NYC lawmaker pushes back on report saying he accepted gifts from city-funded nonprofit
State Sen. James Sanders Jr. at a City & State event in October 2019. Zack Bazile
A Queens state senator is facing $15,000 in fines for accepting gifts from a nonprofit he supported while he served on the New York City Council, according to a city ethics agency, QNS reports.
State Sen. James Sanders Jr. and his family were gifted with trips to an all-inclusive resort in the Pocono Mountains and cruises multiple times by Margert Community Corporation, a nonprofit that offers housing assistance and other services to low-income tenants, according to the report from the city Conflicts of Interest Board.
Margert Community Corporation received more than $842,000 in discretionary funding from his office from 2009 to 2012, the report reads, while the gifts to Sanders Jr. amounted to more than $4,000.
Sanders Jr. has contested the report, saying he is in the process of appealing the decision. “I am not guilty of taking a dime of the people’s money,” he told QNS.