Court document unsealed Monday show New York Representative Michael Grimm, a former Marine and FBI agent, has been charged with evading taxes by concealing more than $1 million in sales and wages while running a small Manhattan restaurant during an ongoing campaign finance investigation, according to Reuters.
Grimm, 44, called the case a political witch hunt meant to drive him out of office after surrendering to FBI agents early Monday following a two-year investigation that initially focused on alleged attempts to bypass contribution limits, Reuters reported.
He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer in federal court in Brooklyn to mail, wire and tax fraud charges and was released on $400,000 bond secured by his Staten Island home, according to Reuters.
Grimm accused prosecutors of leaking "all kinds of innuendos and accusations to support a political witch hunt" intended to "assassinate my character," Reuters reported. He vowed to return to work in Congress while fighting the charges.
Grimm has stepped down from the House Financial Services Committee and told Republican House Speaker John Boehner he should be removed from the panel but said he plans to return once his legal issues are resolved, according to Reuters.
The 20-count indictment alleges the tax fraud began in 2007 after Grimm retired from the FBI and began investing in an Upper East Side eatery called Healthalicious, Reuters reported. It also accused him of trying to evade payroll, income and sales taxes by paying his workers, some in the country illegally, in cash.
Authorities say Grimm left the business in 2010, the year he won his first term in Congress and a House Ethics Committee announced in November that he was under investigation for possible campaign finance violations, Reuters reported.
During the 2010 race, Grimm acknowledged receiving $250,000 to $300,000 in contributions from followers of an Israeli rabbi, Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, according to Reuters. Shortly after the FBI filed a sealed criminal complaint accusing a Houston woman, Diana Durand, who had been romantically involved with Grimm, of using straw donors to make illegal campaign contributions.
Grimm also made headlines in January after confronting a New York City cable news station reporter who tried to question him about the campaign finance inquiry, Reuters reported.
After reporter Michael Scotto finished his report from a balcony in the Capitol, Grimm stormed back, leaned into him and said: "Let me be clear to you. If you ever do that to me again, I'll throw you off this (expletive) balcony," according to Reuters.
