House candidate Rob Lubin files long overdue financial report

WASHINGTON — Second Congressional District candidate Rob Lubin last week filed a legally required financial disclosure report that showed little income, few investments and no bank accounts after missing the deadlines for submitting the reports during the past two years.

Lubin, founder and CEO of a four-year-old online fashion marketplace and the Democratic challenger to U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), submitted the five-page report to the House Clerk’s office after repeated inquiries from Newsday.

Lubin said he had chosen not to submit the reports to protect the privacy of his family, despite a 1978 law that requires candidates to file a disclosure within 30 days after filing to run for Congress and by May 15 after that. Lubin filed to run on May 23, 2023.

"My decision not to file, you know, certain financial details just reflects my commitment to the privacy around my family’s business, which doesn’t impact my campaign whatsoever, or the voters’ interests," Lubin said.

Lubin, whose campaign describes him as a small-business owner and son of an immigrant, is the son of Manhattan venture capitalist Daniel C. Lubin and Italian-born Flaminia Lubin, a prominent journalist and documentary producer and director.

Lubin’s father is managing partner and cofounder of Radius Ventures LLC, which invests in health and life sciences companies; founder and CEO of EntryPoint Capital and chairman of Upsher Management Company, which manages his family’s money. He serves on many boards of nonprofits and businesses, including the board of his son’s business.

The family’s wealth originated from a diaper-rash cream created by Lubin’s grandfather and later acquired by Pfizer Inc., according to Bloomberg News.

Rob Lubin’s filing last week, which listed amounts in ranges of dollars, showed income last year of at most $18,250 and this year through September of at most $59,150 — of which $50,000 was rent he collected from an Upper East Side Manhattan apartment he owns.

The filing reported that he also has a mortgage of $500,000 to $1 million on the Manhattan apartment and owes $15,000 to $50,000 on each of two credit cards.

Lubin, 29, now rents an apartment in Lindenhurst.

In a separate filing of his campaign fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission, Lubin also reported that he lent $150,000 to his campaign at the end of September 2023.

CPA Joseph Perry of Marcum LLP, a Manhattan accounting firm, said the numbers don’t add up. "As an accountant, based on the disclosures and the information in front of me, I have to ask: How can he afford to live, pay his rent and be able to lend $150,000 to his campaign?"

Lubin’s campaign said last week’s filing did not include the account that once included the $150,000 because the balance has since fallen below the $5,000 threshold for reporting it. The campaign said the money came from Lubin’s family’s financial support for him.

"The $150,000 is personal money that Rob has lent the campaign," the campaign said, "and Rob has complied with all necessary reporting procedure on it."

Last week before filing the disclosure after Newsday’s queries, Lubin said, "We are aware of the financial disclosure form. We are working on it. There are some documents within the filing that we’re just trying to figure out and making my family comfortable."

A 1978 law requires federal candidates and legislators to file annual disclosures of their income, assets, liabilities, positions in organizations and agreements with outside entities to inform the public about their financial interests and to deter potential conflicts of interest.

"It's not uncommon for new candidates to file negligently or late, but it's usually because they just don't understand the rules, or they don't understand the value of these types of personal financial disclosures," said Craig Holman, the lobbyist on ethics for Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

"And they usually go unpunished as long as they eventually do file," Holman said. "But if there is an element of deliberateness, it turns it into more of an egregious violation."