Two former associates of New York Democratic mayoral candidate John Liu were convicted in an illegal campaign fundraising scheme, according to CBS New York.
The defendants were charged after an undercover FBI investigation of the campaign fundraising.
Jurors heard secretly recorded tapes prosecutors said showed Liu’s two associates, Jia "Jenny" Hou and Xing "Oliver" Wu Pan, plotted to cheat the city out of campaign matching funds and then lied about it.
An FBI agent posed as a potential donor to the campaign, offering $16,000.
The donation was to be much larger than the law allows if the campaign wants to get matching funds from the city.
Jurors found with that, the plot was hatched to use straw donors to conceal the source of the large illegal donation.
Prosecutors charged that coded language was used by Pan and Hou to make sure that Liu knew the source of the money.
The asosciates were convicted after a single day of deliberations.
