City Comptroller John Liu. (Facebook.com/Liu.NYC)

City Comptroller John Liu refunded more than $14,000 worth of contributions implicated in the straw donor scheme that has overshadowed his campaign, new campaign filings show.

Mr. Liu, whose former treasurer and a fund-raiser were found guilty earlier this month on federal campaign finance fraud charges, returned 29 contributions, which ranged from $50 to $1,000, the filings show.

While several were returned for other reasons, the vast majority were implicated during the trail as suspected straw donations, Mr. Liu's campaign lawyer, Martin Connor, said.

“They were all the ones mentioned," Mr. Connor explained. He said the campaign believed that it had returned all of the suspect contributions, but is still going through its records trying to find donors that may have been vaguely referenced to during the trial, trying to find out who they are.

Mr. Liu, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, has insisted that his campaign had no way of knowing about the straw donor scheme, even though an aide admitted to offering to reimburse donors on the stand.

“No campaign could defend themselves against an undercover operation that deceived their way into my campaign, getting my folks to think that those contributions were legitimate. And that’s in fact what happened," he recently said on NY1. “We thought those contributions were legitimate. It turned out otherwise. But there was no way we could tell.”

The filings also show that Mr. Liu has continued to shell out big money on lawyers' fees, paying Mr. Connor, for instance, more than $14,000. He also paid more than $57,000 on radio ads to a company called GMMB Inc. and $20,300 for a fund-raising video, the filings show.

Mr. Liu raised just under $121,000 during the latest period, with large contributions from the New York State Laborers' PAC and the Civil Service Technical Guild.

Mr. Connor said the returns were insignificant in the context of the overall amount raised by the campaign.

Mitt Romney on the campaign trail. (Photo: Getty)

In recent weeks, the Obama campaign has launched a relentless attack on Mitt Romney for his career with Bain Capital, the private equity firm he co-founded in 1984. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their campaign spokespeople have characterized Bain as a parasitic company that makes money through taking over and bankrupting other businesses. By targeting Bain Capital, the Obama campaign isn't just attacking Mr. Romney's past, they're also demonizing a company that has consistently contributed to Mr. Romney's campaign war chest. According to federal campaign finance reports, which include donations made up until the end of last month, Mr. Romney and the PACs supporting his campaign have received a total of $1,800,500 million in contributions from Bain employees.

During this presidential election cycle, Mr. Romney's campaign has received a total of $119,500 in contributions from Bain Capital staffers. Federal campaign finance regulations cap donations to presidential candidates at $2,500 per person. The main Super PAC supporting Mr. Romney, Restore Our Future Inc., has received $1,681,000 from five different Bain Capital executives during this election. Super PAC's, which were made legal through the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling and may accept donations of unlimited size. Free And Strong America, which is a political action committee that's backing Mr. Romney, has received $56,000 in donations from Bain Capital employees so far in this election cycle. Unlike Super PACs, standard issue PACs like Free And Strong America cannot except donations of over $5,000 per person.

Mr. Romney also received financial support from Bain Capital employees during the 2008 election. In that campaign, Mr. Romney and Free And Strong America received a total of $145,150 from Bain Capital staffers. Mr. Romney's campaign in that race got $105,150 from Bain employees and Free And Strong America received $56,000. Super PACs were not yet legal in 2008 and Mr. Romney didn't make it out of the primaries, so his total contributions from Bain for that race are far less than the seven figure total he managed to pull in from during this year's campaign.

Though President Obama has gone on the attack against Bain Capital, he has also received contributions from employees at the company, albeit far less than Mr. Romney. So far, in this election cycle, President Obama's campaign has received $7,500 from three Bain Capital executives. In 2008, President Obama brought in $55,720 from Bain.

Eliot Spitzer (Photo: Getty)

Former Governor Eliot Spitzer lost his job as a CNN host in last July, but apparently he still has money to burn. Since September, Mr. Spitzer has given donations to campaign committees for Councilman Mark Weprin, Michigan Congressman Sander Levin and Texas legislator Joaquin Castro. 

On September 20, Mr. Spitzer gave $1,000 to Mr. Levin and $500 to Mr. Castro. He gave another $1,000 to the "Friends of Mark Weprin 2013" campaign committee on December 10. All three beneficiaries of Mr. Spitzer's largesse are Democrats.

Mr. Spitzer left politics after he was busted patronizing prostitutes in 2008. Before he was caught spending money on sex, Mr. Spitzer was a prolific political donor. He made more than 100 donations at the local and federal level between 1998 and 2008.

After his scandalous resignation, Mr. Spitzer made just five donations between July 2008 and May 2009 giving a total of $5,000 to committees supporting Cy Vance Jr.'s campaign for Manhattan District attorney, Mark Green's unsuccessful bid to become public advocate, Pat O'Dwyer's run for Orange County Executive and the Educational Leadership PAC. Mr. Spitzer did not make any political donations between May 2009 and last September.