NYCLASS, a group that has lobbied intensively to ban horse drawn carriages from the streets of New York City, has agreed to pay a fine for violating campaign finance rules. The group has admitted to making illegal contributions last year to two City Council candidates, both of whom were elected.

Earlier this year, the Daily News disclosed that a political consultant for NYCLASS threatened to undermine Christine Quinn’s mayoral campaign if she didn’t back the carriage horse ban. In April, 2013, Quinn, who was leading her opponent—the now Mayor de Blasio—in the polls at the time, refused to back the ban. NYCLASS responded by contributing more than $400,000 to a PAC formed by NYCLASS’s political consultant to carry out the “Anybody But Quinn” campaign. Records also show that two of de Blasio’s top financial supporters gave $225,000 to NYCLASS.

With Mayor de Blasio now having sent proposed legislation to ban the carriages to the New York City Council, that body—which includes the two successful candidates who received illegal funds from NYCLASS—will be deciding on the fate of the horse carriages and their drivers. De Blasio said on Tuesday that he intends to personally lobby City Council members to pass the ban.

Dirty business, all under the syrupy guise of “Free the Horses; Stop the Abuse.”

Posted December 12, 2014