NEW: GPB News: Campaign Finance Experts See “Red Flags,” “Missing Key Information” & “Inconsistencies” In Walker’s Personal Financial Disclosure

A new report from GPB News raises “red flags” about potential “conflicts of interests” in Herschel Walker’s personal financial disclosure, which is “missing key information” and contains major “inconsistencies.” Walker is already facing intense scrutiny from Georgia Republicans and established a pattern of sweeping lies on the many claims he’s made, including exaggerations about his education and business record. 

Read the expert analysis of Walker’s troubling financial disclosure and the questions it raises that Walker refuses to answer below: 

Ethics experts say Herschel Walker’s U.S. Senate financial disclosure bears further scrutiny

Georgia Public Broadcasting, Stephen Fowler, 4/11/22

• Trump-backed Georgia Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s personal financial disclosure is missing key information that could help voters spot potential conflicts of interests if elected, several campaign finance experts say.
• A review of Walker’s financial disclosure shows inconsistencies in reporting sources of income and positions (both compensated and uncompensated) held, as well as a failure to list any sources that paid Walker more than $5,000 in 2020 and 2021.
• Three campaign finance and government ethics experts who reviewed Walker’s disclosures said the lack of required information could prevent voters from understanding potential conflicts of interests if he becomes a U.S. senator.
• All three also had questions about H. Walker Enterprises LLC, Walker’s flagship company, which has a reported value of between $25 million and $50 million and netted him more than $3 million in shareholder income from 2020 to 2021.
• The business is listed on the disclosure form as “business consulting and professional services.” But without a listing of clients that might have paid Walker or the company more than $5,000, the true picture of Walker’s finance is incomplete, said Stephen Spaulding with government watchdog group Common Cause.
• “According to this candidate’s financial disclosure form, no person or entity paid more than $5,000 for any services provided by him — at the same time, he disclosed an interest in an LLC valued at more than $25 million and that provides ‘business consulting and professional services,’” Spaulding said. “This may raise questions for voters trying to screen for conflicts of interest who want to know more about who got what from the consulting and professional consulting firm that bears his name and pays him millions in shareholder income.”
• A spokeswoman for Walker’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment or clarification about his financial disclosure and H. Walker Enterprises. 
• “The lack of sources of compensation over $5,000 definitely raises some red flags,” said Delaney Marsco, senior legal counsel for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center. “It’s very odd that there would be somebody who has a consulting firm, has a lot of money from that consulting firm but is not reporting any clients that are paying over $5,000.”
• “It raises questions when we’re at the candidate phase of if they’re going to be forthcoming with this information when they’re actually in charge,” she said. “If they actually get elected, how much information are we going to get when there’s policy on the line?”
• Brett Kappel, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign finance attorney, also said the way H. Walker Enterprises was listed on the form is unclear and echoed the other experts’ questions about what, if any, consulting the company actually does.
• “It isn’t clear whether or not Mr. Walker himself provided those services,” Kappel said. “If so, he should have disclosed the identity of each client who paid the LLC $5,000 or more for his consulting/professional services in Part 10.”
• Kappel also added that Walker did not disclose whether or not he held a formal position with H. Walker Enterprises, listed in Part 8 of the disclosure.
• “You would expect that an individual whose name is included in the name of the LLC would have a formal position with the LLC — as a member, the managing member or as the sole member of the LLC,” he said.
• A Columbus Ledger-Enquirer report found Walker failed to repay $625,000 in loans he personally guaranteed for a pizza chain called Zoner’s, listed on his disclosure under “Corporate Securities, Non-Public Stock.”
• The Associated Press did a deep dive on Walker’s “exaggerated claims of financial success,” and found his business records were inflated. 

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