The elderly treasurer for a Brooklyn borough president candidate was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and three years probation for a failed straw donor scheme to scam the city out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in public matching funds.
Erlene King, 72, who worked on the 2021 primary election campaign of Democrat Anthony Jones, was sentenced by Brooklyn Federal Court Carol Bagley Amon on Wednesday, after pleading guilty to wire fraud in January 2025.
Federal prison guidelines recommended a sentence of 33 to 41 months, but prosecutors didn’t take a position on how much time King should serve.
“There was no reason to send her to prison, and Judge Amon exercised compassion in the sentencing. Ms. King is in her 70s and not in the best of health,” her lawyer, John Wallenstein, told the Daily News Thursday.
In his sentencing memo, Wallenstein wrote, “Prison for Erlene King, at 72 years of age and in poor health, both physically and mentally, would be a horrendous experience, essentially cruel and unusual punishment, given her unique circumstances. Society will not benefit from locking her up; she is no danger to others, and will never have the opportunity (never mind the inclination) to commit a crime again.”
King tried to take advantage of the city’s 8-to-1 matching campaign funds program by submitting $25,000 in straw donations to Jones’ campaign, along with five corresponding “fictitious records,” in the hopes of getting $400,000 in matching funds, prosecutors said.
She used CashApp to send money to straw donors, who in turn donated the money to Jones’ campaign, but the city Campaign Finance Board noticed something amiss and denied the matching funds.
Straw donors are typically used to conceal the identity and contribution of wealthy donors, thus illegally bypassing individual contribution caps.
Jones, who is not charged with a crime, came in eighth in a field of 12 Democratic primary candidates, getting just 3% of the vote.
