Rangel Plans Big Bucks Fundraiser While His Pal Gets 27 Months in Jail

If you relied on the Associated Press for your information, you'd have no idea this guy was linked to lowlife Democrat Charlie Rangel.

A Manhattan tax preparer has been sentenced to over two years in prison for using the stolen identities of Puerto Rico residents to submit false federal returns.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the sentence was imposed Wednesday on Kelvin Crucey.

He's a former senior executive at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. It's one of nine empowerment zones established by the Clinton Administration in 1994 to revitalize distressed communities.

He also owned a tax preparation business. That's where the scheme occurred.

Of course, when the scheme occurred he was working for one of Rangel's slush funds nonprofits.

With exquisite timing, the man who should be joining Crucey in prison for his myriad offenses announces a fatcat fundraiser so he can finance yet another run for Congress.

Disgraced Rep. Charles Rangel is already raising money for his 2012 re-election campaign.

The Harlem Democrat's campaign yesterday sent out invitations for a March 2 cocktail reception--with tickets costing $1,000 to $5,000. The pricey soiree was announced just days after the 80-year-old congressman -- still popular with colleagues and voters despite his House censure two months ago -- filed candidacy papers to run for a 22nd term.

The invite beckons supporters to join the "dean of the NY delegation and member of the committee on Ways and Means," but doesn't mention he resigned as chairman of the committee amid an ethics scandal that led to his conviction and censure.