Maryland Senate Candidate David Trone Underreported His Assets

From a Washington Free Beacon story today by Andrew Kerr:

It’s unclear how much Rep. David Trone’s stake in Indiana Fine Wine & Spirits is worth, but it’s enough that the Maryland Democrat pledged it as collateral for a loan worth up to $25 million in August 2020.

 

But you wouldn’t know that from Trone’s financial disclosures. In both 2020 and 2022, Trone didn’t even mention the Indiana wine franchise—an extension of his Total Wine empire he launched with his brother in 2019—omissions that imply his stake in the business those years was worth $0.

 

For more than a decade, the Maryland Democrat has pledged at least 20 offshoots of his $2.4 billion Total Wine empire as collateral for the loan, which PNC Bank first disbursed in 2008. But a Washington Free Beacon review found that for years after launching his first campaign for Congress in 2016 and winning his first term in 2018, Trone didn’t disclose his ownership in at least eight of those offshoots in his financial disclosures to the public.

Also from the story:

…according to Paul Kamenar, an attorney for the National Legal and Policy Center, “David Trone’s financial disclosure reports appear to under report his assets.” Kamenar said that “besides penalties imposed by the House Ethics Committee,” Trone could face “a civil penalty of up to $50,000” and perhaps “criminal penalties.”

UPDATE 5/14/24: Following publication of the Washington Free Beacon story from which the above is excerpted, the publication received a letter from Trone’s counsel demanding that the article be taken down. NLPC received the same letter. The Free Beacon refused to retract the story