Moseley Braun late to pay property taxes

CHICAGO, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Chicago mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun repeatedly has been late to pay her property taxes, public records show.

Braun, a former U.S. senator, paid Cook County, Ill., more than $3,400 in late penalties, and for taxes owed in 2009 she paid two installments last summer after being warned the taxes were about to be put up for auction, the Chicago Tribune reported. A sale would have exposed her to investors who could have bought them and been owed interest when she redeemed them.

Braun's federal tax returns, which she has been slowly releasing, indicate unstable finances. She claimed six-figure losses for CMB One Corp., her public-speaking business. She has not disclosed how she uses the corporation, blaming her struggles on her organic coffee and tea business, Ambassador Organics.

"My tax returns are one measure of the fight I have waged to keep my business running," Braun wrote in a statement this week accompanying her 2008 and 2009 returns. She previously told the Tribune she delayed paying her property taxes to divert funds to Ambassador Organics.

Braun's 2007 federal return showed a refund of $48,480.