Despite being an advocate for transparency in the election campaign, Georgia’s Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff refuses to disclose information about his personal finances and investments, according to a new report.
The 33-year-old man is challenging Republican Senator David Perdue in one of two crucial disputes for the state of Peach that will decide whether Joe Biden has control of the upper house of Congress or whether he will be forced to negotiate with the Senate majority leader. , Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
During the campaign, Ossoff calls himself a crusade against corruption that has produced hard-hitting documentaries about fraud in countries like Ghana through his production company, Insight: The World Investigates.
But the former Atlanta-born Congressional aide refused to be transparent about his personal finances.
Ossoff said nothing about the $ 250,000 loan he made to the company when he became CEO at age 26 in 2013, or about the undisclosed donation he made when he became the majority owner, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
There were also doubts about how much money the Democratic darling accepted from China and Qatar after he negotiated deals with a Hong Kong news agency and Qatar-backed Al Jazeera to show two of his films about the Islamic State.
Ossoff said his films were sold to Al Jazeera English, not the Arab subsidiary, and that he only received $ 1,000 in broadcast rights from the Hong Kong company, which Perdue claimed was “a Chinese communist news agency”.
The hopeful Senate refused to provide the Washington Post with more financial documents relating to the company, calling them “confidential”.
He also declined to say how much he inherited from his grandfather, who owned a leather factory in Massachusetts, but the number is expected to number in the millions, according to the Washington Post report.
The aspiring politician from Peach State also refused to release his tax returns, but the personal disclosure form he filled out as a Senate candidate puts his personal fortune between $ 2.3 million and $ 8.8 million.
Wealth has become a central issue in the two runoff runs for the Georgia Senate, when Democratic opponents seek to overthrow Perdue, 71, and Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican lawmaker involved in this year’s stock negotiations controversy.
An investigation eventually freed Loeffler from any wrongdoing after she disposed of millions of dollars in shares after a private meeting for senators at COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.
Perdue is also one of the most prolific traders in Congress and with a net worth of $ 15.8 million, he is one of the richest members of the Senate.
According to the Washington Post report, Ossoff – which Republicans described as “a socialist trust fund” with “zero real-life achievements” – was slated to lead Insight: TWI by founder Ron McCullagh, who met Ossoff when he was 16 years on vacation with your family in France.
“I knew he could” do that, McCullagh told the publication, although Ossoff has no experience in journalism or running a business.
“I drove it for 22 years and wanted to find new blood to take over.”
Ossoff stepped down from the company in 2017, when he made his first unsuccessful foray into politics, running for Congress in Georgia’s 6th ruby red congressional district – then the race for the most expensive House in history.