A major scandal involving the Democratic Party erupted in late 2024. An investigation revealed that under the leadership of Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, the state Democratic Party’s campaign committee made over a dozen transfers of funds to the Bronx, but these amounts were not reflected in the local party’s reports. We’ll tell you who exposed this discrepancy and what was revealed in the investigation. Read on at bronx-yes.com.
Exposing the Alleged Scheme
The transfers took place between April 2020 and June 2024—23 payments ranging from $15,000 to over $50,000 each. Such significant support for the Bronx seems odd, given that elections here are rarely competitive, and Democrats hold every seat anyway. The only exception was the surprise victory of Republican representative Kristy Marmorato in 2023. But this is more of an exception than a trend.
“I don’t understand why you would need that much money to promote the Democratic Party in the Bronx, which is so predominantly Democratic,” said Sarah Steiner, a New York lawyer specializing in election law.
Meanwhile, in other regions of the state where Democrats are losing, there isn’t such influential party support. For example, Steven Englebright of Suffolk County, who lost by a minimal margin, said he had asked the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee for help but received none.
Even though the Bronx party received hundreds of thousands of dollars, official reports show they spent less than $75,000 since 2020, mostly on consulting services.
One of the key figures who could have influenced the transfers is Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who also represents part of the Bronx and has led the campaign committee since 2021. His office did not provide a comment.
Jeffrey Dinowitz denied responsibility for the payments, stating that he doesn’t sign checks, and suggested contacting the committee’s office in Albany, which also did not respond to requests.
The Bronx Democrats acknowledged errors in their financial reports, attributing them to an administrative mistake, and promised to correct them. At the same time, the Board of Elections emphasized that information about the investigation is confidential, so all official audits are currently being conducted without public disclosure of the results.
London House — The Main Figure in the Case
The lion’s share of the transfers went to a company called London House. It all started when Jason Laidly (the founder of London House) worked in Senator Jamaal Bailey’s office. He was involved in his election campaigns from 2017 to 2022. The Bronx party’s executive director, Ariana Collado, is also listed as an employee of London House.
Laidly’s business was thriving: since 2021, his company has received about $900,000 from the Bronx party and other political campaigns, and over $1 million more in lobbying fees in New York.
Almost $200,000 was transferred from the Bronx Democratic Party’s so-called “housekeeping account”—a special fund meant to cover office expenses and salaries that cannot directly support candidates.
However, critics note that the laws governing these funds have many loopholes and are often misused. Payments to London House from this account were listed as “campaign consultant” services. Attorney Sarah Steiner noted that it’s unclear from the latest reports whether the rules were violated: if the money went to promote the Bronx Democratic Party itself without supporting specific individuals, it could still be considered legal.
The largest payments to Laidly’s firm coincided with election campaigns. For example, on July 3, 2023, a week after the New York City Council primaries, London House received $21,600 from the party fund.
On the same day, the campaign of Democrat Kevin Riley, who won that election with the party’s support, also transferred $25,000 to the firm for consulting, canvassing, and organizational services—this was their only payment in 2023.
While receiving payments from the fund, London House was also working on campaigns for other Bronx candidates for various positions—in the Assembly, Senate, district attorney’s office, and courts. The firm’s services were also used by the campaigns of Governor Kathy Hochul and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, who together paid it $30,000.
John Kaehny of the nonprofit Reinvent Albany noted that the rules for housekeeping accounts allow for such things as polling or research, which is to say, almost anything related to politics.
“They allow them to do virtually anything. It’s a very thin fig leaf,” he said.
So it seems that everything looks honest from a legal standpoint, but everyone understands what’s really hidden behind such “cooperation.”
Other Schemes
During the investigation, other loopholes were discovered through which Democratic Party funds were funneled into the Bronx.
For example, Dominic Maddox received $24,000 from the Bronx Democratic Party’s “housekeeping account” in 2023-2024—four payments for professional services, according to financial documents. She had previously worked as a special assistant in Senator Jamaal Bailey’s office (from 2017 to 2020) and had also separately received over $8,000 from his campaign. In an Instagram post, she called Jason Laidly, an ally of Bailey’s, her cousin. Maddox’s connections to the Bronx party leadership don’t stop there: she listed Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s house as her home address, which is confirmed by her voter registration. Heastie’s representative explained that Maddox has lived with his family since childhood, essentially “like a daughter,” and resided with him from her college days until last year.
In a brief phone comment, Maddox said she received money from the party for media projects but did not provide details. She is not the only one close to Bailey who listed Heastie’s address on her documents. Trey Avant, who worked on Bailey’s staff in 2018, and Jason Laracuente, Heastie’s campaign treasurer, also registered their residence there.
Who Exposed the Misconduct
Interestingly, this case was not brought to light by law enforcement, but by journalists. The Bronx party disclosed all of its expenses only after an investigation by New York Focus revealed that over several years, the party had received nearly $700,000 from the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee—a sharp contrast to the previous period when no such transfers were made at all.
After the editors of New York Focus reached out to the party for an explanation and received no response, the first article about the missing money was published. It stated that the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee had donated about $700,000 to the Bronx party, even though the party had only reported $300,000. Such large expenditures seemed unnecessary in a borough where Democrats have a clear majority. A week after the article was published, the Bronx Democrats filed several new reports and filled in the gaps in the ones they had already submitted. Information about receiving the full $700,000 then appeared, but it looked very suspicious.
Following this, New York Focus journalists conducted another investigation and found that a significant portion of the funds had been sent for political consulting to London House, a firm run by a close ally of party chairman Jamaal Bailey. The explanations for these expenses remained contradictory: Bailey said the funds went to administrative and operational services, but no further details were provided. Journalists also tracked other questionable transfer schemes, but it’s likely this case will remain “on paper,” as all the documents are in order, at least formally.
Regardless, people understand what’s happening and are drawing their own conclusions. The Democratic Party is already losing its strong position in the Bronx, as evidenced by the first Republican representative to win a City Council seat in 40 years. And such investigations will only deepen voter distrust of the Democratic block, and who knows—New York might soon turn Republican.