De Blasio Broke Ethics Rules By Seeking Developer Cash: Report

NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio broke ethics rules by seeking donations from people with business before the city despite multiple warnings against doing so, a new report says. That was a main finding of a Department of Investigation probe into the mayor's fundraising practices that lasted two and a half years, THE CITY reported Wednesday.

The investigation reportedly examined how de Blasio, a Democrat, raised money for the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit the mayor launched in 2014 to push his policy agenda.

De Blasio's aides got two warnings — one from the city's Conflicts of Interest Board and another from his own lawyer — that he could not personally solicit contributions from anyone with business "pending or about to be pending" before a city agency, THE CITY reported.

But the nonprofit had already gotten hefty donations from such people by the time the second warning came in April 2014, according to the story. And the DOI found de Blasio sought money from developers with projects in the city into 2015, the report says.

THE CITY's report is largely based on a heavily redacted October memo outlining the findings of the DOI's investigation. The news outlet obtained the document through a Freedom of Information request.

The DOI probe reportedly ran parallel to investigations into the mayor's fundraising by the Manhattan district attorney and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office. Prosecutors closed those inquiries without filing any charges.

The mayor and his aides have repeatedly defended his fundraising tactics. A mayoral spokesperson stuck to City Hall's guns in a statement to THE CITY, saying, "It’s been said a million times: the Mayor acted lawfully and ethically."

Read the full report here.