1/17/2024 0 Comments Nytimes real estate rural![]() His is a good example.”Ĭomer created the company in 2017 to hold his stake in the six acres that he purchased two years earlier in a joint venture with Cleary, a campaign contributor and construction contractor from Monroe County, Kentucky. “It is hard to trace assets held in shell companies. Louis who specializes in government ethics. “This is actually a real problem that anti-corruption activists would love to get legislative reform on,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Marsco and other experts were perplexed as to why Comer would place such assets in a shell company, especially since he disclosed his other holdings and does not appear to have taken other efforts to hide his wealth. “It seems pretty clear to me that he should be disclosing the individual land assets that are held by” the shell company, said Delaney Marsco, a senior attorney who specializes in congressional ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. Cleary and his family have donated to Comer’s political campaigns since at least 2010, records show.Įthics experts say House rules require members of Congress to disclose all assets held by such companies that are worth more than $1,000. He also falsely claimed that the donor, Darren Cleary, “wasn’t a campaign contributor” at the time the property was purchased. On his most recent financial disclosure forms, Comer lists its value as being as much as $1 million, a substantial sum but a fraction of his overall wealth.Īfter this story first published Thursday, Comer responded during an appearance on FOX News, stating that Farm Team Properties “has five different assets and lots of revenue.” He didn’t reveal what those other assets may be. ![]() It’s not clear why Comer decided to put those six acres in a shell company, or what other assets Farm Team Properties may hold. Those records describe Farm Team Properties as his wife’s “land management and real estate speculation” company without providing further details. The AP found that Farm Team Properties functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens, masking his stake in the land that he co-owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms. The vote follows the federal indictment last week of Biden’s son Hunter on charges he engaged in a scheme to avoid paying taxes on his earnings through the companies.īut as Comer works to “deliver the transparency and accountability that the American people demand” through the GOP’s investigation, his own finances and relationships have begun to draw notice, too, including his ties to prominent local figures who have complicated pasts not all that dissimilar to some of those caught up in his Biden probe.Ĭomer declined to comment through a spokesman but has aggressively denied any wrongdoing in establishing a shell company.Īfter Democrats blasted him for being a hypocrite following the Daily Beast’s disclosure of the company last month, Comer countered by calling a Democratic lawmaker a “smurf” and saying that the criticism was the kind of thing “only dumb, financially illiterate people pick up on.” The companies used by the Bidens are already playing a central role in the impeachment investigation, which is expected to gain velocity after House Republicans voted Wednesday to formally authorize the probe. ![]() Their opaque structures are often designed to help hide ownership of property and other assets. Such companies typically exist only on paper and are formed to hold an asset, like real estate. In particular, Comer has attacked some Biden family members, including the president’s son Hunter, over their use of shell companies that appear designed to obscure millions of dollars in earnings they received from shadowy middlemen and foreign interests. For months, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and his Republican colleagues have been pounding Biden, a Democrat, for how his relatives traded on their famous name to secure business deals. Interviews and records reviewed by The Associated Press provide new insights into the financial deal, which risks undercutting the force of some of Comer’s central arguments in his impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.
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