The Missouri Republican Party's 2006 Ethics Complaint Against Claire McCaskill

The following excerpt from 7/26/2006 can be found at: http://www.mogop.org/2006/07/2007/ Claire McCaskill’s failure to disclose to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics statutorily required information about the sources, value, liabilities and actual income of her family’s multi-million-dollar fortune have been detailed in a formal complaint filed today by the Missouri Republican Party with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics in Washington. In a 10-page letter to Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio and Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, McCaskill’s multiple violations of federal law and Senate Ethics Rules are set forth in detail, accompanied by numerous exhibits that support the complaint. “The purpose of financial disclosure laws is to inform the public as to what a candidate for federal office and their spouse and dependent children own, what each asset is worth, what liabilities and debts are associated with assets and the amount of income received from any business ventures or investments to ensure conflicts of interest are identified and prevented. Claire McCaskill has violated both the letter and spirit of those laws by providing incomplete and misleading information,” said Jared Craighead, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, who signed the complaint. “McCaskill’s deliberate efforts to hide that information from Missouri taxpayers and the Senate Ethics Committee cannot be allowed to go unchallenged and we have documented the many ways in which Claire McCaskill has failed to meet even the minimum disclosure requirements of federal law.” The complaint contains detailed financial and other records clearly showing that McCaskill has repeatedly mislead the press, the public and the Senate Ethics Committee regarding the full extent of the business dealings in which she and/or her husband Joseph Shepard are engaged, contrary to federal law. The Kansas City Star recently reported that McCaskill and Shepard have hundreds of government subsidized real estate partnerships and an offshore tax shelter in Bermuda (The Rural Housing Re-Insurance Co. of America Ltd., based in Hamilton, Bermuda), that have helped build a personal fortune estimated to be as much as $30 million.