Mulvaney Doing Favors for “Close Friend” Once Implicated in $3.7 Billion Ponzi Scheme

“If you’ve got the money, Mick Mulvaney’s got the time.” – Karl Frisch


WASHINGTON, D.C. – It has been revealed that CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is using his role as OMB Director to save an Element Electronics television factory in his old Congressional district, which also happens to be owned by his “close friend,” Michael O’Shaughnessy. Proving once again that Mulvaney was being truthful when he admitted to giving more access to those who gave his campaign money, O’Shaughnessy and his wife have given with more than $10,000 in campaign cash.

In 2014, Element Electronics was accused of “false advertising” for saying its televisions were assembled in the United States. Just one year earlier, O’Shaughnessy was implicated in a “$3.7 billion, 14-year Ponzi scheme – one of the largest scams in U.S. history.” Lawsuits at the time alleged Mulvaney’s “close friend” “received nearly $9.4 million in bonuses and fees that were funded by defrauded investors.”

If you’ve got the money, Mick Mulvaney’s got the time. Whether it’s predatory payday lenders or people accused of defrauding their investors, Mulvaney will go to bat for the most unsavory characters so long as they’ve lined his pockets with campaign cash. He won’t even think twice,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of consumer advocacy organization Allied Progress.

He continued, “Mulvaney’s unacceptable behavior continues to cast a dark shadow over his actions at the CFPB where he has ignored the needs of consumers and instead made one decision after another that benefit the Wall Street special interests that bankrolled his congressional career with more than $1.2 million in campaign cash.”

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

  • Mick Mulvaney is using his role as OMB Director to save a television factory in his old Congressional district. Which is owned by his “close friend.” Mulvaney is using his role as a senior Trump administration official to make “personal pleas” to help Element Electronics, which has a plant in his old district that could be shuttered by Trump’s tariffs. The plant was built while Mulvaney was in Congress, and its success is “personal to Mulvaney.” [Emma Dumain, “Trump’s budget chief is trying to protect his home state from tariffs,” McClatchy DC, 08/20/18]
  • Michael O’Shaughnessy, Element Electronics’ President had been lobbying Mulvaney against tariffs on his products while Mulvaney was still in Congress, “months before” Trump’s election. O’Shaughnessy had been lobbying Mulvaney for special tariff exemptions long before Trump was elected and brought Mulvaney into his administration. [Emma Dumain, “Trump’s budget chief is trying to protect his home state from tariffs,” McClatchy DC, 08/20/18]
  • In 2014, Element Electronics was accused of “false advertising” for saying their televisions were assembled in the United States. A complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission alleged that Element’s “assembly” consisted “of employees removing the televisions from boxes shipped from China, checking the screens for scratches and using pneumatic screwdrivers to open the back of each television and insert a memory board.” [Jeff Wilkinson, “Petition calls Element’s ‘Assembled in U.S.’ claims bogus,” The State, 11/12/14]
  • Additionally, O’Shaughnessy was previously implicated in a “$3.7 billion, 14-year Ponzi scheme – one of the largest scams in U.S. history.” Although O’Shaughnessy escaped criminal prosecution, lawsuits allege that he “received nearly $9.4 million in bonuses and fees that were funded by defrauded investors” and had “special knowledge” of the Ponzi scheme. [Rick Brundrett, “Governor, Commerce Silent on Ponzi-scheme Lawsuits,” The Nerve, 08/28/13]

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