Lt. Gov. Benjamin Is Focus of Federal Inquiry Into Campaign Fraud

Ms. Hochul inherited the governorship in August, pledging a brand new period of transparency and moral rigor in Albany after her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo, grew to become the most recent high-ranking New York state chief in recent times to resign amid scandal. Selecting Mr. Benjamin, 45, a rising star from Harlem, to switch herself as lieutenant governor was her first main act in workplace.

When the investigation was disclosed, her opponents moved rapidly to attempt to hyperlink Ms. Hochul to Mr. Benjamin’s potential authorized points, previewing assault strains which will develop extra intense and power the governor to a troublesome alternative about whether or not to distance herself from Mr. Benjamin, who she had hoped would assist enhance her standing with New York Metropolis voters, notably within the Black neighborhood.

“Kathy Hochul’s poor judgment and lack of government expertise are on full show along with her handpicked working mate,” Consultant Tom Suozzi, a Lengthy Island Democrat difficult Ms. Hochul, stated on Saturday.

This isn’t the primary time that Mr. Benjamin’s actions have raised moral issues, although the sooner circumstances aren’t recognized to have drawn federal scrutiny. Final 12 months, The Every day Information recognized a number of suspicious expenditures from Mr. Benjamin’s Senate marketing campaign account, together with $6,700 spent on “constituent providers” at a Harlem jazz membership in 2018 proper across the identical time he held a marriage celebration on the venue.

Mr. Benjamin’s marketing campaign denied on the time that the occasion was in any method inappropriate, calling it a “supporter appreciation/mobilization” occasion.

Final month, The Albany Instances Union discovered a dozen circumstances the place Mr. Benjamin claimed a taxpayer-funded reimbursement for journey to and from Albany on the identical time he used a marketing campaign debit card to pay for fuel. Mr. Benjamin’s marketing campaign denied he had profited from the follow.

Questions concerning the funding of Mr. Benjamin’s comptroller marketing campaign first surfaced in January 2021, when The Metropolis recognized practically two dozen questionable contributions price practically $6,000 to his marketing campaign that had been collected and delivered by Michael Murphy, a detailed affiliate of Mr. Migdol’s. They included contributions from a number of males who instructed the outlet that that they had by no means given to the marketing campaign and one other from Mr. Migdol’s 2-year-old grandson.