Prober: I am out of Giftgate

Bill ex-cash guy steps aside

THE HEAD OF the city Department of Investigation late Friday bowed out of a growing probe of Mayor de Blasio’s fund-raising because of his previous role as the mayor’s campaign treasurer.

DOI Commissioner Mark Peters was de Blasio’s treasurer during the 2013 campaign. His agency is currently involved in an ongoing investigation of the mayor’s fundraising by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.

Peters’ office issued a statement — without mentioning his role as treasurer — saying that to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest, he would step away from DOI’s probe of the matter.

“As has been reported, the Department of Investigation, in conjunction with its law enforcement partners, is investigating allegations related to certain (de Blasio) campaign donors,” the statement read. “In order to avoid the appearance of a conflict, the commissioner has recused himself from these matters.”

Karen Hinton, a mayoral spokeswoman, declined comment.

The Investigations Department will continue to assist in the probe, which has focused so far on at least two de Blasio donors, Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg. A top DOI aide will now supervise the agency’s investigation.

Since becoming DOI commissioner, Peters has issued multiple reports and launched numerous investigations that were ultimately highly critical of de Blasio agencies.

Sources familiar with the probe told the Daily News that Peters says he never met Rechnitz and Reichberg and did not solicit money from them.

But at the time there was reason Rechnitz could have raised red flags with the de Blasio campaign: A donation linked to Rechnitz was troubling enough that the de Blasio campaign sent it back.

Individuals are barred from donating more than $4,950 per election, but fund-raisers known as “intermediaries” can collect checks from multiple sources and present them in bundles to candidates.

In October 2013, Rechnitz bundled $41,650 in checks from nine donors, including an Oct. 3 check for $4,950 from a Harlem businessman, Hamlet Peralta.

When the Rechnitz bundle arrived, the Peralta check set off alarms when a campaign staffer found a story on Google linking Peralta to a van filled with illegal untaxed booze.

The campaign returned the check Oct. 23.

A source familiar with the matter said Peters, in his role as treasurer, may have been told of this via email and may have even signed off on returning the check.

But he likely didn’t get involved in looking into whether that one bad check raised questions about Rechnitz. At the time, the source said, contributions were flooding in after de Blasio’s primary victory. Several were sent back.

Last week Peralta was arrested and charged with running a Ponzi scheme. The feds are also looking at whether he provided NYPD brass with gifts in exchange for favors.

The feds and DOI are also looking at a questionable Lower East Side real estate deal involving a nursing home operator who turned a $72 million profit after the city altered a deed to allow luxury condos there. The deed change was won with the help of a lobbyist, James Capalino, who raised $50,000 in donations for the mayor and a non-profit that supported his causes.