Pols cash in while fighting LLC loophole

Local elected officials are pushing for a state law to prevent large companies from making virtually unlimited contributions through limited liability companies, or LLCs.

However, some of the same politicians have accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from LLCs tied to Leonard Litwin’s Glenwood Management, which critics accuse of receiving preferential treatment in exchange for massive donations. Glenwood Management has also been tied to federal indictments of Assemblyman Sheldon Silver and state Sen. Dean Skelos, who resigned as leaders of their respective houses earlier this year amid corruption charges.

Bronx independent Democrat state Sen. Jeff Klein, who co-ruled the Senate with Mr. Skelos until Republicans won an outright majority of seats in November, is among the officials saying he wants to close the so-called LLC loophole. But state campaign finance records show he is a top recipient of donations from LLCs tied to Mr. Litwin.

Two campaign committees for Mr. Klein, Jeff Klein for New York and New Yorkers for Klein, have received $80,000 and $78,000, respectively, from those LLCs, according to data compiled by the activist group Hedge Clippers.

Mr. Klein declined an interview request for this article and his office did not answer an e-mail list of questions as of press time. A spokeswoman for Glenwood Management did not immediately answer phone and e-mail inquiries.

Earlier this year, a federal indictment linking Glenwood executives to a bribery case against Mr. Skelos prompted former prominent Democratic fundraiser Bill Samuels to call on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to return the roughly $1 million in campaign contributions he has received from LLCs tied to the real estate company, which has property in Riverdale and throughout the rest of the city.

Neither Mr. Cuomo nor Glenwood provided comment on the call from Mr. Samuels, who recently started a good government group called EffectiveNY.