The United Federation of Teachers recently paid $370,000 to a fabricated consulting group, drawing concerns that the union purposely seeks to work around campaign finance laws.
Now Crains New York Business reports that the connection between the UFT’s real consultant and the fabricated firm is clear. When sending invoices on behalf of the fake firm – Strategic Consultants, Inc. – the real firm left their logo on the invoice.
An open records request that came back on Tuesday from the City Campaign Finance Board offers fresh and somewhat amusing evidence of the connection between the two: Many of the invoices the agency received from Strategic Consultants have the Advance Group logo on them.
The payments listed as going to Strategic Consultants obscured that the Advance Group was being paid both to promote candidates for the United Federation of Teachers' independent political action committee, United For the Future, and to work as the main campaign consultant for several of those same candidates. UFT President Michael Mulgrew denied wrongdoing in an interview with WNYC last week, but could not explain the fake name of the firm.
