If Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun were to sell a Hyde Park co-op apartment she bought with her former campaign manager, she would not have to declare the sale proceeds as a gift, the Senate ethics committee has ruled.
Moseley-Braun, who has put the Chicago penthouse apartment at 5000 East End Avenue on the market, asked the panel whether any money she made from the sale would qualify as a gift because the apartment was purchased in part by campaign manager Kgosie Matthews during their engagement, which was later broken off.
The ethics panel did not make a determination of whether the proceeds of such a sale would qualify as a gift.
But it informed Moseley-Braun that if the money did constitute a gift, the panel will grant her a waiver of the gift rules if she shares the sale proceeds “equitably” with Matthews.
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The apartment was purchased in August 1993 and titled jointly to Moseley-Braun and Matthews, according to Moseley-Braun’s Washington attorney Lyn Utrecht. But until June 1995, Moseley-Braun paid all the apartment’s co-op assessments and its mortgage, Utrecht said.
Since July 1995, Matthews has paid the mortgage while Moseley-Braun paid the monthly assessments, which are slightly higher, Utrecht said. Utrecht would not disclose the amounts.
Moseley-Braun does not have to list the apartment on her personal disclosure forms because it is a personal residence. But in the future, she will have to disclose the arrangement by which she and Matthews pay for it, Utrecht said.