According to the financial disclosure statement that Governor Scott filed last month, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, he and his wife Ann’s portfolio includes earnings from 2017 of at least $2.9 million in two dozen hedge funds registered in the Cayman Islands. Also of note, the investments had a minimum total value of $25 million and a potential value of $62 million.
Lauren Schenone, a spokesperson for his campaign, was quick to point out that the governor “…had no role in selecting that investment. The blind trust is managed by an independent financial professional who decides what assets are bought, sold or changed.”1
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If you are wondering why he’s got hedge funds registered in the Cayman Islands, welcome to the party. I think we’d all like to know why his money is sitting comfortably in a well-known tax haven for U.S. and foreign investors. And, quite frankly, I think we’d all like to know about his investment choices…
“The 125-page statement included details of Scott’s blind trust, managed by a New York trustee who’s a former business associate of the governor’s.
Scott’s assets totaled at least $255 million. The governor has not said whether he will continue to have a blind trust if he’s elected to the U.S. Senate.
Of the 23 individual investments the Scotts listed, six are in the governor’s name and 17 are in his wife’s name.”2
While there’s no indication that their offshore investments allowed the Scotts to avoid paying their share of U.S. taxes, it certainly looks less than above board. Take Overlook 3G Investments for instance. Although their primary place of business is Hong Kong, the company’s website describes the fund as a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership that was formed two years ago to invest in a Chinese utility company.
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And then there’s the Scotts $3 million investment “in a credit fund of the parent company of All Aboard Florida,”3 a state-regulated firm that operates a commercial rail line on Florida’s east coast and has expressed a desire to run a high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando- something Scott now supports but rejected back in 2011 (before he was an investor). The Governor’s statement also shows investments from 2017 in companies that did business with the Maduro regime in Venezuela. (After, of course, Scott had called on state investment fund managers to sever ties with businesses that do business there.) And lastly, the Scotts also held stock (which has since been sold) in a worldwide shipping firm whose clients included a firm with links to the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia, someone Scott said in July couldn’t be trusted.
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Scott’s finances should remain an issue with voters in the general election. Let’s hope people see this as one more reason, besides what he’s done to the environment here in Florida, to prevent him from leaving as governor and becoming a senator.
