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Michael Grimm's Ex-Girlfriend Pleads Guilty to Campaign Fraud

By Nicholas Rizzi | September 4, 2014 3:13pm
 The ex-girlfriend of Congressman Michael Grimm, Diana Durand, pleaded guilty to campaign fraud for using straw donors to funnel more than $10,000 to two campaigns in 2010, including Grimm's.
The ex-girlfriend of Congressman Michael Grimm, Diana Durand, pleaded guilty to campaign fraud for using straw donors to funnel more than $10,000 to two campaigns in 2010, including Grimm's.
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

BROOKLYN — Rep. Michael Grimm's ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty Wednesday to campaign fraud related to fundraising in Grimm's 2010 election bid.

Diana Durand, 48, admitted one-count of fraud by using straw donors to funnel extra money to two campaigns in 2010. One of the campaigns was Grimm's, the FBI announced.

"We and our partners in the FBI are committed to protecting the integrity of the electoral process and will aggressively pursue anyone who attempts to circumvent federal campaign financing laws," U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

"Enforcement of these laws ensures that all candidates compete on a level playing field and that the public knows the true source of a candidate’s campaign funds."

Durand, of Houston, Texas, used people to skirt around the maximum campaign contributions allowed by law, the FBI said. She would reimburse or pay people in advance to make donations under their own name, and funneled more than $10,000 to the two campaigns, the FBI said.

Grimm was hit with a 20-count indictment in April on fraud charges for hiding $1 million in profits from his Upper East Side restaurant from the IRS, but has not been charged with any wrongdoing concerning his 2010 campaign finances.

Outside the courtroom, Durand's lawyers told reporters that she did not agree to testifying against Grimm in exchange for a plea deal, the New York Observer reported.

“There was never any cooperation with respect to Ms. Durand giving testimony against Mr. Grimm, nor was there ever any evidence to suggest that she was complicit with Mr. Grimm or that Mr. Grimm was complicit with her, and there is no future promise that she will at a later date cooperate,” her attorney Stuart Kaplan said, according to the Observer.

Kaplan suggested Durand serve probation for the crime. He said she was trying to help a friend by raising more money for the campaign, the Observer reported.

“I don’t think at the time — she was trying to raise more money because she was trying to help a friend — that she at the time could appreciate that she could at some point later on in life be confronted with having committed a crime,” Kaplan said.

Durand faces a maximum of two years in prison, the FBI said.