A Maryland man who former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown claims carried cash from the Gray for Mayor campaign to Brown left creditors on the hook for $2.5 million after filing for bankruptcy. He also is the brother-in-law of a longtime D.C. businessman who was at the center of a controversy over D.C. Lottery contracts.
Howard Brooks, 63, is a key player in the account by Brown that has triggered an inquiry into the mayor’s election campaign.
Top members of Vincent Gray’s mayoral campaign told The Washington Examiner that Brooks was brought into the campaign in early July by Chairwoman Lorraine Green, who Brown also claims passed him envelopes stuffed with cash so he could stay on the campaign trail and attack then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. Brooks is the brother-in-law of P. Leonard Manning, who earned an extra year on a $38 million lottery contract in 2008 as Gray, then D.C. Council chairman, maneuvered to block a Fenty ally. During the mayoral campaign, Fenty argued that Manning was a crony whom Gray was trying to protect.
On Tuesday, Gray told The Examiner he didn’t know Brooks was related to Manning. “I know [Brooks],” Gray said, “but I don’t know him well.” Gray has repeatedly denied he was trying to protect Manning, who had the D.C. Lottery contract for 25 years before losing it in 2009.
Brooks stayed on with the Gray campaign through the November general election as a “consultant” and was paid about $44,000, records show. A campaign source said Brooks was a paid member of Gray’s transition team. In the weeks before the primary, Brooks procured vans and buses for Gray’s get-out-the-vote effort, as well as coordinated taxi drivers who volunteered to drive voters to the polls, sources said. The Washington Post reported Sunday that phone records show Brooks and Green were in frequent contact with Brown throughout the summer. Brown says those calls were made to set up meetings where, over the course of the campaign, thousands of dollars were passed to Brown from the Gray campaign. Brooks and Green have denied the accusations.
Brooks did not return calls this week for comment.
In August 2008, Brooks was sued for more than $4 million by Siemens Medical Solutions Inc. after his medical imaging business stopped paying for leased equipment. Brooks lost the lawsuit, court records show, and filed for bankruptcy. When he declared Chapter 7 in July 2009, Brooks’ creditors had to write off $2.5 million, court records show.
Gary Bahena represented the landlord in the Siemens lawsuit who owned the office space in Suitland where Brooks was opening National Imaging Inc. He said Brooks was the “consummate salesman.” Bahena said he dug around for an opportunity to countersue Brooks.
“At the end of the day, our assessment was that there was nothing evil about him. The business just failed,” Bahena said.
The Office of Campaign Finance has opened an investigation into Brown’s allegations. D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown has asked the D.C. inspector general to investigate, too.
Former U.S. Attorney for D.C. Joe diGenova suggested the U.S. Attorney’s Office would be the best for leading the investigation given its ability to call witnesses in front of a grand jury.
“It doesn’t mean people committed any crimes, but the accusations do need to be investigated,” diGenova said.
