Former Mayor Bill de Blasio has been ordered to cough up nearly $475,000 by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) for improperly billing New York taxpayers for his NYPD security detail’s out-of-state travel expenses during a failed 2019 presidential bid.
The board ruled that de Blasio had violated the City Charter by using “city resources for private purposes,” having city taxpayers pick up the tab for an NYPD security detail on 31 out-of-state trips that either he or his wife, Chirlane McCray, took in connection with his presidential campaign between May and September 2019. De Blasio — who left office at the end of 2021 — has been ordered to pay back the $319,794 incurred by his detail’s travel expenses and an additional $155,000 fine, the largest fine in COIB history, according to a release.
