Karl J. Sleight

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl J. Slaight (born 1962) is an attorney and Treasurer of the Saratoga County Bar Association (New York). He resides in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 2000, he was appointed Executive Director of the New York State Ethics Commission. In this position he has become highly controversial for sending out letters threatening substantial fines (up to ten thousand dollars) for failure by various officials to file financial disclosure statements with the Commission. In one still-unresolved case, Slaight demanded the disclosure statement and threatened both the maximum fine and criminal prosecution of someone who had not held a position requiring such a disclosure statement for over a year. He has remained unresponsive to demands for an explanation, and even had a staffer deny the existence of such a threatening letter, until the recipient distributed copies. As of February 27, 2007 Slaight has resigned from the Ethics Commission to work at a private law firm.