House Ethics Committee found Rep. Gregory Meeks failed to disclose a $40,000 loan from a district businessman as a liability on his financial disclosure statements, found no credible evidence the errors were knowing or willful, and took no further action, 2012

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The House Committee on Ethics adopted a report on December 18, 2012 (announced December 20, 2012) that unanimously determined Rep. Gregory Meeks failed to disclose as a liability a $40,000 loan he received in 2007 from Edul Ahmad, a businessman in his district; its statement lists his 2007, 2008 and 2009 financial disclosure statements. The matter came to the Committee in May 2011 on a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), whose Board found substantial reason to believe the $40,000 had not been properly disclosed as a gift. The Committee's report text confirms the loan was not disclosed as a liability on his 2007 and 2008 statements (it first appeared as a liability on his 2009 statement, and he amended the 2007 and 2008 statements in June 2010) and records that Meeks admitted the omission and asserted it was inadvertent and in good faith. The Committee noted that unknowing failures of this kind are not uncommon and are typically corrected by amendment. The Committee found no credible evidence that the errors were knowing or willful, noted that Meeks filed amendments in June 2010 (he repaid the loan that month), and concluded no further action was warranted. It also investigated whether the loan was an impermissible gift, which had been the OCE's concern, and found the evidence did not establish that; Meeks has said the loan was documented in writing with a set repayment schedule and rate of interest but that he misplaced the document, and the Committee closed that inquiry because Ahmad, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud in a separate federal case and was awaiting sentencing, would decline an interview and invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if subpoenaed, and his attorney had no documents to contradict Meeks.

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