Maureen McDonnell, the first lady of Virginia, twice purchased thousands of shares of stock in Star Scientific, a spokesman for McDonnell’s legal team confirmed Friday night. The stock was bought and held in the same time frame that she and Gov. Robert F. McDonnell were taking steps to promote the dietary supplement company.
Spokesman Rich Galen said the first lady did not inform the governor either time she purchased stock, which Galen said she bought for herself and her children.
Yea, right. So she buys $30,000 worth of stock in a company she and her husband are promoting to the state an elsewhere and she doesn’t tell him? I call BULLSHIT on that one. She’s so poor she can’t buy an acceptable wardrobe as first lady, yet she had $30k to dump in stocks? (stocks that just happen to be shares in a company they are promoting.)
It seems to me that Martha Stewart went to prison for less. Maybe the governor’s lack of ethics aren’t illegal but insider trading sure is.
The relationship has been the subject of intense public scrutiny for months, but this is the first indication that the governor’s family held a personal financial stake in the success of the struggling supplement company.
A person familiar with the stock purchase said government prosecutors have been investigating the McDonnell family’s ownership of Star Scientific stock to determine whether the governor took any official acts to help the company’s prestige.
Any evidence that the governor acted in an official capacity to indirectly help his own interest in a company could increase his legal jeopardy in a potential criminal case. Persons with knowledge of the case have said Williams is cooperating with investigators.
At what point do we start calling for this governor to resign? Even the most politically naïve know this kind of stunt is not appropriate. I still am not satisfied that the VRS purchase was random, must less appropriate. I firmly believe someone knew something about promoting the company and that is why the stocks were purchased.
Let’s look at this logically. The governor’s wife has to use campaign funds to outfit herself because they don’t have the money. She gets $50k from some snake oil salesman and then spends $30k on stocks. The VRS spends even more money buying stocks. The problem with all this is, it is a company built on snake oil that has years of poor earnings. So why is the first lady spending her last time on stock in the company and why is someone at VRS investing thousands into a stock the rest of us wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole? Could it be that the governor and his wife were supporting and promoting the snake oil, especially at the state level?
I am not sure she shouldn’t be dragged before the SEC. Mrs. McDonnell is again an embarrassment to the Old Dominion.
I have to agree. Based on the info presented here, this looks like it could be very bad. I also agree that it may cast some new light on the VRS purchase. That looks even fishier now. Jeez, talk about clueless!
I am really sad that you missed great programming like Downton Abbey. I can’t think of any program I have enjoyed so much.
Our governor and his wife are crooks!
Perhaps I will be gentle and say that they have become ethically challenged.
I am very concerned that VRS is so influenced by this kind of thing. In fact, it almost makes me nauseous.
An anthropology prof from GMU weighs in with a local opinion on the nature of gift-giving: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mcdonnell-should-beware-of-donors-bearing-gifts/2013/08/16/0742a34a-0453-11e3-88d6-d5795fab4637_story.html
I just find all of this incredibly sad.
Gov. Ultra Sound’s employment prospects after he leaves office are going to be pretty limited. Mrs. M was just trying to stash away a little money in their “rainy day fund.”
Please. He’ll be out of office on a Friday and installed on K St. by Monday making a minimum of 800K.
Only in America.
Dostoevsky wrote, in War and Peace, that leaders good and bad are those we’ve chosen. Take Hitler, was it his fault or the fault of the German people? We are fools – we don’t acknowledge the collective power we have. And we never take on the responsibility of collective errors. We just point to others like kids “yooouu too”.
@Cato the Elder
That should solve all his money problems. Maybe his wife can finally buy some clothes.
I find it rather amazing that Cuccinelli first now has become interested in
the loop holes (GAPING holes) in the Virginia constitition regarding gifts to elected officials.
Isn’t it the responsibility of an Attorney General to keep an eye on what goes on
right in front of his eyes?
BTW – Is he working as AG these days?
Selective eye sight.
Perhaps he was concentrating on Dr. Mann too hard…or perhaps outlawing sodomy. Those things cause distractions.
A are we moving beyond the partisan blame game to just looking at the person? Yet?
I’m looking at both persons who both should have known better, IMHO.
And as Tolstoy wrote in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, “So long, and thanks for all the Fish.”
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Back to the topic of the post: This whole situation reminds me somewhat of Mary Todd Lincoln’s uncontrolled acquisitiveness. Mrs. McDonnell, whatever her strengths, does appear to be a material girl. The Post reported that federal prosecutors and the McDonnells’ lawyers were meeting today. We’ll find out soon enough how strong a case the feds think they have.
Regardless of outcome, Virginia is going to be embarrassed.
Mrs. Lincoln’s acquisitiveness seemed to be a mental illness of sorts or at least go hand in hand with her mental problems. What a sad situation that was.
Sigh…at least I spelled it correctly.
I’m not sure this isn’t a similar mental aberration, Moon.
It very well could be. I have known people who have grown up with limited resources to be shared among a lot of siblings who were also very acquisitive…to the point it seemed like an illness.
the fixation with Johnnie Williams was not just with Ms McDonnell – it was also with the Governor himself – accepting questionable loans (they were not reported at the time) for the ‘real estate business’ he had with his sister, driving the car, etc – was the ethical slip of the Gov himself. Now, the story is that the Ms. accepting things without the Gov’s knowledge – as well as the kids – now there are golf clubs. Didn’t anyone educate them that this was not right?? Is Johnnie Williams the only donor – or are there others out there that have just not been uncovered yet? Did the Gov return the PAC donations also or just the personal gifts?
The whole family seems ethically challenged. The gov definitely had his hand in the cookie jar, that’s for sure.