Rangel’s Financial Disclosures Omitted Data Over 30 Years

I thought Daschle and Geithner were bad boys.

Representative Charles B. Rangel’s financial disclosure forms had at least 28 omissions in the past 30 years and failed to account for what became of more than $239,000 in assets, according to a report issued Wednesday by a private government-ethics group.

Despite Congressional rules that require members to list the purchase or sale of any assets, Mr. Rangel accumulated from $239,026 to $831,000 in assets that were not listed in subsequent reports,

Rangel's handlers blame this error on "sloppy bookkeeping". Really?

In some cases, Mr. Rangel listed assets without stating when he acquired them. For instance, his disclosure form for calendar year 2006 lists 13 mutual funds with values from $54,013 to $286,000 but omits any acquisition date.

In other instances, assets disappear from his disclosures, with no suggestion of whether they were sold or exchanged. Investments he had valued in 2004 at $95,004 to $250,000 were omitted in a later filing with no indication of whether they had been sold or at what price.

The Sunlight Foundation report also noted that Mr. Rangel did not list any royalties or advances he may have received from his book “And I Haven’t Had a Bad Day Since” (MacMillan 2007). Mr. Milne said Mr. Rangel received no proceeds.

Rangel is a scumbag and this is just the tip of the iceberg. How can he still be chairman of Ways and Means??

Come on Ethical Obama, what more do you need to see? Rangel has been in office since 1971 and is a prime example of why we need strict term limits on Capital hill. He and others like him have gotten so used to sucking off the DC bottle that they begin to believe that they are completely above and beyond any scrutiny, law or ethics.

www.nytimes.com...

[edit on 5-2-2009 by jibeho]