Search Results for: buyer frontier foundation

Back in college, I had a friend. Let’s call him “Dom.” Dom wasn’t one who was much given to following society’s “rules” or obeying its “laws.” He had a simple rule when it came to potential repercussions for his transgressions: “deny, deny, deny.” One time he told me, “I don’t care if they have you on tape. Deny it. ‘I don’t know what this is! That isn’t me!'”

So, naturally, I thought of Dom when TPMMuckraker followed up on its coverage of the Buyer/Frontier Foundation story:

And the award for boldest denial in the face of evidence of financial mischief goes to … Rep. Steve Buyer!
. . .
He and his office have repeatedly denied that the Frontier Foundation has any special connection to Buyer.”

To recap: There are campaign finance laws in place. They exist to avoid undue influence by individuals and corporations over elected officials who are in a position to do them favors. One dodge to these campaign finance laws is for moneyed interests to contribute to non-profit organizations closely associated with the elected officials. Those organizations can, in turn, employ family members, pay for travel and dining expenses under the guise of helping the organization, and, potentially, create a nest egg the elected official can use after retiring from office – perhaps becoming employed at a nice salary to “manage” the organization. In Buyer’s case, the Frontier Foundation was ostensibly created for the purpose of providing scholarships to Indiana students. Despite taking in donations from lobbying organizations having to do with the pharmaceutical and broadcast industries for years, the Foundation has yet to provide a scholarship.

Buyer’s claims that he has no special connection to the Frontier Foundation is ridiculous. TPM Muckraker has provided a handy list of some of the reasons why:

*The foundation shares an address and phone number with Buyer’s campaign headquarters on North Main Street in Monticello, IN.

*Buyer’s daughter Colleen was the president of the foundation until August 1 of this year.

*His son Ryan is a director of the foundation, according to filings with the Indiana Secretary of State.

*Answering the phone number of the campaign office (and foundation) today, Stephanie Mattix, until recently the secretary-treasurer of the foundation, told TPMmuckraker that the foundation shares the office but works out of “a separate room.”

*The real estate company that owns the space says the lease is for Buyer, and adds that the foundation is not subleasing the space. Mattix told TPMmuckraker, though, that the foundation does pay rent.

*While drawing an annual salary in the $12,000-$17,000 range from the foundation, Mattix also served as the executive director of Buyer’s Storm Chasers PAC. She is currently the finance director of his campaign and the webmaster of the campaign Web site.

*Buyer was listed as the “honorary chairman” of the foundation on a 2004 donor solicitation, sent from Buyer’s office, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reported.

*Companies have made donations to the Frontier Foundation “in honor of” Buyer.

One of the amazing things is just how little effort Buyer has made to dress this foundation up into something that looks vaguely above board. It would take very little to put a veneer of plausible deniability on this thing. Get a P.O. Box. Sign up for a different phone number. Give out a couple of scholarships. Do that, and suddenly you’re in the gray areas of how close a relationship is “too close” and how little scholarship money is “too little.”

At the moment, he looks like he is being just a little too greedy and a little too brazen for his own good. As a resident of this district, it seems too much to ask to get new representation. It’s very unlikely that a Democrat will win in this district. For good or bad, that’s just the nature of the district drawing game. More frustrating, in my opinion, is the acquiescence of the local GOP. There are plenty of honest, smart Republicans around here. One of them should really be moving to take his place.

Update Looks like Rep. Buyer is changing his tune about having a special relationship to the Frontier Foundation. In a soft ball piece run by the Monticello rag, Buyer is suddenly very closely involved with the Foundation.

Compare
June 2008. The Frontier Foundation is just another charity Rep. Buyer helps:

In an interview, Buyer said “there is no connection” between his legislative actions and donations to the foundation. “I’m not an officer. I’m not a board director,” he said of his role in the non-profit. “Do I help the foundation? Yes, I do. Do I help other charity groups? Yes, I do.”

October 11, 2009. Still in denial.

Attempts to reach Buyer for comment were unsuccessful. His press secretary referred questions to Frontier Foundation and said there was no connection between Buyer and the foundation.

“It’s not Congressman Buyer’s foundation,” press secretary Anjulen Anderson said.

But, now that the heat is on, October 14, 2009 in an “exclusive interview” with his friendly hometown newspaper, the Monticello Herald Journal, Buyer is “creating a sustainable foundation.” He founded the organization. Everything in the article speaks to (now that it’s abundantly obvious) an extremely close relationship between Buyer and the Frontier Foundation. He says that he didn’t give out any scholarships or really advertise its existence because he wanted the organization to stockpile a bunch of cash. That part I believe. It’s the part where he intended to give out a bunch of scholarships with no intent of enriching himself or his family where I get a little skeptical, particularly given his rapid shift in stories about his involvement with the organization.

Blue Indiana has posted video from a Channel 13 story on the Frontier Foundation which follows on the heels of the Journal & Courier story a few days ago. The short version is that industry groups with an interest in currying Rep. Buyer’s good favor are contributing to this Foundation which is ostensibly devoted to raising scholarship money. The Foundation shares office space with Buyer and has employed Buyer’s daughter and campaign manager. It has not, apparently, provided any actual scholarship money to students.

My previous entries are here (10/11/09) and here (6/16/09). The USA Today article that seems to have kicked off the whole thing is here (6/10/09).

Update TPM Muckraker is getting in on the party as well.

Following up on this July 2022 post concerning former Congressman Steve Buyer being charged with insider trading, former Congressman Buyer has now been sentenced to 22 months in prison for those charges. Buyer left office, ostensibly because of family health issues, but hot on the heels of reports of sketchy financial practices having to do with his “Frontier Foundation.” The organization was nominally in place for student scholarships but seemed to raise a lot of money from lobbyists and spend a lot of money on the Buyer family.

According to an SEC press release when the charges were brought:

After Congress, Buyer went to work as a lobbyist. He obtained inside information that T-Mobile planned to acquire Sprint. In 2018, he bought a bunch of Sprint stock and spread it around “his own personal accounts, a joint account with his cousin, and an acquaintance’s account.” When the news became public, he sold and netted $107,000. Similarly, in 2019, he obtained inside information that Navigant Consulting would be acquired by Guidehouse LLP, bought a bunch of Navigant stock and spread it around “his own accounts, joint accounts with his wife and son, his wife’s personal account, and the same acquaintance’s account involved in the Sprint trading.” When the news became public, he sold and netted $227,000.

The AP report on his sentencing relates that the judge in the case said Buyer’s conviction by a jury in March was not a close call because the evidence against him “screams guilty.” The AP also reports:

Prior to being sentenced, Buyer, who is from Noblesville, Indiana, told the judge he should visit Indiana, where someone buying a dozen ears of corn for $6 off the back of an unmanned trailer might put the money in a container that already has $300 in it without worrying that anybody will snatch the cash.

“It’s an honor system. It’s how we live. It’s how I’ve lived my life,” he said.

I don’t know how to respond to that. I have, in fact, visited Indiana. And, being a Hoosier, I know that stashing three hundred bucks in legal corn money without sweating it too much has fuck all to do with pulling in $300,000 in ill-gotten, illegal, insider trades. And, furthermore, maybe a guy who made money that way doesn’t have the best grasp on the concept of an “honor system.” Honestly, I’m probably more irritated about him dragging Indiana into this conversation and trying to sell some cornball story about his honor than about his skimming off the stock market.

You might remember Indiana Fourth District Congressman, Steve Buyer of Monticello, from the Frontier Foundation campaign finance scandal. It was a foundation that shared a mailing address with Buyer’s campaign office and employed his daughter but with which he said he had no special connection. Ostensibly a scholarship organization, the foundation took money from the likes of AmGen and didn’t give out much in the way of scholarships. It paid staff and organized fundraising trips at high end golf courses. Buyer retired shortly after that scandal under a cloud.

He’s back in the news with a filing from the Security and Exchange Commission. According to the SEC press release, after Congress, Buyer went to work as a lobbyist. He obtained inside information that T-Mobile planned to acquire Sprint. In 2018, he bought a bunch of Sprint stock and spread it around “his own personal accounts, a joint account with his cousin, and an acquaintance’s account.” When the news became public, he sold and netted $107,000. Similarly, in 2019, he obtained inside information that Navigant Consulting would be acquired by Guidehouse LLP, bought a bunch of Navigant stock and spread it around “his own accounts, joint accounts with his wife and son, his wife’s personal account, and the same acquaintance’s account involved in the Sprint trading.” When the news became public, he sold and netted $227,000.

Again, this is per an SEC press release. I don’t pretend to have any particular knowledge. If true, I guess it beats working for a living.

RTV 6 is reporting (and I saw it from Abdul first) that Rep. Steve Buyer (R IN-04) will not seek re-election. He cites the health of his wife as the reason for his retirement. I have not had any love for Rep. Buyer’s representation of my district, but regardless, I hope his family’s health situation, whatever it is, improves. In fact, I hope it’s just one of those things politicians say when their real reasons are less sympathetic. Family illness is just one of those devastating things. (I’ll even avoid, for the moment, my inclination to veer off into a discussion of how important access to adequate health care is.)

Rep. Buyer was under fire recently for his non-charity, the Frontier Foundation, which had not been providing scholarship money but been taking in money from corporate donors with business before Congressman Buyer’s committees; usually through a golf outing at nice places. But, unless there are some more spectacular skeletons in the closet, I kind of doubt that added a whole lot to his decision to step down. He is in a very safe Republican district and, with no real primary challengers, has been largely unaccountable for his performance as a Congressman.

I would now expect a lot of Republican interest in the seat. I expect the chances of a Democratic pick up to be very slim but chances of an improvement in the quality of representation for the District as very good.

But, again, even though my differences with Mr. Buyer’s politics couldn’t be more profound, I hope he and his family regain their health and live long and happy lives.

(The Indianapolis Star has the story now as well.

Maureen Groppe, reporting for the Indianapolis Star, has an article on a complaint to the IRS from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). CREW wants the IRS “to investigate whether the foundation violated federal tax law by “failing to operate for its stated public purpose of helping needy students and by doing little more than paying for the congressman to play golf with donors with interests before his committee.”” (More on Buyer and the Frontier Foundation.)

CREW has also asked the Office of Congressional Ethics “to review whether Buyer violated ethics rules “by abusing a charity for private purposes and by trading legislative assistance for donations to the charity and a job for his son.””

Buyer created the Frontier foundation in 2003 for the stated purposed of handing out scholarships once the fund reached $100,000. The foundation has raised more than $880,000 — primarily from companies and trade organizations with an interest in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on which Buyer serves.

The foundation hasn’t awarded any scholarships, which Buyer has said is because the foundation later decided it needed at least $1 million to be self-sustaining. The foundation has paid for fundraising golf outings at luxury locales.

(Buyer has offered the defense that these golf outings “weren’t fun” for him.)

CREW press release and links here.

My favorite Buyer video here:

Update TPM Muckraker’s Justin Elliott continues his excellent coverage of this matter.