//GA Senate Candidate Named One Of Washington’s “Most Corrupt”
Regional NewsSeptember 19, 2013

GA Senate Candidate Named One Of Washington’s “Most Corrupt”

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us-capitolWashington, DC- Georgia Representative and Senate candidate Paul Broun has been named as one of the nation’s ‘most corrupt’ politicians. The list of 11 Reps and Senators were compiled by the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

CREW reviewed media articles, OCE and House Ethics Committee reports, Federal Election Commission reports, court documents, and members’ personal financial and travel disclosure forms. They analyzed that information in light of federal laws and regulations, as well as congressional ethics rules.

As for Rep. Broun, “his ethics issues stem from his failure to disclose the true source and terms of his campaign loans. He was included in CREW’s 2012 report on congressional corruption for related matters.”

In 2007, while running as a candidate in a special election to represent Georgia’s 10th congressional district, Rep. Broun began making loans to his campaign committee, the Paul Broun Committee. In reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2007 and 2008, Rep. Broun’s committee said it received six separate loans totaling $309,000 over more than a year.

The campaign told the FEC the source of these loans was Rep. Broun’s own personal funds, and said the loans carried no interest. In these FEC reports, Rep. Broun’s campaign did not file any Schedule C-1 forms, which provide information about the source and terms of campaign loans. These forms must be filed if the source of the loan was a lending institution, or if a candidate obtains a bank loan or a loan based on the candidate’s credit and those funds are used in connection with the candidate’s campaign.
The campaign reported paying down the outstanding loan balances over the next four years, ultimately paying the last of them off on February 25, 2011. However, in February 2010,despite continuing to tell the FEC that the loans carried no interest, the campaign curiously began making what its FEC filings described as “loan interest” payments to Rep. Broun. Between February 1, 2010 and April 8, 2011, the campaign reported making eight such “loan interest” payments to Rep. Broun, totaling $30,201.46.

These payments did not appear to follow any regular payment schedule, and were of varying amounts. In addition, the campaign reported making its final interest payment to Rep. Broun more than a month after it reported paying off the last loan.
Read more from CREW here. You can read the full report on Rep. Broun beginning on page 42.
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