomberg campaign in 2009 when the mayor, who successfully campaigned to have the city’s term limits law amended so he could seek a third term, made a $1.1 million contribution to the housekeeping account of the Independence Party. Bloomberg was running as an independent at the time and the party was to run the ballot security operation overseen by Haggerty.

According to prosecutors, no ballot security operation ever took place. Haggerty created a company, Special Election Operations, that he claimed was a vendor for the ballot security operation, a month after election day. He later opened a bank account under the company’s name and received a wire transfer worth $750,000 from the Independence Party for the ballot security operation.

No expenses for ballot security were charged to the account by Haggerty nor by the company. In addition, Haggerty spent $600,000 of the money to buy a house in Queens.

Haggerty tried to cover up his actions by presenting Bloomberg campaign officials with three fake paychecks for poll watchers. The charges related to the paychecks, three counts of falsifying business records, were dismissed by the judge during trial.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Haggerty has agreed to pay back the $750,000 from Bloomberg under an agreement with prosecutors to settle a civil case separate from the criminal case.

During the trial, defense lawyers had argued that Bloomberg’s contribution to the party was a personal donation, and as such could legally be used for any expense. They also accused the mayor of violating campaign laws by donating the amount to the party instead of directly paying Haggerty, which would have required Bloomberg to list the expense as ballot security operations on campaign finance disclosure forms.

The implication by Haggerty’s lawyers was that the mayor wanted to distance himself from the issue of ballot security, which is carried out to prevent voter fraud but can result, intentionally or not, in threatening and suppressing voters, mostly minority and low-income.