Thread by @equalandallied1

Report: Pence family's failed gas stations cost taxpayers $20 million - CBS News

A complicated tale of misdeeds, conflicts of interest, corruption and the use of government power for the benefit of one’s own family. cbsnews.com/news/pence-fam…

Pence’s owned a chain of gas stations in the 90’s, 200 strong across 3 states. But it fell on hard times when gas prices plummeted and environmental laws required cleanup. Kiel Bros Oil Company w/Greg Pence at the helm filed for bankruptcy in 2004 leaving 85 sites for clean up.

Indiana has spent $21M so far and the job is nowhere near done.

The Federal gov plans to address one Superfund site (a designation assigned to the worst environmental cleanup ‘s affecting public health) near Pence’s hometown where the drinking water is affected.

AP conducted an accounting of the costs but cannot get to a final number b/c one state is not providing records, or is providing heavily redacted or incomplete documents: Indiana

In court docs Kiel Bros reported paying $8.8M , but the fine print states that $5.0M of that was actually state money. MIke Pence (MP) reportedly lost $600K in bankruptcy, but by the time he became Governor his assets were listed as $532M - $1.3M.

Greg Pence reported assets of $5.7-$26M. By 2014 Kiel Bros ranked in top 10 recipients of state money, but records for subsequent years are non-existent.

After the bankruptcy filing GP resigns from the board that loaned the co $16M. The partner Ted Kiel settles a portion, but

Got a judgement against GP for $3.8M, which was later settled to the bank’s satisfaction for pennies on the dollar. Indiana state was still seeking $8.4M from Kiel Bros, but a friend was seated as Governor in 2005, Mitch Daniels.

Mitch appointed GP to head the very department seeking the money from Kiel Bros, the Department of Environmental Management. GP stepped down a few months in and the Department dropped their claim somewhere in that time frame.

Many who have looked at this Kiel Bros case have noted the oddity of the state’s dropping of a bankruptcy claim. It only leaves more for the other $150M creditors, particularly when there is more work to be done. But sometimes knowing the right people helps.

In 2013 Mike Pence became Governor of Indiana. At the time Indiana’s payout per incident was$2M. That was until the new Governor signed in to law an increase the use of state funds to $2.5M. That same year, Indiana paid out nearly 2.5x the national average per incident.

Sometimes when it walks like a duck... Where are Greg Pence’s tax records. How is it possible to have up to $26M in assets after personally guaranteeing a $16M loan that gets settled for pennies on the dollar?