REPORT: Loeffler May Have Knowingly Falsified Financial Disclosures, Once Again Violating Federal Law

Senator Kelly Loeffler’s Financial Disclosures Appear To Omit The Holding Company Operating Her Private Jet — If Loeffler Knowingly Falsified Information, “That’s A Crime” 

Unelected Senator and political mega-donor Kelly Loeffler is in hot water once again for potentially violating federal law and Senate ethics rules for the second time this week. A bombshell new Salon report uncovered that Loeffler “appears to have omitted a holding company from her federally mandated financial disclosures.” If Loeffler — the richest member of Congress — knowingly falsified the information on her personal financial disclosures, “it would amount to a violation of Senate ethics rules as well as a federal law which makes it a crime to ‘falsify any information’ or ‘fail to file or report any information’ that is required.” 

This isn’t the first time Loeffler has gotten heat for her multi-million dollar aircraft––last week, Salon reported that Loeffler may be taking advantage of “a loophole in President Trump’s 2017 tax bill” to write off her campaign jet. Records suggest that Loeffler deducted her multimillion-dollar plane that she uses for campaigning, “letting the government eat the cost.” And the unelected Senator has already come under fire for chartering her private jet under a system offering “anonymity.” 

“Senator Loeffler has no regard for violating federal law and Senate ethics rules, making it crystal clear she thinks she’s above the law and can cheat the system for her own personal gain,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Senator Loeffler may act like the rules do not apply to her, but she’ll have to answer to voters for her corrupt history of looking out for herself instead of Georgia families in Washington.”

Salon: Kelly Loeffler’s disclosures appear to omit the holding company that operates her private jet

By Roger Sollenberger

November 20, 2020

Key Points:

• Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., the unelected multimillionaire senator now heading for a runoff election in January, appears to have omitted a holding company from her federally mandated financial disclosures, which would violate Senate ethics rules and federal law.

• The company, Descante Capital Holdings, was uncovered in Salon’s reporting on a private jet that Loeffler jointly purchased with her husband, Jerry Sprecher, who is chair of the New York Stock Exchange. Loeffler, who says she bought the plane shortly after her senate appointment last December, uses it for travel between Georgia and Washington, as well as for campaign junkets around the Peach State. She once used it for an 18-minute hop from a central Georgia town to Savannah.

• A Loeffler staffer told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last February that the senator had paid for the airplane “out of her pocket,” but her financial disclosures suggest that isn’t true. Salon’s previous reporting found that not only is the plane jointly owned by Loeffler and Sprecher, but the couple may also have availed themselves of a Trump tax-law loophole to write off the $10 million purchase entirely. 

• Individuals are not permitted to write off the purchase of a jet; only businesses can do that. Furthermore, Loeffler and Sprecher appear to have purposefully concealed the ownership arrangement, chartering the plane through a company called TVPX Aircraft Solutions, which provides an “owner trust” that offers its clients complete anonymity.
  
• Her disclosures also list a company called Descante Capital LLC, with a description of “family office,” whose purpose, according to Loeffler’s personal comment, is “administrative and organizational services.” Her comment, unlike the other two, does not specify a holding company.

• If Loeffler withheld an entity on those filings, or knowingly gave false information in them, it would amount to a violation of Senate ethics rules as well as a federal law which makes it a crime to “falsify any information” or “fail to file or report any information” that is required.

• Violators “shall” be fined, imprisoned for up to a year or both, according to the statute.

• On Wednesday, Loeffler solicited campaign donations in a television interview given in the halls of the Senate, an apparent violation of Senate ethics rules and of the federal law that makes it a crime to solicit campaign contributions on federal property.

• A Loeffler campaign spokesperson did not respond to multiple detailed questions for this article.

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