Ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is requesting that an investigation be launched into Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney over testimony he gave before the Senate last year.
The ethics watchdog wants Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Inspector General of the Federal Reserve Mark Bialek to investigate Mulvaney for allegedly misleading the Senate Budget Committee during his confirmation process to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, and for failing to pay his company’s debts during the confirmation, CREW outlined in a letter.
“In his confirmation, Mr. Mulvaney represented that a foreclosure proceeding involving one of his investments was ‘uncontested,’ but it appears that he knew that to be inaccurate,” CREW said in the letter requesting an investigation. “In addition, it appears Mr. Mulvaney violated his ethical obligations by taking complex, unusual and potentially dishonest steps to avoid paying debts his company owed related to the property at issue in the foreclosure.”
Although the alleged breach of ethics involves only one real estate investment, CREW feels the interests of the case applies both to the Senate Budget Committee and the Federal Reserve.
In Mulvaney’s signed Senate nomination papers he said he was a “minority owner in both the plaintiff and a defendant in [a] foreclosure proceeding.” However, CREW said Mulvaney had significant interest in both sides, including a 33 percent ownership interest in one of the involved entities.
Although both Indian Land Ventures and mortgagor Lancaster denies that there is any individual who is a member of both entities, Mulvaney represented to the Senate that he had ownership status in both.
CREW also claims it is able to provide significant evidence to prove that Mulvaney is the individual identified as “Member A” in the foreclosure case, which, if the allegations are true, would mean he engaged in “fraudulent acts,” “inequitable misconduct,” and “breach of fiduciary duty.”
“As part of their basic obligation of public service, all executive branch employees must adhere to the principles set out in the standards of ethical conduct,” CREW stated in its letter. “Those standards require executive branch employees to ‘satisfy in good faith their obligations as citizens, including all just financial obligations’ and to avoid any action creating the appearance that they are violating the law or ethical standards. Mr. Mulvaney appears to have violated these obligations.”
