From Illinois GOP –
While businesses leave in droves taking thousands of jobs with them, business is booming for J.B. Pritzker. This morning it was revealed by the Better Government Association (BGA) that Governor JB Pritzker’s “blind” trust has the governor’s money in at least a dozen companies with billions in state business.
“A BGA investigation of Pritzker’s holdings — including an examination of his annual economic interest disclosures, thousands of pages of state contracts, corporate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Illinois secretary of state and gubernatorial email communications — shows at least 12 cases large and small in which the governor’s office and the agencies he oversees took action that created a potential conflict of interest for Pritzker,” said the report, “Pritzker’s staff and his campaign office refused BGA requests to provide basic financial reports — full tax returns, a copy of his blind-trust agreement or a detailed accounting of his personal holdings. Pritzker also won’t say when he bought any of the stock or at what price.”
What’s worse is that this isn’t the first time that the investments of Pritzker’s so-called “blind trust” have come under fire.
“Governor Pritzker’s repeated lack of transparency is disturbing. The Governor needs to answer why he has failed to avoid financial conflicts by not telling his trust managers to refrain from investing in state contractors. The Governor, or his trusts, should release all correspondence and documents pertaining to any companies in his ‘blind’ trust that have done business with the state since he became Governor. To do otherwise would be a disservice to the voters of Illinois and to honest and transparent government,” said ILGOP Chairman Don Tracy.
According to Forbes, Pritzker is worth $3.6 billion, already making him the “richest politician in the U.S.”
