A convicted bank fraudster last week co-hosted a fundraiser for Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who is seeking to unseat “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary.
Michael S. Wachs was listed on the host committee for a Latimer bash March 20 at the Mansion on Broadway in White Plains in Westchester.
Wachs in 1997 pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a scheme to defraud Chase bank out of $20.8 million. He was fined $250,000 and barred from the securities business.
Bowman, a lefty progressive seeking re-election to a third term, pounced.
“First George Latimer held a fundraiser hosted in a Trump megadonor’s mansion, now he’s holding a fundraiser hosted by a Wall Street fraudster who robbed people blind,” said Bowman campaign spokesman Lawrence Wang.
Earlier this year, wealthy insurance mogul and Donald Trump supporter Alex Dubitsky held a fund-raiser for Latimer at his home in Larchmont in Westchester.
“It shows you who George really thinks he works for,” Wang said. “Not gonna fly in a Democratic primary.”
Latimer’s campaign did not dispute or defend having convicted swindler Wachs co-hosting the fundraiser for him.
Instead, he sought to turn attention back on Bowman — a member of “The Squad,” a group of ultra-progressive Dems in the House, including firebrand democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Bowman has recently been subjected to a series of negative stories triggered by his own words and actions.
“The simple fact is nearly 75% of George Latimer’s donors come from the Bronx and Westchester, as compared to just 9% for Mr. Bowman,” Latimer’s campaign said.
“Now, after getting caught praising known antisemites, promoting baseless 9/11 truther conspiracies, taking money from Trump donors and most recently voting to shut down the government, he is desperate to change the story.”
Bowman once argued that a mural of Minister Louis Farrakhan should remain in a New York City suburb, prompting outrage from Jewish activists because Farrakhan infamously made disparaging comments about Jews, including calling them the “the synagogue of Satan” and “termites.”
The rep, 47, was a Bronx middle-school principal before toppling former long-time Congressman Eliot Engel in 2020.
While a school administrator, he kept a blog that claimed World Trade Center building No. 7 was destroyed in a controlled demolition and not by the terror attacks.
He has been dogged by other controversies,too — including pleading guilty to pulling a fire alarm in a Capitol office building last year before a House vote and defending putting convicted cop killer and fugitive Joanne Chesimard in the Bronx Cornerstone Academy for Social Action’s “hall of honor” when he was principal.
Latimer, 70, poses a serious challenge to Bowman in the June 25th Democratic primary for the 16th Congressional District taking in southern Westchester County and parts of the north Bronx.
He has served in various public offices since the 1980s, including state Assembly and Senate before his election to county executive in 2017.
