NY Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin pays back $25K in personal expenses to state senate campaign
ALBANY — Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin coughed up roughly $25,000 to cover car loan payments and other personal expenses he had charged to his old Senate campaign account, filings with the state Board of Elections reveal.
Benjamin first faced scrutiny over his spending habits last year after the Daily News detailed how he used campaign cash, including paying for “constituent services” at a Harlem nightclub around the same time he and his wife celebrated their wedding at the same venue.
Campaign finance reports filed this week show Benjamin cut a personal check for $6,993.75 to his account along with a memo marking the money as “reimbursement for nonfund-raising event held at Minton’s Playhouse” in 2018.
Last year, a spokeswoman said “there was nothing inappropriate or unusual about any of these expenditures” and described the party at Minton’s as a “supporter appreciation/mobilization event.”
Benjamin told The News in September, on the same day he was sworn in as Gov. Hochul’s right-hand man, that he had worked out a deal with the Board of Elections to recoup the cash for the event.
However, the uptown soiree wasn’t the only expense Benjamin had to make up for.
The former state senator cut three other personal checks on Nov. 10 — including one for $14,000 covering monthly car loan payments made between 2017 and 2021.
The other checks include one for $3,495.69, which covered “gasoline expenditures 2017 to 2021″ and another for $1,204.35 worth of car repairs done at a Virginia auto body shop.
The News first reported that Benjamin had struck a deal with election officials in August after a spokesman said the Democrat agreed to pay back the money from the Harlem event.
“They wanted to discuss it and understand what happened,” Benjamin told The News at the time of his initial interactions with the Board of Elections. “I proactively stated I will reimburse the committee ... they said that was an acceptable resolution.”
The check covering Milton’s event was deposited on Sept. 2.
Kevin Groh, a spokesman for the lieutenant governor’s current campaign, said Benjamin reached an agreement with the Board of Elections to “personally refund his campaign account so he could resolve and eliminate any questions around the event at Minton’s and use of his vehicle.”
Benjamin also faced criticism last fall after he provided incorrect information on a background check submitted to the governor’s office and state police as part of the vetting process for his current position.
On his initial background check form, signed and dated by Benjamin on Aug. 16, the former state senator reported that he had not been contacted by “a regulatory body concerning any possible legal, regulatory, ethical, or campaign finance, infraction or violation or investigation.”
However, Benjamin was contacted by the state Elections Board over his use of campaign funds, but federal prosecutors had been looking at donations made to his city comptroller campaign last year.
David Grandeau, the former head of the New York State Lobbying Commission, said Benjamin’s use of campaign funds for personal business is par for the course in Albany.
“This is not unique. It’s the old ‘I rob the bank, I get caught, I pay the bank back,’ no harm, no foul,” Grandeau said. “That’s the attitude that’s being used, and it has been for decades.”
