Wendy Davis receives Ethics Complaint

Breaking from the Franklin Center:

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas citizen filed a complaint before the Texas Ethics Commission Monday afternoon, alleging that State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) knowingly misrepresented her assets on her annual Personal Financial Statements.

The complaint alleges that Davis failed to disclose her ownership of stocks and mutual funds, capital gains made on the sale of those mutual funds, interest earned on several bank accounts, and professional ties to registered lobbyists associated with a law firm at which she is employed. Davis allegedly failed to make these financial disclosures on three of the four Personal Financial Statements she has filed since taking office in 2009.

Davis disclosed ownership of a single stock and two mutual funds on each of her Personal Financial Statements, but reported ownership of several additional mutual funds on her income tax returns for each corresponding year. Davis’ 1040 and 1099-B forms include over 40 pages of proceeds from mutual fund transactions, and reveal that the Senator reported to the IRS that she bought and sold several mutual funds that made capital gains and losses during the years 2010-2012, but did not report any such activity to the state in her Personal Financial Statements for those years.

....

Once the complaint is processed by the Ethics Commission, Davis will have 30 days to respond in writing. If the commission deems that Davis “knowingly and willfully failed to file a financial statement” that covered her assets, she may be subject to both civil penalties and criminal prosecution.

The commission may impose up to $10,000 in civil fines, and may also turn a case over to state prosecuting attorneys for criminal prosecution. Failure to comply with the personal financial disclosure requirements is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to $2,000 in fines and 180 days in jail.

This is verrry interesting. Wendy Davis' day job is a lawyer specializing in local government bonds, which anyone who knows anything about public finance in Texas know is rife with corruption.  Regarding her personal finances, several unanswered questions remain from her 2012 state senate re-elect campaign.