FBI Arrests Congressman Grimm’s Fundraising Friend Diana Durand

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation put handcuffs on a friend of Republican Congressman Michael Grimm on Friday, charging her with violating federal campaign laws to steer money to Grimm.

Diana Durand, 47, was arrested in Texas and charged with election fraud and lying to agents, reports the Daily News.

The paper describes the scheme:

A criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court accuses her of using straw donors — people who use other donors’ money to make gifts in their own name — so she could exceed the $4,800 maximum allowable contribution in giving to the campaign committee of “Candidate A” in 2009 and 2010. Candidate A is Grimm, according to sources and Durand’s public contribution record.

Durand was a “personal friend of Candidate A,” the complaint says, and sources said Grimm and Durand became romantically involved when Grimm had business interests in Texas in 2008.

After contributing $4,800, the maximum amount allowed, Durand recruited straw donors who she paid back for their contributions, the complaint charges.

According to the complaint, Durand thanked her cohorts by e-mail, writing, “I just wanted to thank you both again for helping me out with (Candidate A’s) campaign last week, she wrote to them in 2010. “I still have to make the deposit but I can write you both a check, or I can get your account numbers and do a transfer, whatever works for you.”

Grimm’s team seemed more upset with the bust than with the alleged shenanigans, although the congressman has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

“We are saddened that the government took the extraordinary step of arresting a single mother on these allegations, and hope the matter will be resolved quickly,” said William McGinley, an attorney for Grimm.

The news comes on the heels of a Federal Election Commission determination days ago that Grimm accepted campaign contributions for his 2014 campaign that were larger than the legal limit.

The latest bust appears to be a part of the ongoing probe into his 2010 campaign fundraising, in which another Grimm associate is believed to have helped raise as much as $300,000 from a Jewish congregation in Manhattan, and then illegally funneled the money to Grimm’s campaign. That fundraiser, Ofer Biton, pleaded guilty to visa fraud last year as a result of the probe.