Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., didn’t disclose a stake in a Russian company when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2013, Forbes reported, citing recently released tax returns.
The returns, which Booker released in April as part of his presidential campaign, show he made a donation to charity of more than $110,000 of stock in Yandex, a Russian search-engine firm, from April 5, 2013, to October 11, 2013.
But on May 16, 2013, Booker’s financial disclosure report, which is an accounting of his assets and liabilities, didn’t list Yandex.
“I certainly would be interested in hearing the campaign’s explanation,” Brendan Fischer, director of the federal reform program at the Campaign Legal Center, a government watchdog group, told Forbes.
“It’s not uncommon for candidates to divest financial holdings that could be controversial or pose a conflict of interest, but if a candidate does hold assets at the time the financial disclosure report is filed, they have to be reported. And it’s not clear that that’s what happened here.”
The Booker campaign is confused too.
“Senate financial disclosure rules are complex, particularly in situations like this where Cory donated an asset to charity without receiving any income,” a Booker spokesperson told Forbes.
“Cory had reported this asset in his tax filings, and while it is unclear if a filing error occurred in this particular instance of his Senate financial disclosure, it was reviewed by an accountant and legal experts prior to filing and any omission is completely unintentional. We will immediately review this matter and Cory’s Senate disclosure will be amended if an error did in fact occur.”
According to Forbes, Booker filed three subsequent amendments to his May 16, 2013 filing. While he made adjustments to the details of speaking fees he had been paid and added his ownership stake in an internet startup he cofounded, there was nothing on the Yandex stock.
“I think it’s pretty clear that he did own the stock at the time of the filing of the report and continued to own it for 31 days after the report was filed,” Fischer told Forbes.
“You might be able to quibble about what he should have disclosed as the value of the stock, but I think it’s pretty clear that he did own the stock at the time the report was filed and within the 31 days afterward.”
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