Botched Attack on Jose Vega Reveals Major Financial Conflicts of Interest in Ritchie Torres Campaign

Jose Vega, LaRouche Independent candidate for Congress in New York’s 15th Congressional District, in the Bronx, issued the following statement on July 31:

There is a filthy attempt to prevent the campaign of me, and of my friend, LaRouche Independent candidate for President Diane Sare, from telling you about how the Epstein Class is leading us into World War Three; about how they can be stopped; and about how to solve the so-called “immigration problem” with economic development. I’m fighting back, and I know how—but I need your help.

On Monday, July 27, Politico published a hit piece against me, denouncing me for paying myself a monthly salary of $2,419.66 from January to May of 2026. The author, Jason Beeferman, describes this as a “modest salary.” What a condescending bastard!

Multiply that figure of $2,419 over the 11 months from January until November—the full length of the 2026 Congressional campaign cycle. That’s $26,609 for the year, gross. I’m supposed to be “enriching myself?” The poverty line for a single adult in New York City is $23,304. My payments are completely legal. And my “job,” so to speak, for more than a year, has been to run for office on a full-time basis against AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) candidate Ritchie Torres, who had $14 million dollars before the campaign started.

Politico’s hit piece is meant to stop me, and Americans like me, particularly who are young and poor, from speaking the truth against the killing in Gaza; against the illegal, Ku Klux Klan-style annexation of the West Bank; and against the Epstein Class, which is carrying out these crimes, including the late Lindsay “Ladybug” Graham. It’s also to prevent knowledge of the LaRouche Oasis Plan solution to war in Southwest Asia and poverty in the South Bronx.

My opponents in the Epstein Class hate working people, especially the poor working people in the Bronx, 29% of whom live at or below the poverty line. The median rent in the Bronx is $3100-$3200 a month. Politico, as well as other journalists and media platforms just like them, are far more interested in ‘poor shaming’ me—and you—for barely making minimum wage, than they are in exposing the corruption that Rep. Ritchie Torres and his associates are openly engaging in.

A friend of mine, a blogger and citizen journalist, has combed through Ritchie Torres’ campaign finances. Rep. Torres’ extensive campaign finance network—including his campaign committees—have engaged in significant financial conflicts of interest. His campaign funds have been directed to businesses owned by individuals who control Torres’ finances, and make spending decisions. An example of this is the Equality PAC, the official fundraising arm of the Congressional LGBTQ Caucus, of which Ritchie Torres is the co-chair and largest funder.

Torres transferred over $2,270,000 million to the Equality PAC this election cycle. The LGBTQ Caucus includes nine House members and one Senator. The executive director of Equality PAC is Jeff Larivee, who “leads the organization’s recruitment efforts, political activities and fundraising.” Larivee also happens to serve as Ritchie Torres’ campaign finance director, and as a key political fundraiser!

Equality PAC has spent over $2,200,000 on so-called “operating expenditures,” including airfare, hotels, meals, event catering, office rental, and so forth. It has also spent obscene amounts on consultants. Over 50% of Equality PAC’s “operating expenditures” are paid to a company called “Rolla Group LLC,” which is a Washington, D.C.-based fundraising and political consulting firm, owned and founded by none other than Torres’ campaign finance director, Jeff Larivee.

Another firm, Political Animals LLC, owned by Larivee’s husband, Timothy Brian Pryzbylski, was paid $789,793.99 by Equality PAC for this cycle. Political Animals is also responsible for handing almost all of Equality PAC’s SuperPAC expenditures. So, while simultaneously acting as Torres’ campaign finance director, and the executive director of Equality PAC—which Torres is co-chair of—Jeff Larivee and his husband have been paid millions of dollars from consulting advice through his very own Equality PAC. This is obviously a major conflict of interest, and a lot more than $26,609. Why didn’t Politico look into this, and me instead?

Jeff Larivee and his husband Timothy happen to own another consulting firm named “Rambleside LLC” which has billed between $11,750-$23,000 per month in rent to Equality PAC, along with another $100,000+ in office furnishings and improvements since July 2025. The address for Rambleside LLC is not an office, but a $2,000,000 home which Larivee bought last July, just before he started billing Equality PAC for rent. That’s Ritchie Torres’ campaign finance director for you!

Equality PAC has come under scrutiny before for financial misconduct. Former treasurer of the PAC, Jennifer May, had pleaded guilty in August, 2025 to $1,500,000 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the federal government, which were issued during the COVID-19 pandemic to help pay ordinary operating expenses. May was discovered to be using those funds to speculate in cryptocurrency, and was charged with wire fraud by U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro.

I’m not going to let the jackals and thieves that are attacking my campaign get away with this. People in Gaza continue to die; people in my district suffer from ludicrous rent costs, collapsing buildings, and poor infrastructure; the Epstein class, whether in the White House, Congress, Wall Street or the South Bronx, continue to operate above the law. Somebody has to stop them before they start World War Three, which could be weeks or even days away. I need you to circulate this statement. I need you to contribute to my campaign. I need you to support my friend Diane Sare in her Independent campaign for President of the United States. I need you to vote me into the Congress in November.

In fighting for the people of Gaza, the South Bronx, and the poor everywhere, whatever the result, I am the richest man in the world.