New Questions About Mayor Pugh's Financial Dealings Involve House

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is facing new questions about her financial transactions amid controversy over payments she received from the University of Maryland Medical System to publish children's books.

The new questions concern Pugh's purchase of a second house and its timing.

New: in 2016 Mayor Catherine Pugh purchased a second home. No traditional mortgage recorded. Came in same time period she was paid by UMMS for children's books that have little public accounting. Awaiting answers to our inquiry https://t.co/0T6cC78BEH — Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) March 25, 2019

Pugh was sworn in as Baltimore's mayor's Dec. 6, 2016. A week later came another major event: She bought a second home. It's located in the same Ashburton neighborhood where she owns another home bought in 1988.

The purchase came during the same time period the University of Maryland Medical System paid Pugh through her LLC for tens of thousands of children's books. The 11 News I-Team has learned the deal has little public accounting.

The purchase price of the second house was $117,500. City records also show permits to renovate the house and install new plumbing. No traditional mortgage is recorded, suggesting it may have been a cash transaction. The 11 News I-Team has asked for an explanation of the financing of the house, but no details have been provided.

The mayor, through her LLC, was paid $500,000 by UMMS since 2011 to publish 100,000 children’s books to be distributed to the Baltimore City Public Schools. But a spokesperson for the district said it has no record of book shipments beyond 2013 and can only document 8,700 books sitting in a warehouse.

The mayor has not provided an accounting of book distribution.

Pugh's LLC received $100,000 from the medical system in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, and in the 2016-2017 fiscal year according to state filings.

Pugh has returned the most recent $100,000 payment for books she said have not yet been published. She has stepped down from the UMMS board and canceled the book deal.

Pugh was among nine UMMS board members who had business deals with the system. Two other board members have also resigned and the CEO has been put on leave.

According to what was reported by the UMMS to state regulators, 80,000 books should have been published by the mayor since 2011. Pugh said 20,000 went to the school system. Where the remainder went remains unknown. A representative of the Enoch Pratt Library, for example, said libraries have none of the books.

A former investigator with the State Prosecutor's Office has filed a complaint with that office seeking a criminal investigation of Pugh for what he described as her "failure to properly disclose her financial dealings in ethics filings." That is essentially a citizen's complaint as the investigator is no longer employed by the State Prosecutor's Office. The office did not provide a comment.

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