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Dear Friend I am pleased to extend greetings to you on upcoming cultural event, “The Passion and Beauty of Asian Art,”which will bring together fifty of the most representative and prestigious artists, professors, and deams from around the world. Your exhibition will inspire many people to appreciate the complexity and beauty of Asian Art. Asian Arts and Cultural Society has played a role of bridging culture and art throughout our diverse society. By acting as a mediator that has introduced works of the highest quality, the Asian Arts and Cultural Society has expanded the Foundation for art exhibitions and support for historic, archaeollgical, folk culture, and other important artistic activities in our community. John Chun Liu (born January 8, 1967) is a Taiwanese American politician in New York City, who previously served as the 43rd New York City Comptroller from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2013. He was also a candidate in the 2013 New York City mayoral election. Liu had served on the New York City Council representing District 20, and was elected to the City Council in 2001 to represent northeast Queens, then was re-elected in 2003 and 2005. Liu entered the New York City Comptroller election in 2009 and won the race on November 3, 2009, becoming the first Asian American to be elected to a city-wide office in New York City. Liu teaches municipal finance and policy at Baruch College. John Chun Liu Investigation into fundraising[edit]Investigations into the fundraising practices of Liu's election campaigns found some irregularities, including the use of straw donors and undisclosed bundling.[28] A New York Times article in October 2011 documented several inconsistencies: after canvassing 100 households that were listed as having donated to the campaign, 24 irregularities were found, including donations from individuals who claimed they never donated, whose employers donated in their names, and several purported donors who did not appear to exist and could not be found.[28] Many of the irregularities in Liu's campaign were connected to the Chinese business community in Queens. In New York City, each dollar, up to the first $175 per contributor, donated to a candidate is matched with $6 in taxpayer money. This greatly increases the value of receiving many small donations and thus seeks to enhance the political voice of small donors. [28] Following publication of the New York Times article, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating the irregularities in Liu's campaign.[29] In November 17, 2011, one of Liu's fundraisers, 46-year-old Oliver Pan (潘心武, Pān Xīnwǔ), was arrested on charges of wire fraud from illegal donations.[30][31] Pan was approached by an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent posing as someone who wanted to donate $16,000 to Liu, well over the city donation limit of $4,950 for individual contributions.[30] Pan then arranged for 20 fictitious donors to make donations to Liu's campaign with the money provided by the undercover FBI agent.[32] In the first half of 2011, Liu received more than $1 million in fundraising contributions to support his mayoral candidacy for 2013.[30][33] In light of the allegations of campaign finance fraud, Liu hired former state attorney general Robert Abrams to conduct a review of his campaign finances. Abrams resigned on November 17.[34] In February 2012, Jia "Jenny" Hou, the treasurer of the Liu campaign, was arrested for using straw donors to circumvent campaign finance laws and gain more matching funds from taxpayers.[35] In October 2013, Hou was sentenced to ten months in prison after her conviction for attempted wire fraud, obstruction of justice and making false statements.[36] Pan was sentenced to four months in jail after his conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and attempt to commit wire fraud. In connection with their sentencing, Liu released a statement where he claimed that "the U.S. Attorney's Office set out to destroy me with what has been described as an extraordinarily intrusive and exhaustive investigation." The city's campaign financing board had denied Liu matching public funds as a result of the allegations.[citation needed] Liu lost his last race for political office when he was defeated by Tony Avella for the State Senate seat.[37] After three years of extensive investigation into John Liu's campaign, the Federal Bureau of Investigation still has yet to bring formal charges against Liu.[38]
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