A federal complaint filed Tuesday by a Corvallis voter alleges that Republican congressional candidate Monique DeSpain illegally omitted information on her required financial disclosure reports, leaving voters in the dark about potential conflicts of interest.
DeSpain, a retired Air Force colonel, is challenging first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle in the 4th Congressional District, which includes Eugene and Corvallis as well as the central coast and most of southwestern Oregon. Her campaign has largely focused on presenting herself as a squeaky-clean alternative to Hoyle, who received campaign contributions from and pushed for a grant for a troubled cannabis company that’s the subject of a federal investigation.
But the complaint retired nurse Linda Ramsey filed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Division on Tuesday alleges that DeSpain broke federal ethics laws by failing to disclose required information about her investments. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires members of Congress and candidates to file reports detailing their personal finances, so voters and watchdogs can see whether personal financial interests conflict with job responsibilities.
“By concealing assets on her personal financial disclosure and violating House Ethics guidelines, Monique DeSpain is avoiding basic financial transparency just as she has avoided telling voters what party she is with and how she would vote in Congress,” Ramsey said in a statement to the Capital Chronicle. “The people of Oregon deserve to know where DeSpain’s financial interests lie to ensure she would be fully accountable to voters of Oregon’s 4th Congressional District. Her failure to disclose this information warrants an ethics investigation.”
The complaint specifically faulted DeSpain for not disclosing assets in several investment accounts.
DeSpain filed two personal financial disclosure reports this year, one on March 10 and one on May 2. The forms are largely identical and show that her main source of income is a six-figure annual salary from the law firm founded by state Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem. She earned either $100,918 or $105,500 working for him in 2023, depending on which report is accurate.
She also reported receiving at least $30,000 and less than $100,000 last year in rent from two rental properties she owns in Clark County, Washington. She rents one for $2,300 and one for $2,425 monthly.
DeSpain has between $45,000 and $151,000 split between four checking and savings accounts, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonds, retirement accounts and annuities, according to her May financial disclosure.
Five of her investment accounts, totaling between $82,005 and $230,000, are mentioned in the complaint. House Ethics rules require candidates to list any underlying assets in retirement funds that are valued at more than $1,000 or generate more than $200, but DeSpain did not list any, something the complaint said she should have done.
“Ms. DeSpain’s blatant failure to adhere to the requirements of the act has the effect of completely denying Oregon voters the opportunity to discern whether she has any conflicts of interest that may prevent her from safeguarding their interests,” the complaint says. “For example, the public has no way of knowing whether some of the assets that Ms. DeSpain listed on her Schedule A contain underlying investments in companies that could prevent Ms. DeSpain from conducting her official duties (e.g., taking votes and drafting legislation) in an impartial and detached manner. Further, Ms. DeSpain’s apparent inability to adhere to the law and the committee’s simple instructions (not once, but twice) is both disappointing and concerning, given that she is seeking such a venerated and influential position in the United States government.”
DeSpain said in a statement that she followed all rules in submitting her financial disclosures, and that she confirmed with the House Ethics Committee that she merely needed to move some information from one section of the form to another.
“Make no mistake – the only candidate who is deceiving voters is Val Hoyle,” DeSpain said in a statement. “I filed the appropriate filings on time, fully, transparently, and in good faith with the House Ethics Committee. I have confirmed with House Ethics that no information is missing, and some data in Schedule A of my filing needs to be copied and pasted into Schedule C. This stunt is a desperate ploy by corrupt career politician Val Hoyle to distract voters from the fact that she is under a real federal investigation for a pay-to-play scheme with La Mota and potentially others. This attack on me is nothing more than an admission of guilt by Val Hoyle regarding her own investigation – and that voters can tell she’s lying.”
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