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What did Gov. Rick Scott do with mysterious $120 million in cash?

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org 

When newspapers across Florida reported recently that Gov. Rick Scott’s net worth jumped $83 million in 2017, what got missed or downplayed was that Scott also pocketed an astounding $120 million in unexplained outside income.

What did Republican Scott do with that $120 million? What was the ultimate source of all that money? The financial disclosure form the governor filed June 29th doesn’t say, his office and U.S. Senate campaign won’t talk about it and newspapers apparently didn’t ask many questions.

Scott declared the $120 million simply as income from his controversial blind trust. Under Florida’s flaccid qualified blind trust law that’s all he was required to say.

“Was it bribes? Was he dealing drugs? Does he own medical marijuana dispensaries? We don’t know,” said Tallahassee attorney Don Hinkle, who is suing Scott for failing to comply with a constitutional requirement that he fully disclose his financial interests.

Scott’s financial disclosure form makes clear the $120 million is atop the governor’s otherwise eye-popping declared net worth of $232.6 million. That means the governor either spent the $120 million, or more likely put it somewhere he believes he is not legally required to report it as an asset – like flipping it into his wife’s revocable trust, a ready source of campaign cash in the past that could come in handy again as Scott seeks to oust Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Unprecedented income

The ultimate destination of Scott’s mysterious $120 million, and where it originally came from, would seem to be a matter of intense public interest. Never before in Florida history has a governor – or for that matter any public official – reported receiving such a huge sum of cash.

Interestingly, Scott’s $203 million windfall – $120 million plus his $83 million bump in assets – closely tracks what Florida Bulldog exclusively reported in June 2017 was Scott’s share from the sale of Michigan-based Continental Structural Plastics (CSP), a maker of lightweight composite materials used in cars and trucks, to Japan’s giant conglomerate, Teijin Ltd. The $825 million deal closed on Jan. 3, 2017.

Gov. Scott created RLSI-CSP Capital Partners in 2005 to purchase a majority interest in Continental. RLSI is short for Richard L. Scott Investments, the governor’s former equity firm. How much Scott invested isn’t known, but public disclosure documents he filed when he ran for governor in 2010 show his personal ownership stake in RLSI-CSP Capital Partners LLC was then worth $19.4 million. By 2013, Scott reported it to be worth $43.9 million.

Paperwork filed by Teijin with the Tokyo Stock Exchange when it bought CSP said RLSI-CSP Capital Partners LLC owned 66.7 percent of CSP worth $550.3 million. Florida Bulldog reported last year that via his blind trust Scott’s likely stake was worth $200.75 million. The rest would have gone to 13-investor partners in RLSI-CSP, Florida First Lady Ann Scott and other Scott family members and close associates, including Gregory D. Scott.

Greg Scott, who has said he is not related to Rick Scott, is identified in Teijin’s filing as the manager of RLSI-CSP. He also runs the Connecticut-based private investment firm G. Scott Capital Partners that’s as much as half-owned by a company controlled by Ann Scott. Scott Capital, as it is also known, has said it invests the capital of only one family. In 2015, it reported having $291 million under management.

Florida Bulldog has reported that Scott Capital is something of a mirror image of Gov. Scott’s old firm, Richard L. Scott Investments. Not only is it run by Greg Scott and two other ex-RLSI employees, it uses RLSI’s old law firm, describes itself in identical language and boasts a portfolio that includes a half-dozen large investments that were actually made years ago by RLSI, including Continental Structural Plastics.

Mission to Japan

In November 2013, Gov. Scott led a six-day mission to Japan seeking more “direct investment” in Florida. Scott’s office said he met “with more than a dozen leading Japanese companies and spoke to more than 350 business leaders.” That included a luncheon hosted by the politically influential Japanese Business Federation (Keidanren), whose active members include top executives of Teijin and another bidder for CSP, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Governor Scott with Japanese business leaders during his 2013 business development mission to Japan.

The governor’s trip produced little immediate benefit for Florida. Neither his office nor Enterprise Florida announced any new jobs or investments by high tech or other industries.

Asked whether Scott discussed CSP with either Mitsubishi or Teijin, his office said no. As early as December 2012 Teijin had publicly expressed an interest in expanding its business of manufacturing high-performance composite materials in the U.S. to meet growing demand.

The size of Gov. Scott’s reported assets and income for last year also raises questions about whether he valued them properly in previous years. For example, Scott reported in June 2017 that as of Dec. 31, 2016 his blind trust was worth $130.5 million. Within a week, however, CSP was sold and Scott’s blind trust was suddenly worth about $330 million. The trust’s value was soon reduced, however, when Scott withdrew $120 million, reporting it as income.

As a candidate for the Senate, Scott must soon disclose additional information about his personal finances. His Public Financial Disclosure Report was originally due May 15, but he was granted an extension until July 29.

Through his wife, the governor is the beneficial owner of tens of millions of dollars in assets. Florida law doesn’t require disclosure of a spouse’s assets. Senate rules do.

Much of Ann Scott’s assets are held in the F. Annette Revocable Trust. For example, shortly after her husband took office in 2011, he transferred to the trust his controversial $62 million stake in Solantic, operator of a chain of walk-in medical clinics. The first lady later sold that asset.

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Comments

7 responses to “What did Gov. Rick Scott do with mysterious $120 million in cash?”

  1. William Windsor Avatar
    William Windsor

    Governor Scott is the most Unethical and Crooked politician to ever sit in the Governor’s Office in Tallahassee. We must not forget that he ran HCA, Inc. many years ago. This hospital company paid the largest civil penalty ever to the U.S. Government for Ripping-Off huge sums from Medicare, etc..

    Anyway, “Let’s get the Bum out of there”, as they say, and let us keep him out of the U.S. Senate no matter what.

  2. Sandy Oestreich Avatar
    Sandy Oestreich

    why don’t we KNow what he did with it, as its disclosure IS REquired OF ALL CANDIDATES?? IF the truth is not there, LOCK HIM UP.

  3. Dan, Thanks for always sharing interesting cases about the corruption that surrounds us, including the FBI in the case of Dr. Shapiro, exactly like the case of my brother, who was tried by the same prosecutor’s office, and investigated by the same fraudulent FBI agents. My brother is still in jail, Shapiro in freedom because he could pay the most expensive lawyers. Everything depends on money, right? And of course, make an article about a case already won … how much merit.

  4. Well, he certainly did not spend it on hair products…

  5. You pose a question, festooned with evil insinuations and hyperbole, and then provide the simple answer which is unadorned and transparent. His worth increased because he sold an asset. You need an editor.

  6. Rick Scott is one of the most corrupt GOP Rep’s ever to hold office, but no one listened to the People of Florida, & he gained a Senate seat. We MUST stop him. I beg my fellow Citizens to Investigate ALL Candidates, check their History, their voting records, their Voter Suppression records (ex: FL Voters approved Medical Marijuana in 2014, again in 2016, & Scott blocked it ALL. DeSantis implemented our Vote as his 1st Act of Business after TAKING Office, His LAST Act is loosening prescribing restrictions on PCP’S, etc. He woos us on his way in & his way out, and commits Genocide, Voter Suppression, Suppressing Our Vote to return Full Rights to (certain) Felons once they’ve served their Sentence by establishing HUGE financial & other barriers to ACTUALLY OBTAINING the Freedoms WE VOTED TO RESTORE. Now, while Human Rights are forefront in our Society, protecting previous “minority” groups Rights, preventing discrimination in the workplace, etc, the Alt-right has Actively targeted women.
    Roe v Wade should not even BE a Legislative issue as it is a CLEAR VIOLATION OF OUR CONSTITUTION:

    The First Amendment. The first amendment to the US Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

    This Very FIRST AMENDMENT was to Guarantee a Separation of Church & State – Prohibiting our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES from imposing their Personal Religious Views on the Citizens of this Country.
    The 2nd Amendment is OFT quoted in the Gun Lobby supported Representatives: making Bump Stocks illegal (responsible for the High # of Deaths & Woundings at the Vegas shooting), or ANY type of Regulation of our Nation’s TOP KILLER because it impinges in “their Rights”.
    It is a Sad statement indeed that Republicans care more about lining their Bank Accounts from Lobbyists than they do about Actually Upholding The Basis of Our Founding Document – The Constitution. I didn’t think THOSE Terms were up for negotiation.

  7. […] Senator in the country” was just caught doing so? And not just once, he was caught again, and again, and again stealing money from American […]

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