OHGov

Columbus, Ohio- On the 91st anniversary of the Social Security Act, which has helped millions of hardworking Ohioans retire with dignity, a new clip shows Vivek Ramaswamy claiming “privatization or partial privatization” of Social Security is a “reasonable conversation to have.”

Privatizing Social Security would leave Ohioans’ livelihoods vulnerable to current stock market trends and endanger a critical safety net for Ohioans in the middle of an affordability crisis. Ohioans can’t afford a billionaire like Ramaswamy who wants to gamble on their Social Security. 

WATCH THE CLIP HERE:

Interviewer: When it comes to that safety net of Social Security, would privatization or partial privatization be on the table for your administration?

Ramaswamy: I think, in principle, in the long run that’s a reasonable conversation to have.

“Of course out of touch billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who also thinks Ohioans are lazy and mediocre, wants to gamble our hard-earned retirement benefits on the stock market,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “This is the same scam artist who said Medicare and Medicaid were a mistake and continues to push self-serving policies that would cost Ohioans dearly while he sees his net worth rise. We can’t afford Vivek Ramaswamy.”

###

Columbus, Ohio-Today, Vivek Ramaswamy’s former bodyguard and his wife pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges. 

“Vivek Ramaswamy owes Ohioans answers. While he’s pushing a property tax scam that would defund the police and fire departments on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic across the state, his own bodyguard just pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “How can we trust Ramaswamy to protect Ohio families?”

READ: Former bodyguard for Vivek Ramaswamy, wife, plead guilty to federal drug trafficking charges

• A former bodyguard for Ohio Republican candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy has pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges.

• The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Justin Salsburey, 44, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Columbus to participating in a narcotics conspiracy involving bulk amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine in the mail. Salsburey’s wife, 39-year-old Ruthann Rankin, pleaded guilty to drug charges last week.

• The couple each pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine and at least 40 grams of fentanyl. The crime carries a possible sentence of at least 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

• Justin Salsburey worked for Ark Protection Group, which led Ramaswamy’s security detail.

###

Columbus, Ohio- Yesterday, reporting from Oligarch Watch exposed how Vivek Ramaswamy hired his mother to “manipulate” failed clinical trial data as part of a likely “pump and dump” scheme. 

Ramaswamy served as the “frontman” for a “dubious pharmaceutical company” and then “cashed out weeks before its dramatic crash.” He hired his own mother to manipulate the data and make an Alzheimer’s drug look promising despite a lack of clinical experience.

This new reporting raises serious questions that Vivek Ramaswamy must answer.

1. Why did you promote a drug that repeatedly failed clinical trials?

2. Why did you hire your mother to oversee clinical trial data manipulation when she had no prior experience as a clinical researcher?

3. Will you apologize to people suffering from Alzheimer’s and their families?

4. If you can’t even stop yourself from cheating your own investors, why should working families trust you won’t cheat them too?

5. How can you expect Ohioans to vote for you knowing you’re a scam artist who was deeply involved in an apparent “pump and dump” scheme?

###

Ramaswamy served as “frontman,” hired own mother to “massage data” to make“an estimated $260 million”

Columbus, Ohio — New reporting exposed how Vivek Ramaswamy hired his mother to “massage” failed clinical trial data as part of a likely pump-and-dump scheme.

As the investigation reveals, Ramaswamy served as “the frontman” for a “dubious pharmaceutical company” and “cashed out weeks before its dramatic crash.” He hired his own mother to manipulate data from failed clinical trials to make the drug look promising, despite her lack of clinical trial experience. Ramaswamy used his own mother’s analysis to scam his way into hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Vivek Ramaswamy’s multi-million dollar ‘pump and dump’ scam makes clear he will do anything to line his pockets, including hiring his own mother to manipulate clinical trial data for an Alzheimer’s drug that clearly didn’t work,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Whether it’s Alzheimer’s patients or hardworking Ohioans, Vivek Ramaswamy can’t be trusted to fight for them because he only cares about himself.”

READ MORE: How Vivek Ramaswamy’s mom manipulated Alzheimer’s data and made her son rich

• Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire and the Republican nominee in Ohio’s gubernatorial race, served as the frontman for a dubious pharmaceutical company and then cashed out weeks before its dramatic crash.

• In 2014, Ramaswamy founded Axovant, a company he used to buy the rights to an inauspicious Alzheimer’s drug that had repeatedly failed in clinical trials. Axovant then hired Ramaswamy’s mother, who, despite lacking relevant research experience, helped massage data from old clinical trials to make the drug appear more promising. The extent of the elder Ramaswamy’s role has not been previously reported.

• In 2015, touting his mother’s reinterpretation of the data to potential investors and regulators, Ramaswamy led Axovant to a $1.4 billion initial public offering, the largest in biotech history at the time. He spent the ensuing two years promoting the drug intepirdine as a possible breakthrough for the millions of Americans who have Alzheimer’s disease.

• Ramaswamy used his mother’s dubious math to help raise $315 million during Axovant’s $1.4 billion IPO, figures the company reached on no revenue.

• Since winning the Republican nomination in the Ohio gubernatorial race, Ramaswamy has shied away from discussing his time in biotech, choosing instead to cast his business success story in more vague terms, noted David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati.

• The basic reality of how Ramaswamy ran Axovant, Niven added, “was heads I win and tails I also win, in terms of the outcomes of the trials or whether the drugs actually proved useful or not.” 

###

Columbus, Ohio- It’s National Lazy Day, and here’s your reminder that Vivek Ramaswamy called Ohioans “lazy” and “mediocre” in a social media rant just months before launching his campaign for governor of Ohio.

Ramaswamy’s negative views of the state he’s running to lead are on full display. In addition to calling Ohioans “lazy,” Ramaswamy has said Ohio is “not the best” state, called Medicaid and Medicare “mistakes” and claimed the “perceived” rising cost of living is only in Ohioans’ imaginations.

Workers in Zanesville, Toledo, Lima, and Martins Ferry have called out Ramaswamy’s out-of-touch comments that prove he has no clue what workers are going through and doesn’t care.

“Happy National Lazy Day to everyone except Vivek Ramaswamy! Ohio’s workers aren’t lazy; they’re the best in the world,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ohioans can’t trust a billionaire who thinks our workers are lazy to lower costs for their families.”

###