The aged treasurer for a Brooklyn borough president candidate was sentenced to 200 hours of neighborhood service and three years probation for a failed straw donor scheme to rip-off town out of a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} in public matching funds.
Erlene King, 72, who labored on the 2021 main election marketing campaign of Democrat Anthony Jones, was sentenced by Brooklyn Federal Courtroom Carol Bagley Amon on Wednesday, after pleading responsible to wire fraud in January 2025.
Federal jail tips beneficial a sentence of 33 to 41 months, however prosecutors didn’t take a place on how a lot time King ought to serve.
“There was no motive to ship her to jail, and Decide Amon exercised compassion within the sentencing. Ms. King is in her 70s and never in the most effective of well being,” her lawyer, John Wallenstein, advised the Every day Information Thursday.
In his sentencing memo, Wallenstein wrote, “Jail for Erlene King, at 72 years of age and sick, each bodily and mentally, can be a horrendous expertise, basically merciless and weird punishment, given her distinctive circumstances. Society won’t profit from locking her up; she is not any hazard to others, and can by no means have the chance (by no means thoughts the inclination) to commit a criminal offense once more.”
King tried to reap the benefits of town’s 8-to-1 matching marketing campaign funds program by submitting $25,000 in straw donations to Jones’ marketing campaign, together with 5 corresponding “fictitious data,” within the hopes of getting $400,000 in matching funds, prosecutors mentioned.
She used CashApp to ship cash to straw donors, who in flip donated the cash to Jones’ marketing campaign, however the metropolis Marketing campaign Finance Board observed one thing amiss and denied the matching funds.
Straw donors are usually used to hide the identification and contribution of rich donors, thus illegally bypassing particular person contribution caps.
Jones, who will not be charged with a criminal offense, got here in eighth in a area of 12 Democratic main candidates, getting simply 3% of the vote.
