NLPC files Complaint on Rep. Mollohan-D, House Ethics Committee member -- Earmarks

National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) ^ | April 7, 2007 | Ken Boehm

[Ooh-Ah]

NLPC Complaint Alleges
Ranking House Ethics Committee Member
Hid Assets and Funded Business Partner’s Groups
with Millions in Earmarks

 

Date: April 7, 2006

Contact: Ken Boehm 703-237-1970

Website: www.nlpc.org

 

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today disclosed that it filed a 500-page Complaint on February 28 with the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia detailing hundreds of ethics law violations by Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV).

 Rep. Mollohan is the ranking member of the House ethics committee and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. The Wall Street Journal this morning carried a front-page story about the case.
The lengthy complaint followed a nine-month investigation by NLPC, the ethics group that also broke the Boeing procurement scandal in 2003. NLPC alleged financial conflicts of interest by former Air Force official Darleen Druyun in negotiating the lease of refueling tanker aircraft. Ms. Druyun and Boeing CFO Michael Sears eventually served prison terms, and Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned.

NLPC’s investigation began when its review of the Financial Disclosure Reports of House Appropriations Committee members showed a sharp increase in Rep. Mollohan’s assets from 2000 to 2004. A closer examination revealed that Mollohan and his wife had more than $2,000,000 in real estate investments with a former staffer, Laura Kuhns, and her husband. Kuhns ran a nonprofit, Vandalia Heritage Foundation, which had received more than $28 million in appropriations earmarks with Mollohan’s help from 2000 through 2005. She was also on the board of other nonprofit groups which had received over $100 million in earmarks of federal funds during the same period with Mollohan’s help.

  Mollohan’s 2000 Financial Disclosure Report listed his income-producing assets as being worth from $179,012 to $562,000 with liabilities of $170,000 to $465,000. Among the liabilities was Visa credit card debt listed as $45,003 to $150,000. 

Just four years later, Mollohan’s 2004 Financial Disclosure Report showed him with assets worth $6,313,025 to $24,947,000 offset by liabilities in the $3,665,011 to $13,500,000 range. It also showed him owning an oceanfront beach house on Bald Head Island, NC which was valued at $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. NLPC found that Mollohan was renting the beach house during the summer of 2005 for $11,975 a week.
<>The NLPC effort began in May 2005. Over the ensuing months, NLPC staff filed Freedom of Information Act requests and examined thousands of pages of real estate, financial and legal documents. Slowly a picture of Mollohan’s finances emerged that was sharply different from the one being portrayed in the Financial Disclosure Reports which the Congressman was required to file by the Ethics in Government Act.

 

For the period 1996 through 2004, NLPC found that the Financial Disclosure Reports:       
 

• repeatedly failed to disclose real estate assets which public records showed were owned by Mollohan and his wife 

• repeatedly failed to disclose financial assets which public records showed were owned by Mollohan and his wife
  

• repeatedly failed to disclose major loans which were used in the acquisition of financial assets which were not being disclosed

• failed to disclose interests in companies which owned major assets <> 

•  grossly undervalued assets, giving purported valuations which were a small fraction of the assets’ true value

NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm stated, “Our research was extremely specific. When Mollohan failed to disclose an asset we would document his ownership interest with a deed, Uniform Commercial Code filing or other public record. In all, we documented over 250 misrepresentations and omissions. Every Financial Disclosure Report filed by Mollohan from 1996 through 2004 had major errors. Most of the errors had the effect of understating the value of his holdings – sometimes the assets he did not disclose exceeded the ones he did.”  <>

“The real issue here is not whether Mollohan systematically was hiding financial and real estate assets and grossly misrepresenting their value. He was. The real issue is why he was hiding those assets. Mollohan is the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct – popularly known as the ethics committee. He has served on that committee, which has jurisdiction over the filing of Financial Disclosure Reports, for 9 years (1985 to 1991 and then 2003 to present). No one in the House has more familiarity with the disclosure laws than he does. Any kind of excuse that he did not know how to fill out his financial disclosure reports – for a 9 year period – does not pass the straight face test.”  <>

“The bottom line is Mollohan got very wealthy in a four year period. His account of his finances during this period is demonstrably false. The fact that he earmarked well over $100 million in tax dollars to groups associated with his business partner is about as big a red flag as one can imagine.” 

NLPC is not making public its Complaint and exhibits at this time. It is soliciting information from individuals who may be knowledgeable about these matters and has pledged to turn over all key evidence it uncovers to the FBI to aid their investigation. 
Founded in 1991, NLPC promotes ethics in public life, and sponsors the Government Integrity Project. NLPC has been instrumental in successfully exposing other major federal conflict of interest and corruption cases.

[lesser_satan]

Is this "earmark" thing something new, or merely a new-speak euphemism for "pork"?

[jw777]

If he's indicted, will there be calls for him to step down, like Delay did? I doubt it. He's a Democrat.

[Bob Buchholz]

I bet the MSM covers this just like they did the Duke Cunningham case. /s

[Ooh-Ah]

Also see the front page Wall Street Journal article:

Senior Dem on House Ethics committee under investigation--West Virginia Rep. Mollohan