Financial Irregularities Surround House Candidate Bhavini Patel

[Celerity]

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-12-financial-irregularities-house-candidate-patel/



As first-term Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA) faces an onslaught of far-right cash attacking her in her April 23 primary, a Prospect investigation has found that the main beneficiary of that spending, local official and primary opponent Bhavini Patel, failed to disclose a substantial gift she received, in violation of campaign finance laws. Additionally, a review of publicly available information has found that Patel may be engaged in a complex scheme to elide federal campaign finance limits, and failed to make required personal financial disclosures during her abortive 2022 campaign for Congress. The revelations come as a super PAC backed by Jeffrey Yass, the largest Republican donor in 2024, has spent $606,000 attacking Lee and boosting Patel, according to a review of federal campaign finance records.

Patel has also received significant fundraising assistance from groups like the Hindu American PAC, which works to elect candidates supportive of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the world’s largest far-right organization, whose early leaders effusively praised Hitler and cooperated with British rule. Last year, a member of Modi’s cabinet called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, who was a member of the RSS, a “worthy son” of India. The RSS has a major network in the U.S., and figures active in that network have fundraised for Patel, The Intercept reported in February. Super PACs supporting pro-Israel candidates, like Democratic Majority for Israel and United Democracy Project, have stayed out of the race, despite making Rep. Lee one of their top targets previously.

Patel is a member of the Edgewood, Pennsylvania, Borough Council. Had she been in elective office in December 2020, she would have been required to disclose a substantial gift she received then, wherein she was deeded onto a house with a market value of about $110,000 for the price of $1—a gift with an approximate value of $55,000. The person who deeded her the house is named Vinay Patidar. Both Patidar and Patel are unmarried. As she is currently unemployed while running for Congress, the rental income from both this house in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and another house in Pittsburgh that she used the home in Monroeville as collateral for, provides the majority of her income, disclosures show. Those same disclosures show that she received between $15,000 and $50,000 in rental income for the Monroeville property, which Patidar continued to list as his address on an October 2021 mortgage application.

Even just $15,000 in annual rent for a $110,000 property with just 50 percent ownership of the home is well above market value, according to a Prospect analysis of local rents. In October 2021, Patidar and Patel received what appears to be a home equity line of credit for $130,000, which Patel almost certainly used to purchase a house in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, for exactly $130,000 the following month. The Swissvale house, however, is exclusively in Patel’s name—so the home equity line of credit likely produced an additional $65,000 gift from Patidar, on top of the $55,000 stake she received in December 2020. Patel never disclosed a $65,000 gift from Patidar in her 2021 filing, where Patel erroneously stated that she had no real property interests. The Prospect was able to track Patel’s real estate stakes from a review of Allegheny County property records. Failure to make required disclosures is a misdemeanor, with fines of up to $1,000 and up to a year’s incarceration.

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