A total of $4,000 in contributions by businesses owned by a convicted drug trafficker, Meir Duke, to the campaign of a state House District 25 candidate from Prince George?s County will be returned, the candidate said Friday.
“I have been widely supported by residents, businesses and other candidates,” said Aisha Braveboy, of Mitchellville, in a statement, “and Mr. Duke?s contribution was not so substantial that it made a material difference to our success”
An Examiner investigation revealed Friday that Braveboy?s campaign received a total of $4,000 in June from two businesses owned by Duke, a Reisterstown resident. Duke pleaded guilty in 1990 to charges of conspiring to distribute, and possession with intent to distribute, cocaine and heroin and spent more than four years in federal prison.
Duke said Braveboy did not know about his past and that a friend had suggested he donate to the woman?s campaign.
Braveboy has worked as a manager of land acquisition and real property in the Prince George?s County Office of Central Services since 2005. Her campaign fund, the Friends of Aisha Braveboy, had raised $38,325 as of Tuesday. Duke?s donations represented a little more than 10 percent of that amount.
Checkered Past
Meir Duke, the Reisterstown businessman who gave $4,000 to the state House campaign of Aisha Braveboy, has a controversial past:
» Duke pleaded guilty in 1990 to charges of conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine. He spent about four years in federal prison.
» In 2001, Duke received more than $165,000 from the city of Baltimore to move one of his shoe stores 100 feet down a block and out of a west-side zone scheduled for redevelopment. An investigation revealed Duke was not entitled to relocation assistance, but it is unclear whether he was allowed to keep the payment.
» Duke said in April that he will not renew the lease of a swinger?s club that rents a property he owns in Catonsville after a neighborhood group protested activities going on at the Tabu Social Club.
