REBNY donation to Brooklyn state senator among thousands in campaign funds that were not correctly reported

Brooklyn state Sen. Martin Dilan failed to correctly report thousands of dollars in campaign contributions dating back to 2016, including donations from the Real Estate Board of New York.

Dilan’s campaign did not report receiving the donations from political action committees and other contributors, which is a violation of state campaign finance law, the New York Daily News reported.

A spokesperson for the lawmaker, who is facing a high-profile primary challenge from Democratic Socialist candidate Julia Salazar, said the campaign is working to correct accounting errors.

“Everything is reported when it is received and deposited in the account,” Dilan campaign spokesman Bob Liff said. “There are some corrections being made from 2016 after they were brought to our attention, but all contributions are properly accounted for.”

Dilan received 13 donations in 2016 and 2017 from groups like the New York State Trial Lawyers Association PAC and the political arm of the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council totaling $25,000 that went unreported.

And there were 18 other donations totaling $22,500 that did not show up in filings or had donation dates that did not match up with the ones reported by contributors.

A $6,000 donation by REBNY mistakenly went into an outdated Dilan campaign committee, the Daily News reported.

A spokesperson for Dilan’s challenger said the revelations about Dilan’s undisclosed donations “demonstrate why he’s part of the problem in Albany.”

Dilan has accepted more money from the real estate industry since 1999 than almost any other Democrat in the state senate. [NYDN] — Rich Bockmann