Pay to play? Dr. Joseph Piacentile, who was convicted in 1991 for Medicare fraud and tax evasion donated $100,000 to Obama’s Organizing for America PAC. NBC claims that Joseph Piacentile is seeking a presidential pardon from Obama. In order to grease Obama’s palms, I guess the doctor felt the $100,000 would be enough. The money was allegedly accepted by OFA consultant Samantha Maltzman. This woman is no stranger to fund raising for corrupt Democrats. She’s also been a fundraiser for Cory Booker and Hillary Clinton.
According to emails obtained by NBC News, Maltzman had collected the check as part of an effort to raise money from big donors for an OFA dinner with President Barack Obama on Tuesday. She also took steps that could have kept the doctor’s cash secret, returning the check and asking Piacentile to write a new one to another political nonprofit that she described as “one of our partner organizations.” That group — unlike OFA — does not have a policy of voluntarily disclosing its donors.
OFA officials said Maltzman, who previously had worked as a fundraiser for New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign, had been dismissed. One OFA official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said Maltzman “consistently did great work but made a mistake in this instance.”
On Feb. 6, with the pardon application pending, Piacentile wrote a $100,000 check to Organizing for Action. The emails obtained by NBC News show that Piacentile’s check was written in response to an OFA fundraising appeal for the dinner and reception with Obama. “It is $25,000 per person to attend and for those that raise or write $100K, there will be small clutch with the president,” Maltzman wrote in a Jan. 15 email to another New Jersey doctor and potential donor, Munr Kazmir, who was an acquaintance of Piacentile and invited him to be his guest at the dinner.