A reader recently wrote to express his annoyance at comments made regarding the unethical behavior of Representative Schweikert. He suggests that because Schweikert is a personable guy, people should forget about the numerous ethical violations that he, and his wife, reportedly committed between 2010 and when he was caught in 2018.
I have never met a used car salesman or a politician who wasn’t pleasant while asking for my money, or my vote. To say that he had his “numbers challenged” grossly understates the 11 counts of unethical behavior that he admitted to. I am guessing the defender has not yet read the report.
According to the committee on ethics, between 2010 and 2017 Schweikert disclosed or failed to disclose: $305,000 in loans or repayment of loans, plus $25,000 in disbursements, plus failed to report $140,000 in contributions and $100,000 in fake disbursements. These are just the first six counts.
The committee was especially disturbed by counts three and four. They stated, “representative Schweikert’s campaign committee falsely reported that he had loaned the campaign $100,000, when no such loan had been made, and then falsely reported making $100,000 in disbursements, which served to adjust the campaign’s reported cash on hand that was propped up by the fictitious loan.” The $100,000 in false disbursements were obtained by submitting five fake vendor invoices for work that was never performed. This is often called fraud.
The committee further stated, “the falsely reported loan was subsequently included in the Schweikert’s overall assets listed in personal financial statements they submitted to a bank in connection with the line of credit the bank provided in support of Representative Schweikert’s campaign.” This, too, was never properly reported.
The bipartisan report should be read by all voters, ethics.house.gov.
