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Multiple Reports Have Detailed Moreno Family’s Wealth, “Deep Political Connections,” Ties To Corruption, And The Many “Special Favors” He Received To Build His Business

Columbus, OH – A new ad is repeating the false claims Bernie Moreno has made and independent reporting has consistently found to be false. 

Here’s the truth about Bernie Moreno:

• FACT: Despite campaigning as a “political outsider and immigrant whose family built its way out of rudimentary beginnings,” multiple reports have found that Bernie Moreno’s family was “considerabl[y] wealthy” and had “deep political connections” in Colombia. The New York Times found that Moreno was “born into a rich and politically connected family” and one family friend even called Moreno’s bootstraps origin tale a “gross exaggeration.”

• FACT: Moreno profited off of a scheme with his brothers by funneling U.S. taxpayer money into banks that financed projects his family oversaw. Moreno’s latest personal financial disclosure showed that Moreno’s investment in the scheme has “grown substantially” and is now worth up to $5 million.

• FACT: Despite claiming he built his car dealership business “all on his own” and without “handouts,” multiple reports found that Moreno received a “sweetheart deal” to open his first car dealership. Reports also found that Mercedes-Benz “pulled strings” to help Moreno and that he “leveraged his family connections” – including the “Moreno Family Cash Reserves” – to build his businesses in addition to extra “financial assistance” and “special favors.”

Read more:

• Associated Press: Senate candidate Bernie Moreno campaigns as an outsider. His wealthy family is politically connected

• New York Times: He’s Running for Senate With an Immigrant’s Origin Story. Here’s the Rest.

• Mother Jones: Bernie Moreno Says He Built His Car Dealer Empire All on His Own. The Reality Is More Complicated.

• Business Insider: Ohio GOP Senate nominee Bernie Moreno benefited from the kind of diversity initiative that Republicans hate

• Cleveland.com: Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s background faces national scrutiny in New York Times

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Columbus, OH – Reporting this week shed further light on Bernie Moreno’s up to $172.7 million fortune that would make him the fifth wealthiest Senator if elected. Now, Moreno owes Ohioans answers about his finances and business dealings – from his investment in his family enrichment scheme having “grown substantially” to the complex business entities that hold the five new homes he purchased within the last year.

Questions Bernie Moreno Must Answer:

1. Will you make the details of your investments in Amarilo and Yellowstone Capital Partners available for Ohioans to see?

2. How much money did you make by selling the property you were a “majority owner” of in Costa Rica? Will you make the details of the sale public?

3. Will you disclose all of the information about business entities registered to your name?

4. Did you pay yourself back the full $3 million you loaned your campaign earlier this year using campaign contributions from your wealthy donors?

SEE ALSO: Mega Millionaire Moreno Reports Purchasing “Substantial” Investment In Family Enrichment Scheme; Bernie Moreno’s Family Enrichment Scheme Explained

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Columbus, OH – Bernie Moreno’s campaign continues to be clouded by “a string” of lawsuits for mistreating his workers, with new reporting marking another time where Moreno “stiffed [a former employee] out of money that Moreno personally promised him.” Moreno’s record of “stiffing workers” includes over a dozen lawsuits where Moreno refused to pay his workers the overtime they earned, and in one case deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of it.

Read More About Moreno’s Record “Stiffing Workers” And Destroying Evidence:

• Business Insider: Trump-backed Ohio Senate candidate shredded documents as he faced a lawsuit accusing him of wage theft

• Mother Jones: A GOP Senate Candidate Blames “Liberal” Judges for His Labor Violations. Just One Problem With That

• WKYC: No, Bernie Moreno’s claims that Massachusetts courts overturned federal law in wage theft lawsuits and made rulings retroactive are not true: VERIFY

• Daily Beast: This GOP Senate Hopeful’s Self-Made Story Has a Darker Side

• Cleveland.com: Bernie Moreno got sued by an employee who said he didn’t get paid what he was promised. Here’s what happened.

• Associated Press: Businessman Bernie Moreno, Trump’s Senate pick in Ohio, faced discrimination lawsuits, the AP finds

• TiffinOhio.net: GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno faces new allegations of wage theft

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Mother Jones: Bernie Moreno Says He Built His Car Dealer Empire All on His Own. The Reality Is More Complicated.

Columbus, OH –  New reporting from Mother Jones today details the “much-needed handout[s],” “special favors,” and “financial assistance” Bernie Moreno received – including “a sweetheart deal on his very first Ohio dealership” – to build his network of car dealerships that made him “enormously rich.” As more details surface and complicate the image Moreno is trying to sell Ohioans as a self-made businessman, Moreno continues to be “dogged” by lawsuits for refusing to pay his employees and going so far as to deliberately destroy evidence to get out of paying them.

Read More:

Mother Jones: Bernie Moreno Says He Built His Car Dealer Empire All on His Own. The Reality Is More Complicated.
Tim Murphy
August 20, 2024

• The up-by-the-bootstraps campaign trail story belies a more complicated reality. While Moreno describes his immigrant family as “lower middle class” and said they “came here with absolutely nothing,” a New York Times report in May detailed the Morenos’ powerful political and financial connections in Colombia, where one brother runs a major construction firm and another served as president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

• …Moreno has been dogged, too, by questions about how he made his money. Earlier this year, my colleague Abby Vesoulis reported that Moreno shelled out more than $400,000 to settle a wage-theft lawsuit in Massachusetts in which “he was forced to admit to shredding overtime-­payment records.” He eventually settled more than a dozen claims of wage theft at his dealerships in the commonwealth, along with a host of other complaints from former employees…

• The South Florida case offered a glimpse of the breaks that helped Moreno climb to the top of the profession. He drew the ire of rival dealers by collecting millions of dollars in financial assistance from manufacturers to open new storefronts, and he testified that Mercedes-Benz had pulled strings to get him a sweetheart deal on his very first Ohio dealership.

• He also got a bit of help… Mercedes arranged for the owner—billionaire automotive tycoon Roger Penske—“to sell that dealership for a dramatically reduced price in exchange for Mercedes giving Penske an open point in Chandler, Arizona,” Moreno said.

• Having grown up in the Miami area, he testified that his “heart started beating” when thought about opening a new dealership nearby… [Moreno] leveraged his family connections with a nephew, who worked for the “number three guy” at the private equity giant Fortress Investments, which had recently sold the property.

• “With a little bit of his assistance,” Moreno said, he secured “really favorable lease terms.”

• In a 124-page prospectus Moreno’s Collection Auto Group submitted as part of the company’s proposal for the dealership, the company included a “Capitalization Plan” with a detailed description of Moreno’s assets at the time. “Necessary Working Capital will be funded,” Collection Auto wrote, “from profits from existing operations in Northeast Ohio…Moreno Family cash reserves, and/or liquidation of select Northeast Ohio stores as necessary.”

• To cover the costs, Moreno got a much-needed handout. A centerpiece of the case was a confidential agreement Moreno signed with Infiniti. The manufacturer offered $4.4 million in financial assistance…

• According to court records, Nissan also gave Moreno $1.25 million in assistance to open a dealership in Akron, $650,000 to open a location in Cleveland, and $3.75 million to open another dealership by that city’s airport.

• “Your honor, they keep giving this guy money,” complained John Forehand, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, South Motors. “They aren’t giving anybody else money.”

• A 2016 report in the trade journal Automotive News, which cited Nissan’s close financial relationship with Moreno, found that the assistance “has put Nissan at odds with some dealers, especially those who have smaller lots and lack the means or stomach to invest millions of dollars. Some have surrendered their franchises; others have faced termination notices from the manufacturer, numerous dealers report.”

• Later that year, in response to the Automotive News story, four Ohio dealers sued Nissan alleging that the manufacturer had given Moreno an illegal competitive advantage by lavishing incentives on him.

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Ohio Capital Journal: Despite Criticizing Economy, Ohio GOP U.S. Sen. Nominee Moreno Bought Five Homes Last Year

Columbus, OH – New reporting from the Ohio Capital Journal is shedding light on car dealer Bernie Moreno’s massive fortune, including that he’s purchased five new homes in the last year, owns assets worth up to $172.7 million, and would be the fifth wealthiest Senator if elected. The report also found that Moreno’s investment in a private equity fund tied to a family enrichment scheme using taxpayer dollars has “grown substantially” and is now up to $5 million. 

Ohio Capital Journal: Despite criticizing economy, Ohio GOP U.S. Sen. nominee Moreno bought five homes last year
Nick Evans
August 20, 2024

• Despite economic headwinds like higher interest rates, Moreno-connected entities have purchased five homes in the past year. He was also involved in the purchase of a nearly 25-acre parcel of undeveloped land next door to a popular outlet mall in Sunbury, Ohio.

• …if elected, [Moreno] will likely be among the wealthiest men serving in Congress because of his business holdings. The company Quiver Quantitative tracks politicians’ estimated net worth thanks to disclosure requirements in the STOCK Act. Following that data, four U.S. Senators crack the $100 million mark. According to their estimates, Moreno would be the fifth.

• Tallying together his holdings, Moreno reports assets worth at least $38 million or as much as $172.7 million.

• Parsing the report is complicated further by the parade of businesses entities stacked like nesting dolls within the family trust. Hyperbole Investments holds stakes in tech companies based in Ohio and Israel. M6 Realty owns a building worth $1-5 million in Middleburg, Ohio that earned between $100,000 and $1 million in rent. M7 Realty’s empty land in Hudson, Ohio earned $15,000 to $50,000 in rent, and M20 Realty shelled out $9.5 million for the Delaware County parcel near the Tangier Outlet Mall.

• In Moreno’s 2023 report, Aguila Calva Properties (that’s bald eagle in Spanish) owned a condo in Washington, D.C. and Kylo Properties owned a home in Avon, Ohio. This year, similarly named entities purchased two new homes. Aguila Calva Properties Ohio bought a $675,000 home in Westlake July 1 this year. Kylo Properties Columbus bought a $1.2 million home north of New Albany in June with a golf simulator in the basement.

• Previously, Butterfly Properties reported owning a condo in New York City, but this year, the company reported a different property in Eastchester, New York. The $2.2 million home has an elevator and a walk-in wine cellar with room for more than 1,500 bottles. Similarly, in 2023 Pangolin Properties reported a condo in Columbus, but as of this June, it owns a $612,000 home in Dixon, California.

• The most valuable new piece of real estate is a Coconut Grove, Florida condo owned by Live More, LLC valued at $5 to $25 million. That’s in addition to the previously reported and similarly valued home across Biscayne Bay on Key Largo. According to the filing, Moreno owns 43% of that company, and the property generated between $50,000 and $100,000 in rent.

• Meanwhile, in 2023 Moreno reported owning an unimproved parcel of land in Zapotal, Costa Rica through a company called Yellowstone. The AP has reported Yellowstone is a private equity firm tied to a construction firm owned by Moreno’s brother…his Yellowstone holdings have grown substantially. Last year, he reported a stake worth $500,000 to $1 million that generated more than $71,000. In the current report, he claims holdings worth $1 million to $5 million which generated more than $180,000.

• Even the complex chains of ownership don’t necessarily tell the whole story. According to Moreno’s disclosure, for many of these entities he and his wife own just 1% of the business entity. Still, Moreno lists himself as “manager” for the entities in a separate portion of his disclosure.

• Despite listing himself as holding just a 1% stake in Live More, LLC, which purchased the $5 million plus condo in Coconut Grove, according to Florida business records, Live More has been incorporated in Florida since 2017. Bernie Moreno is listed as its manager and registered agent. The principal address for the company is the family’s home in Key Largo.

• Moreno did not respond to a series of questions about why he has structured his holdings in this way and who holds the other 98% of the companies.

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