SHARPTON CAUGHT ON TAPE CUTTING CAMPAIGN DEAL

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Al Sharpton was caught on tape in 2003 offering to help a fund-raiser win a multimillion-dollar business deal in exchange for helping him raise $50,000 for his presidential campaign.


FBI agents tapping White's phones in 2003 recorded more than 20 conversations between Sharpton and Philadelphia fund-raiser Ronald A. White, most of them related to fund-raising for the presidential campaign and an effort to secure a $40 million pension-fund deal in New York.


Instead of offering to help raise the requested $50,000 for Sharpton's campaign, White offered $25,000, according to the Inquirer.

"If you bring my guys up on this hedge fund, and I have the right conversation," White said on the tape, "I'll give you what you need."

"Cool," Sharpton replied.

The Inquirer obtained an account of the May 9, 2003, conversation, which was recorded as part of the Philadelphia City Hall corruption case. The tape helped spark a separate inquiry into Sharpton's 2004 campaign and his civil-rights organization, the National Action Network. The FBI-IRS probe resurfaced publicly Wednesday, when Sharpton aides received subpoenas.


The video was recorded by an FBI camera hidden in a lamp inside Suite 34A at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan. Sharpton and White were introduced by La-Van Hawkins, a Detroit businessman.

At the time, FBI agents were investigating White and Hawkins, suspecting that they were involved in pay-to-play in Philadelphia - raising campaign funds for Mayor Street and others in order to win municipal contracts for favored donors.

About a year later, White, Hawkins and a dozen others, including former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, were indicted in Philadelphia on federal pay-to-play corruption charges. White died before trial. Hawkins was convicted of fraud and perjury and sentenced to 33 months. Kemp is serving a 10-year sentence for corruption, bribery and fraud.

No charges were brought related to Sharpton or the proposed New York pension-fund deal, which never materialized. However, as The Inquirer reported in 2005, the New York-based investigation of Sharpton has continued. Sources said agents in that case are examining whether Sharpton violated campaign-finance laws or used money donated to his National Action Network for personal use.