Over 30 years, Shepard became a a slumlord, amassing “a housing empire that, at one point, included nearly 10,000 apartments in 23 states.”
Why low-income housing? Because it is lucrative for extremely wealthy investors, like Shepard, who seek to shield their money from taxation through write offs – and in low-income housing, investors can “write off more money than a project produces, thus claiming a net loss for tax purposes.”
As a result, Shepard's interest in 175 companies is valued at less than $1,000, and he has a stake in 192 companies which supposedly generate less than $201 in annual income.
As State Auditor, McCaskill claims that she has complied with disclosure laws; however, it would be very difficult for an ordinary person to amass a net worth totaling between $13 million and more than $30 million, the couple’s wealth according to a statement she filed with the Senate, on just $201 per month.
There is also the issue of nursing homes – an industry which McCaskill promised to clean up when running for Auditor in 1998. The Missouri State Auditor is responsible for auditing the Department of Health and Senior Services, which regulates the state's nursing home system; Shepard, as luck would have it, happened to own six such businesses. A wife, in charge of auditing an industry in which her husband is a prominent business owner? Sounds like a conflict of interest – unless you’re Claire McCaskill, that is.
When the subject was broached during her 2004 gubernatorial campaign, McCaskill brushed off the idea of conflict of interest by saying that her husband was out of the nursing home business. However, records show he still received $3 million in rent from nursing home companies that year.
Not only that, several of the nursing homes Shepard had operated were repeatedly cited for deficiencies by inspectors or sued with allegations of poor care, sexual abuse or wrongful death at the time of his management. Still no conflict of interest with his wife handling the audit.
Rather, McCaskill maintains that her audit of the industry did not overlap with any period of time when her husband operated nursing homes. Unfortunately, beyond the world of semantics, that’s just not true, as Joseph Shepard still owns the buildings that contain the nursing homes. No word on what McCaskill’s next Houdini-like attempt to escape the facts of this matter will include.
The conflict of interest in McCaskill’s personal and professional dealings with Shepard’s businesses has the potential only to increase should she be elected to the Senate. As the USDA handles low income housing issues, a Senator McCaskill would be in a position to help her husband's slums even more.
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WHETHER OR NOT CLAIRE MCCASKILL KNEW all of the grisly details about her current husband’s sordid and repugnant past when she married him, she is clearly displaying a trend of extremely poor – at best – judgment regarding whom she chooses to associate with, and in what capacity.
Thanks so much. After about 5 minutes it finally appeared.
Oh yeh -- oh yeh -- but McCaskill is so downset against those bad earmarks.