Rangel's Real Estate Problems Linger

Rep. Charles Rangel, late of the multiple rent stabilized apartments, apparently had another home that he didn't exactly own up to. This home could get him into a lot of trouble.

Rangel owned a villa in Punta Cana, and didn't always declare the income from the renting of the property. That violates federal laws:

The 78-year-old Rangel's stone-covered cottage - which boasts flat-screen TVs and a panoramic ocean view - was open to hotel guests in the past two years, General Manager Carolina Jones told The Post.

"It's part of the hotel operation. It's available to customers at all times," Jones said of No. 412. Typically, the owners of the casitas earn 80 percent of any rental income, staff said.

But Rangel's financial disclosure forms, which members of Congress must file annually to the clerk of the House of Representatives, checks "none" for income from the property in 2006 and 2007.

"I have not received any rental income," Rangel said when asked about the villa last week. "There wasn't any income."

In some previous years, Rangel has reported earnings from the cottage. For both 2004 and 2005, he listed rental income of $2,500 to $5,000 a year. For 2001, 2002 and 2003, he reported rental income of $5,000 to $15,000 a year. And in 1990, 1991 and 1992, he reported that he earned up to $5,000 per year in rent. For some years, benefactors such as American Airlines paid for Rangel's trip to the resort.

Rangel loves to live the high life, and claim that he's for the common man. Too bad he doesn't follow the law like the common man.

The property was rented over the past two years, and yet Rangel didn't declare income for either 2006 or 2007. That's quite curious. The resort claims that the property was utilized - meaning it was rented with rents ranging from $500 to $1100 per night depending on the season - and yet Rangel doesn't claim income from the rents? More to the point, Rangel says that this is a private matter?

Sorry Charlie, you keep opening yourself up to investigation with actions such as this. You flout the laws, and sooner or later (preferably sooner), law enforcement will take you down. I don't expect Congress to act, given House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's steadfast refusal to censure or take other actions where clear criminality is present (see Cold Cash Jefferson), and given how Rangel is a senior member of the Democrat caucus in Congress, waiting on Pelosi is a fool's errand.