D.A. Robert Morgenthau

Two New Jersey men have been charged with attempting to steal a combined $430,000 from Mayor Bloomberg, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced today.

Odalis Bostic will be arraigned in New York Supreme Court today. He opened two bank accounts in Elizabeth, New Jersey under a fake company name, Laderman Development Company. In June, he obtained the mayor’s personal banking information and forged two checks under Mr. Bloomberg’s name. He deposited the checks into his bank account and they were cleared by Bank of America. The money was issued to Mr. Bostic’s accounts in the name of the Mayor’s financial manager, Geller & Company. Because of the size of the checks ($190,000 and $230,000), Mr. Bostic’s two banks put holds on the checks and the forgeries were detected.

While Mr. Bostic’s case was being investigated, officials discovered that Charles Nelson of Newark, New Jersey, stole $10,000 from one of the Mayor’s financial accounts on May 11, 2007. Mr. Nelson transferred $10,000 from the Mayor’s Bank of America account to an online E-Trade account. He then used a debit card to withdraw cash advances and make purchases from the E-Trade account.

Both Mr. Nelson and Mr. Bostic committed class D felonies and could face up to seven years in prison, according to Mr. Morgenthau.

Read the full announcement of the indictment after the jump.  read more »

The Bloomberg campaign plans to circulate independent nominating petitions to put Mike on the November ballot on the Liberal Party line, The Politicker has learned.

Also on the petitions: D.A. Robert Morgenthau.

Technically speaking, they're doing this independently of the old Liberal Party, which lost its ballot line in 2002 when Andrew Cuomo failed to get 50,000 votes for Governor. But the move has the blessing of Liberal Party chairman Henry Stern.

The campaign plans to begin petitioning later this week, and needs to file 7,500 signatures between August 16 and 23.  read more »

A side-note: If Bloomberg remains on the Republican and Independence Party lines and adds the Liberal Party, he will still appear on the fall ballot only twice: "Republican/Liberal" (That has a nice ring to it...); and Independence. If he loses the Independence line, he'll appear on two separate lines, Republican and Liberal.

Shades of John Lindsay indeed.