The House Ethics Committee closed its investigation into allegations that Congressmember Gregory Meeks received an improper gift in the form of a 2007 loan with no finding of wrong doing.
The investigation stemmed from a $40,000 loan Meeks received from Edul Ahmad that the Queens congressmember failed to disclose.
The ethics committee said failure to report such items are common and found “no credible evidence that the errors were knowing or willful.” They concluded there was no evidence it constituted an impermissible gift.
Since the failure to disclose, Meeks has claimed the loan in his Financial Disclosure Statements and repaid it with a 12.5 percent interest rate, according to the committee.
Ahmad, who pleaded guilty to unrelated fraud charges, alleged there was no signed loan document, but the committee could not confirm this detail because Ahmad through his attorney refused to be interviewed for the investigation.
Without documentation and based just on Ahmad’s allegations, the committee found it would be “unreasonable” to find Meek’s sworn testimony untruthful.
