Thread: Sen. McCaskill's spouse received $40 million in government subsidies

Sen. McCaskill's spouse received $40 million in government subsidies

October 9, 2012,

JEFFERSON CITY, MO- Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for low-income housing developments during her first five years in office, though it appears only fraction of that has made it to the family's bank accounts, according to an Associated Press analysis.

McCaskill's Republican challenger, Rep. Todd Akin, says the federal payments should be a cause for concern among voters. He's attempting to portray the Democratic senator's family as a prime beneficiary of government largesse.

"There is a conflict of interest and a breach of trust with the citizens of our state," Akin said in an interview with the AP.
McCaskill campaign spokesman Caitlin Legacki called such assertions "flat-out wrong."

There is no evidence that McCaskill personally routed the money to her husband's businesses. But she voted for some — and against other — bills that funded the federal housing and agriculture departments, which in turn provide subsidies to businesses with federal contracts to provide low-income housing.

The AP reviewed five years' worth of federal personal financial disclosure statements filed by McCaskill, which list more than 300 "affordable housing" businesses in which her husband, Joseph Shepard, had at least a partial ownership during the time she has been in office. At least one-third of those businesses also appear to be listed as recipients of federal payments in an online government database that tracks spending.

The firms affiliated with Shepard appear to have received about $39 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service or the Department of Housing and Urban Development between 2007 — when McCaskill took office — and the end of 2011. According to McCaskill's financial reports, Shepard earned an income of between about $400,000 and $2.6 million from those businesses in the years in which they received government payments.

McCaskill's campaign declined to make the senator available for an interview about the federal payments and — except for Legacki's brief statement that Akin's assertion was wrong — also declined to let campaign staff participate in an on-the-record interview. But the campaign offered a variety of reasons why the payments pose no conflict of interest, including the fact that McCaskill opposed some of the funding bills and that those she supported also included appropriations for a wide variety of government programs.

The campaign said the vast majority of the housing subsidy contracts were initiated before McCaskill became a senator, although Shepard invested in some of them after she was elected and others were renewed during her term in office. The subsidies are intended to cover the gap between the rent paid by the tenant and the value of the housing unit as determined by the federal government. Consequently, much of the subsidy goes to the owners' operating costs, such as mortgage payments or facility maintenance, the campaign said. Were Congress to not fund the subsidies, the federal government would be defaulting on its obligations, the campaign said.

Akin said McCaskill could have abstained from voting on bills that funded agencies involved in low-income housing developments.

But McCaskill then could have been open to accusations that she shunned her congressional duties — an assertion she has made against Akin for missing numerous House votes during his Senate campaign.

"She has to vote for or against appropriation bills — that's what the citizens of Missouri hire her to do," said George Connor, head of the political science department at Missouri State University. But he added: "It seems to me that she has influence over federal policy that has directly benefited her husband."
"There certainly is a legitimate perception of a conflict of interest, but that's not the same thing as saying there is one," Connor said.

McCaskill's campaign said her position is no different than that of lawmakers who are farmers and vote for agriculture bills that include farm aid, or lawmakers who have family members in the military and vote for bills authorizing defense spending. Her campaign suggested it was a greater conflict for Akin to have supported a federal spending earmark for a highway near his suburban St. Louis home — though Akin's family received no money to construct it.

McCaskill ranks as one of the wealthiest members in Congress, largely because of her husband's business success, which was already well-established when she married Shepard in 2002. Her political opponents have long sought to make an issue of their finances.

In the 2004 gubernatorial primary, Democratic Gov. Bob Holden aired an ad accusing Shepard of running dangerous nursing homes that helped finance McCaskill's campaign. In the 2006 Senate race, Republican Sen. Jim Talent ran an ad accusing Shepard and McCaskill of using an insurance company based in the Bahamas as a tax shelter, which they denied. Last week, Akin began running an ad criticizing about $1 million in housing subsidies financed through the 2009 stimulus act that went to businesses affiliated with Shepard.

Although Akin is just now ramping up his assertions of a conflict of interest, Republican operatives had long planned that as part of their campaign theme against McCaskill. A consulting firm run by former Missouri Republican Party executive director John Hancock built a file on McCaskill's finances that has been shared in part with the state GOP. Hancock had been a campaign adviser to Republican Senate candidate John Brunner, who finished second to Akin in the Aug. 7 primary.

Akin has campaigned as an opponent of what he describes as an expansive federal government. He said the federal payments to businesses in which McCaskill's husband has an ownership stake shows McCaskill has "a personal interest in big government — something that benefits herself and her husband."

Sen. McCaskill's spouse received $40 million in government subsidies - CBS News

Exclusive: New Akin ad hits ‘Corrupt Claire’ for $40 million in government subsidies received by husband’s businesses


SEE VIDEO OF AD AT THE LINK>




Missouri Senate hopeful Todd Akin has released a new advertisement calling Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill “corrupt,” citing the $40 million in government subsidies that businesses affiliated with McCaskill’s husband received during the senator’s first five years in office.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press broke the story that at least one-third of the “affordable housing” businesses owned by McCaskill’s husband, Joseph Shepherd, had been recipients of government subsidies. According to the AP’s analysis, businesses affiliated with Shepherd received $39 million from either the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service or the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2007 through 2011.

McCaskill voted for some of the bills that funded those government subsidies, but against others, leading the AP to conclude that there was “no evidence that McCaskill personally routed money to her husband’s businesses.”

Akin told the AP that the subsidies constituted “a conflict of interest and a breach of trust with the citizens of our state.”
The new ad, obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller, paints McCaskill as a corrupt Washington insider who used her position for personal gain.

“It’s a corrupt Washington game, and Claire McCaskill plays it, getting rich off government,” says a narrator, as images in a color scheme of black, white and red flash across the screen, and ominous noises rumble in the background. “McCaskill cut funding for education and veterans, but partnerships owned by McCaskill’s family received over a million dollars in stimulus spending.”

“Now a new scandal: McCaskill’s family pocketed $40 million in subsidies. $40 million — of our money,” the narrator goes on.

“Corrupt Claire,” the narrator says. “The moment her hand came off the Bible, it went into our pockets.”

Read more: Exclusive: New Akin ad hits 'Corrupt Claire' McCaskill [VIDEO] | The Daily Caller

The videos showing her staff hiding in their office and flipping of the people that showed up to protest OBamacare have been scrubbed. But this article survived.

McCaskill's Office Locks Doors, Pulls Blinds & Calls Cops. LMAO

• Posted 07/18/09

Forces Obamacare Protesters Off Public Property

Local Tea Party patriots held an anti-Obama Care protest at Senator Claire "ACORN" McCaskill’s district offices on Delmar Boulevard today.
The protest was organized by Americans for Prosperity and the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition.


McCaskill's office manager locked the doors, pull down the blinds, called the cops and forced the protesters across the street.

Local tea party protesters Dwight and Lynn talked about the reception they received from McCaskill's office staff:

Dwight claimed that one office worker flipped off the protesters!

Here comes the police-- Notice the chants in the background "Where is Claire?"

Glenn Reynolds adds, "Yeah, it’s not like these are constituents or anything.":Instapundit » Blog Archive » PANICKED AT THE ANTI-OBAMACARE PROTEST IN ST. LOUIS: McCaskill’s Office Locks Doors, Pulls Blinds, …
McCaskill's staff told the police they were being threatened.
They look like a rowdy bunch, huh?








A staff member opened the door for the police and said they were being threatened. The staff member took some notes from a few protesters while the police were there and said she'd pass them on to Senator McCaskill.

Glenn Reynolds: Instapundit » Blog Archive » PROTESTING OBAMACARE IN RALEIGH: Reader Amanda Cross sends this picture. UPDATE: Reader Dav… has updates on Obamacare protests in Raleigh, Dallas and Cleveland. Steve Sabolich sends an email from Cleveland and says that Dennis Kucinich’s staff was shocked so many concerned working Americans took off work to be there.

Note to Kucinich's staff unemployment is 9.7%...Maybe these concerned Americans don't want to become part of those statistics as the numbers rise.
McCaskill's Office Locks Doors, Pulls Blinds & Calls Cops. LMAO - Page 7

Claire McCaskill hiding from Obamacare


BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
June 29, 2012 4:47 pm
KOMU in Columbia, Mo., reports Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.) is evading requests about her stance on the Obamacare ruling.
McCaskill voted for the Affordable Care Act.

VIDEO AT LINK

http://freebeacon.com/claire-mccaski...rom-obamacare/

Whistle-blower audio: Sen. Claire McCaskill’s husband cut business deals in Senate Dining Room

9:44 PM 10/18/2012
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s husband used the U.S. Senate Dining Room to cut business deals selling tax credits tied to stimulus money, a whistle-blowing executive inside his company alleged on an audio recording exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller.

“The thing that irritated me about this was he [McCaskill’s husband Joseph Shepard] entertained these outside investors in the Senate Dining Room,” the whistle-blower said. “That’s where he closed the deal.”

The whistle-blower, Craig Woods, was a longtime high-ranking official within Shepard’s business empire, serving first as chief financial officer and then as vice president and chief underwriter for Missouri Equity Investors LLC and JA Shepard Companies.

His LinkedIn page indicates he left the company in January 2011, a few months before debriefing a Republican operative who made the recording.

According to the McCaskill campaign, Woods pled guilty in the 1990s in two different cases of felony larceny and spent some time in prison after that.

The campaign also said that Woods lied to McCaskill’s husband about his past on his job application, and submitted a resume detailing “jobs” he held when he was actually in prison.

“Craig Woods is a twice-convicted felon and a disgruntled former employee who lied repeatedly to Claire’s husband about his criminal past of fraud and embezzlement,” McCaskill spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki said in an email to TheDC in response to the allegations.

“There is absolutely no merit to these claims. It is shocking that Todd Akin would pin the hopes of his campaign on a twice-convicted felon and a proven liar, but I guess Todd Akin is incredibly desperate at this point. This is a despicable new low, especially for Todd Akin, and he should be ashamed of himself.”

Several Republican sources, including those who conducted the interview, confirmed the identity of the whistle-blower and the details surrounding their meeting. TheDC is protecting the identity of those GOP sources because they were not authorized to speak on the record. TheDC has also disguised the voice of the lone GOP operative whose voice is heard on the recording.

“He [McCaskill’s husband] did four projects — these were rural development deals where he came in and stole from a guy and he did the federal credits and he got Enterprise Bank to invest in those four deals and those have been really iffy,” Woods said on the tape.
Woods said those four projects — housing developments — were “all here in Missouri.” He explained how Shepard brokered deals with investors who counted on high returns in the form of federal and state tax credits that came with these projects. In return for the deals, Woods said, the investors gave Shepard cash he could use elsewhere in his business.

“The reason these [specific projects] were so attractive to him, the reason he wanted to do them, was they got ARRA funds, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds,” Woods said, referring to how some programs were tied to President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package.

Woods said one such project, in Clinton, Missouri, got “$5.5 million in stimulus funds. They didn’t have to borrow a dollar.”

Woods said Shepard “bundle[d]” that stimulus-funded project with two other projects that didn’t get stimulus money in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and Hannibal, Missouri, and took the tax credits from all three to an investor in “the Baltimore-DC area.” Woods added the the “free cash” from the stimulus-funded project packaged with the other two projects was a more “attractive” tax credit deal for investors than three separate deals in which the tax credits from each project were sold separately.

Shephard, Woods alleged, used the Senate Dining Room as his venue to close this tax credit investment deal. “He just thought that was fantastic,” Woods said. “He could take them to the Senate Dining Room and entertain them.”

“I’ve never been there, I don’t know if you have,” Woods added, in his interview with the GOP operatives. “I assume it’s a really nice place. But if nothing else, they’ve gotta be impressed because not everyone can walk in. You can’t just sign the check.”

A GOP operative interrupted Woods during the interview: “Does [Sen.] Claire [McCaskill] have an understanding of this?”
“Oh, hell yes,” Woods responded. “He [Shepard] doesn’t do anything — well, let me put it this way — he doesn’t do anything without Claire understanding it.”

“Sometimes he does it even if she says ‘I don’t want you to.’ Which — she could have been, in a prior life, a merchant marine. You know, she can cuss with the best of them, chew your ass. But yeah, she’s aware of everything he does.”

The GOP operative doing the interview then asked Woods whether there’s a “benefit to him [Shepard] doing all this with her being in the US Senate,” other than the fact that he “can take these guys to dinner.”

Woods replied: “I think it opens more doors for him.”

This audio release comes on the heels of the Associated Press discovering that McCaskill’s husband’s businesses have “received $40 million in government subsidies.”

McCaskill’s senate race opponent, Republican Rep. Todd Akin, cut an ad bashing McCaskill for her husband’s businesses after that article was published, calling her “corrupt.”

Akin’s campaign suffered dramatically after his “legitimate rape” incident earlier this season, right after he won the GOP primary, but has recovered somewhat as Sen. Jim DeMint’s PAC — the Senate Conservatives Fund — threw its weight behind him.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have remained supportive of Akin as well, but the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other other GOP establishment groups have avoided weighing into the race on Akin’s behalf after the scandal.

Woods was unreachable for comment, despite TheDC’s efforts to contact him. McCaskill’s senate office spokesman Drew Pusateri told TheDC that theDC’s question was a “campaign-related request” and forwarded TheDC to the senator’s re-election campaign for comment. The campaign has not immediately responded to TheDC’s request.

UPDATE, 10:17 p.m.:

After Thursday evening’s debate between McCaskill and Akin, Dana Loesch, a conservative media personality, confronted the senator about the allegation.

McCaskill responded: “This is Dana Loesch, who’s working really hard for my opponent.” McCaskill accused Loesch of being a “campaign operative” and said Woods, the whistle-blower, is a “felon.”

“We’ll be happy to give you an interview, when this is over, about his felony record, and how he hid that from my husband,” McCaskill said. “He’s been convicted twice and in prison for embezzlement and lied about it. He stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from two different companies he worked for.”

When asked if she denied Woods’ allegations, McCaskill said: “Absolutely. What a ridiculous thing to say.”
McCaskill in April spoke about the importance of protecting whistle-blowers.

“Whistle-blowers who raise the alarm about waste, fraud, and abuse should be commended-not punished,” McCaskill said, according to a press release her office sent out on April 26. “Whistle-blowers are the unsung heroes of our fight to root out inappropriate and sometimes illegal behavior in government. This is a good step toward ensuring we’re protecting them from being punished for their work to protect taxpayer dollars.”
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Read more: Whistle-blower audio: Sen. Claire McCaskill’s husband cut business deals in Senate Dining Room | The Daily Caller