Yesterday on W Radio, Rick Scott lied about his investment in companies doing business with Venezuela’s brutal Maduro regime, which was first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.
Scott and his wife “received stock dividends or capital gains income ranging from about $345,000 to about $1.8 million in the past year from their investments” in “three firms [that] were large institutional holders of Venezuela debt.”
In an interview on the Spanish-language W Radio yesterday, Scott was confronted with his hypocrisy. His response: “It’s very important to me that we don’t do business with Venezuela…My assets have been put into a blind trust so I have no control over how they do business.”
That’s a lie. The Scotts investments are not in a blind trust — his wife still holds up to $895,000 of stock in those companies and that money has never been in a blind trust.
“Rick Scott is profiting off of the Maduro regime, that’s a fact,” said American Bridge spokesperson Joshua Karp. “At same the time Scott is trying to score political points off his tough talk against Maduro, he’s making money from companies doing business with that brutal dictator. Instead of owning up to it, of course, self-serving Scott is lying through his teeth.”
Transcript:
HOST: “It has been established Governor that after some information was made public your blind trust has some investments related to companies that do business with Venezuela. What do you have to say about this? And are you willing to stop your blind trust to have any businesses with Venezuelan companies?”
RICK SCOTT: “Well, it’s very important to me that we don’t do business with Venezuela. That’s why I first made sure the state pension plan didn’t do business with Venezuela, and second made sure no state agency did business with Venezuela. My assets have been put into a blind trust so I have no control over how they do business, what they invest in. I did that when I first got elected so I would not have any conflicts. But my expectation is no one does any business with Maduro and help him and his gang of thugs continue their oppression in Venezuela.”
Listen to the full interview here.
Published: Aug 8, 2018