Uncategorized

Columbus, Ohio- Following Vice President Kamala Harris’s announcement that she has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential candidate, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters released the following statement: 

“Governor Walz is a proven fighter for working families who has spent his time in office cementing Minnesota as a state that leads in abortion rights, workers rights, and so much more. I’m looking forward to seeing him represent Midwest Democrats as he hits the campaign trail with Vice President Harris. He knows what it’s like to set a bold vision for the future and deliver on those promises. The contrast in this race is clear between Governor Walz and JD Vance, whose vision of the future only includes himself.”

Cleveland.com: Bernie Moreno Got Sued By An Employee Who Said He Didn’t Get Paid What He Was Promised. Here’s What Happened.

Columbus, OH – New reporting from Cleveland.com revealed Bernie Moreno faced another lawsuit from a former employee whom Moreno “stiffed out of money that Moreno personally promised him.” After the employee spoke out, Moreno “retaliated by firing him” and “improperly altered” the termination document to try to get away with it.

This is the “latest in a string” of lawsuits Moreno has faced for “stiffing workers,” including one lawsuit where he deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying his workers the overtime they earned.

Read More:

Cleveland.com: Bernie Moreno got sued by an employee who said he didn’t get paid what he was promised. Here’s what happened.
Andrew J. Tobias
August 5, 2024

• During his previous career as a high-end auto dealer, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno was sued by an employee who said he was stiffed out of money that Moreno personally promised him before he was hired.

• Michael Falcone sued in 2014, two months after he said he was fired from his job as general sales manager of a Moreno-owned Porsche dealer in North Olmsted. In his lawsuit, he said Moreno sent him an email right before he was hired in 2012 guaranteeing he’d be paid a percentage of the dealership’s profits. But Falcone said he never got the money.

• Falcone said the company retaliated by firing him while making him sign a termination document under duress, then improperly altered the document.

• Falcone’s lawsuit offers an example of how Moreno handled disputes involving workers at his car dealership empire. It is the latest in a string of several years-old employee lawsuits that have been newly aired out during Moreno’s Senate campaign.

• But Falcone said he was never paid a percentage of holdback, which he learned through his subsequent lawsuit would have been worth tens of thousands of dollars.

• Falcone said when he complained about his pay, including asking to see the company’s financial statements, he was first demoted and then fired in January 2014.

• When he was fired, Falcone said a company official pressured him to sign a termination document that was changed after he signed it.

• But later, when he requested a copy of the document, Falcone said the part indicating he was laid off was whited out.

• In January, the Columbus Dispatch reported how starting in 2017, Moreno was sued 15 separate times by employees of a Massachusetts car dealership he previously managed who said he improperly withheld their overtime pay.

• Moreno was ordered to pay $416,000 in one case in November 2022, with a judge also sanctioning him for improperly destroying payroll records during the case.

• Moreno and his company also faced three lawsuits filed between 2015 and 2017 in Cuyahoga County from employees who alleged discrimination, the Associated Press reported in January. One alleged age discrimination, one alleged gender discrimination and the third alleged racial discrimination.

###

Chillicothe, OH – Outside of Bernie Moreno’s first bus tour stop in Chillicothe today, Ohioans called out Fat Cat Bernie Moreno for his record of “stiffing workers” to enrich himself.

Moreno’s campaign has been clouded by lawsuits that “could prove to be a liability,” including over a dozen lawsuits where Moreno refused to pay his workers the overtime they earned and deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of it. Moreno was found liable for wage theft by a jury and was punished by the judge in the case for destroying evidence. Moreno was forced to pay over $400,000 to his employees and settle over a dozen similar wage theft cases.

Find photos for media use below and stay tuned for when “Fat Cat” Bernie Moreno comes to a city near you.

###

Columbus, Ohio- In case you missed it, USA Today’s Erin Mansfield spotlighted stories from just a few of the 8000 Ohio voters who were unable to cast their ballots in recent elections because of the Ohio GOP’s extreme voting laws.

“This latest report just confirms what we already knew-that Republicans are making it harder to vote. While they’re laser-focused on holding on to power, 8000 voters have already paid the price. said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. Ohioans have enough to worry about from decades of failed Republican policies- the last thing they should have to do is jump through hoops to vote them out. 

Read More from USA Today:

• Since the ID law went into effect, thousands of Ohioans have been given provisional ballots because they aren’t showing proper ID. And thousands aren’t showing up to fix the issue.
• More than 1,100 provisional ballots were thrown out because of a failure to show proper ID, more than seven times as high as in the March 2020 primary, a similar presidential year that saw nearly identical turnout.
• Voters don’t always realize that they need photo ID to make their vote count at the polls because they voted for years under the more lenient ID law, and they didn’t receive any outreach explaining the new requirements to them.

###

Columbus, OH – It has been another terrible week for Bernie Moreno after recent reporting from the Associated Press revealed Moreno is not the “political outsider” he claims to be – rather, he is “heavily invested” in and profited off of a scheme with his brothers that funneled U.S. taxpayer money into banks that financed projects his family oversaw. From “gross[ly] exaggerat[ing]” his “riches-to-rags-to-riches” origin story which he has made the “signature pitch” of his campaign to using his “deep political connections” to enrich himself, Moreno continues to show Ohioans he is only out for himself.

NEED-TO-KNOW THIS WEEK:

• New reporting from the Associated Press found that Bernie Moreno has “deep political connections” and is “heavily invested” in and profited off of a scheme with his brothers.

• After Bernie Moreno was exposed for involvement in his family’s enrichment scheme, Moreno owes Ohioans answers about the $1.5 million invested in two of the funds associated with the scheme and other ties to the scheme. 

• Ohioans are being reminded that Bernie Moreno thinks the Declaration of Independence was signed by…. Abraham Lincoln?

🤑 MORENO FAMILY ENRICHMENT SCHEME: New reporting from the Associated Press this week exposed that Bernie Moreno is “heavily invested” in and profited off of a scheme with his brothers by funneling U.S. taxpayer money into banks that financed projects his family oversaw. Here’s Moreno’s family enrichment scheme explained:

• From 2005 – 2020, Bernie Moreno’s brother Luis Alberto Moreno served as president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), “the largest source for long-term financing in Latin America and the Caribbean” which is funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars.

• At the same time, Roberto Moreno, another Moreno brother, served as the President and Co-Founder of Amarilo Construction, “one of Colombia’s largest builders of affordable housing.”

• According to the AP, “corporate records show” that under Moreno’s brother’s leadership, the IDB “loaned or underwrote bonds totaling $360 million to two private Colombian banks” that then financed Amarilo development projects overseen by the Moreno family.

• Bernie Moreno’s personal financial disclosure shows he is “heavily invested” in a U.S. affiliate of Amarilo, has up to $1.5 million invested in two funds associated with the scheme, and is a “majority owner” of a parcel of land worth up to $5 million with ties to the scheme.

⁉️ MORE QUESTIONS FOR MORENO: Moreno owes Ohioans answers about his family’s enrichment scheme he was involved in to enrich himself while taxpayers pay the price:

1. How much money do you have invested in Amarilo and the two Yellowstone Capital Partners investment funds?

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

3. Have you profited off of U.S. taxpayer dollars being funneled towards the property you are a “majority owner” of in Costa Rica?

🎩 FOUR SCORE AND HOW MANY YEARS AGO? On the anniversary of the formal signing of the Declaration of Independence, Ohioans are being reminded that Bernie Moreno thinks the Declaration of Independence was signed by…. Abraham Lincoln? Moreno also incorrectly claims George Washington and Alexander Hamilton signed the Declaration. This is not the only time Moreno has made a claim on the campaign trail that “do[es] not withstand historical scrutiny” – from claims of “escap[ing]” socialism that “do not withstand historical scrutiny” to repeatedly claiming that he “learned English from watching Ronald Reagan’s speeches” at five years old despite the fact that the timeline “doesn’t make sense.”

 🗞️ WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING THIS WEEK:

• Associated Press: “If elected, he would be among the top eight wealthiest senators… Bernie Moreno’s immigrant origin tale [is] a ‘gross exaggeration.’”

• Ohio Capital Journal: “However, Moreno’s depiction of his family as a poor one is misleading. [Moreno’s family members] were wealthy and politically connected, and while the family lived in straitened circumstances the first years they were in the states, things quickly got better.”

• Cleveland.com: “[Moreno] comes from a family with deep political connections in both the U.S. and Columbia.”

🐤 TWEET OF THE WEEK:

🎶 CODA: “Those ties [Moreno’s deep political connections], combined with his family’s considerable wealth in their home country, are the backdrop to Moreno’s journey…”

###