On Tuesday, even as suspicions were raised that special interests opposed to Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens may have funded the revelations about his sex life, came news that Greitens himself has been living large on special interest money. Missourians should be disgusted by all of this.
Greitens' personal financial disclosure form, filed Monday, reveals that private donors paid nearly $100,000 to fly the governor around the country in 2017. In addition, Greitens formed a limited liability corporation to cloak his purchase in early 2017 of a $750,000 home at the Innsbrook resort in Warren County.
J&J Escape LLC obtained a $675,000 loan for Greitens' six-bedroom property from Carrollton Bank. Mark Bobak, a former top lawyer for Anheuser-Busch and a Greitens buddy, is a director of the bank's parent company. Ownership by an LLC provides privacy and protection against lawsuits seeking personal assets. It also would allow investors to buy into the company.
In one of his first acts as governor, Greitens signed an executive order claiming in part that "this administration will lead by example in order to fundamentally change the culture in Jefferson City."
It certainly changed _ for the worse.
Greitens stopped answering questions from the press and rarely talked with lawmakers. After railing against the state's "culture of corruption," Greitens began to rely heavily on secret donations to a "dark money" committee to fund his political operations, which included attacks on Republican lawmakers.
He also relied on private donors to fund his extensive travels, claiming that he was doing the taxpayers a favor by not using the state's aircraft. Stan Herzog, who owns a major contracting company in St. Joseph, spent $60,000 for four out-of-state trips by the governor and an undisclosed amount for in-state travel.
Herzog gave $650,000 to Greitens' campaign and owns the building where his dark money committee is headquartered. FAA records show his company owns three private planes, including a Gulfstream 100 business jet.
Other travel was paid for by a St. Louis investment firm, Drury Hotels of St. Louis and the chairman of Integra Connect of Florida, a health care technology company with which the state did $73,000 worth of business last year.
Yes, it looks bad that Scott Faughn, a Jefferson City newspaper publisher with close ties to tax-credit millionaires angry with Greitens' attack on their business, dropped off $50,000 with the attorney representing the whistle-blowing ex-husband of the woman with whom Greitens was involved in 2015. Another $50,000 was dropped off by a mystery courier, all of this before the allegations against Greitens blew up in January.
It's also too bad we don't know who's paying Greitens' all-star defense team, either. What's worse is that Missouri government has become a private club whose beneficiaries most certainly don't include Missouri taxpayers.
