Reform Groups File FEC Complaint Against Senator Ted Cruz and His 2012 Senate Campaign
Today, Democracy 21 joined the Campaign Legal Center in filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging the FEC to investigate apparent violations of campaign finance laws by Senator Ted Cruz and the 2012 Cruz for Senate Campaign relating to loans he obtained from Goldman Sachs and Citibank for use in his 2012 Senate campaign. According to the complaint, Senator Cruz failed to report the loans to the FEC, as required by law, and may have used a portion of his wife’s assets to secure the loan resulting in the campaign accepting excessive contributions.
The complaint asks the FEC to formally investigate the apparent violations and seek appropriate sanctions.
According to published reports, Senator Cruz used loans from Citibank and Goldman Sachs to help finance his 2012 election to the U.S. Senate, but his campaign committee failed to include the loans on the reports his campaign filed with the FEC. While it has been reported that Senator Cruz claimed that he and his wife had liquidated their “entire net worth, liquid net worth, and put it into the campaign,” it instead appears that he used both personal and joint assets to secure loans from the two banks, a fact he failed to disclose.
A review of Senator Cruz’s Senate Financial Disclosure Reports for 2011 and 2012 also raise the question of whether he used his wife’s share of their joint assets as security for the loans, which would likely result in the campaign accepting an illegal contribution.
“It is clear that the campaign finance disclosure laws have been violated here and the FEC needs to take appropriate action to hold Senator Cruz and his 2012 Senate campaign committee accountable for the violations,” according to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer. “There also are additional questions raised here involving the use of joint assets to guarantee loans that the FEC needs to investigate,” Wertheimer said.
To read the FEC complaint, click here.
