NYCLASS engaged in a conspiracy to purchase political influence.

Cut through the mind-numbing complexities of the latest enforcement ruling by the city’s Campaign Finance Board and you arrive at a conspiracy to purchase political influence. The secret would-be buyer was NYCLASS, the animal-rights group pushing to throw 300 people out of jobs by banning carriagee horses from New York City.

Achieving that goal — getting govern--ment to ban an industry and, in the pro--cess, open horse stable properties to big--bucks development — was always going to require an aggressive scheme to work thee levers of power.

Because, overwhelmingly, New Yorkers reject the protect-every-bug extremism of NYCLASS. At the same time, New Yorkers see with their own eyes that the horses are well tended. Fully two-thirds tell pollsters they oppose putting them out to pasture.

Yet Mayor de Blasio pledged to ban the carriages on “day one,” never mind the damage he would inflict on drivers and stable hands. De Blasio this week backed a bill that would deliver on his promise, and a few dozen council members remain undecided on the measure.

Here’s a big reason why: NYCLASS strategically threw around money.

Most notoriously, NYCLASS pumped $20,000 into de Blasio’s campaign coffers before he announced support for a ban.

The group then clandestinely passed hundreds of thousands of dollars to an organization established to derail de Blasio’s chief mayoral rival, then-Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The effort paid off big-time.

On Thursday, the campaign board c came down on a NYCLASS plot to secu cure Council friends.

Put most simply, NYCLASS in effect gave much larger-than-allowed contributionsi to winning candidates Mark Levine o of Manhattan and Laurie Cumbo of B Brooklyn by funneling the money to a consulting company helping the two. As NYCLASS and the consultant whine about who was truly guilty, the board slapped the group with $26,000 in fines. The panel described the penalty as “severe,” an overstatement considering that the driving force behind NYCLASS is Steve Nislick, a wealthy parking-garage magnate.

Cumbo has yet to take a stand on the ban bill. Levine backs it, rather than come out on the side of the workers who are threatened with losing their livelihoods.

The rest of the members should recognize that NYCLASS put their integrity in doubt because it needs insider help to overcome the good sense of New Yorkers.