Washington, D.C. – A new story is out today detailing Michael Bennet’s unusual financial arrangements that have seen him profit from the financial collapse of Puerto Rico.
While the story incorrectly implies that Bennet’s money is managed in a blind trust (it is not, and he could indeed request investments and trades), there are still plenty of concerning details about the Senator’s financial arrangements. A Senator described as a “sophisticated investor and financial architect.” All this as Bennet tries to paint an image of himself as a crusader for stopping members of Congress from stock trades.
More:
“According to Bennet’s most recent financial disclosure, the Democrat is worth between $7 million and about $31.2 million. He keeps millions of it in entities connected to two notorious offshore tax havens, with one of those entities being a “vulture fund” that invested in junk bonds of Puerto Rican debt…
Bennet appears to have profited [from Puerto Rico’s financial collapse]. According to his 2017 financial disclosure, one of his hedge fund investments—which is tied in business and court filings to Puerto Rican debt claims—yielded between $100,000 and $1 million in income that year. The fund had never returned more than $1,000 annually on his reports dating back to the initial purchase, in 2014.
Today, Bennet’s original investment is worth between $1 million and $5 million, financial records show…
Andrew Morriss, international finance expert and professor of law at Texas A&M University, told The Daily Beast it appeared that Bennet profited from Puerto Rico’s collapse…
(Bennett’s interests don’t end there—they also show a $1 million to $5 million stake in another Cayman-connected hedge fund, as well as between $250,000 and $500,000 in a holding company based in the island nation of Mauritius; that company owns part of a major Indian grocery chain.)”
Statement from NRSC Spokesman T.W. Arrighi: “The way Michael Bennet talks, it’s easy to think that he is a champion for those not in the monied circles he operates in. But with just a small bit of digging into his personal financial disclosures, it’s pretty easy to figure out that isn’t true. In fact, he has profited in a huge way from the collapse of Puerto Rico and has taken full advantage of off-shore tax havens. After all, as the Daily Beast noted, he is far from a finance novice.”
###
