1309 Vincent Place, Suite 1000
McLean, Virginia 22101
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 17, 1998
CONTACT: Dan Rene 703-847-3088
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This week the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC)
filed a complaint against Congressman Jon Fox with the House Committee
on Standards of Official Conduct for filing false Financial Disclosure
Statements. The complaint states that Fox filed a Financial Disclosure
Form in August 1992 which covered the period 1/1/91 to 7/31/92 in which
he failed to list a $25,000 loan from a campaign contributor. The complaint
further stated that an amendment to the same report also failed to disclose
the loan. NLPC provided the committee with copies of the forms, which were
signed by Jon Fox, along with other documentation.
Central to the complaint is a large, unsecured personal loan of $25,000
made to Congressional candidate Jon Fox in June 1992 by a campaign contributor,
real estate developer Bruce Toll. The loan in question was discovered by
NLPC, which filed a complaint against Fox with the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) in December. NLPC filed a second FEC complaint in January 1998 when
it discovered a similar secret loan of $10,000 to Fox from another Fox
contributor, lawyer Richard McBride. The Federal Election Commission is
currently investigating both loans.
Federal election law forbids congressional candidates from taking personal
loans from individuals in excess of the $1000 contribution restriction
on campaign contributions. Fox has tried to argue that the loan was permissible
because he used it for personal living expenses, yet the FEC's Campaign
Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees explicitly says of
loans to candidates: "Instead, a gift or loan is considered a contribution
from the donor to the campaign. This is true even if the candidate uses
the funds for personal living expenses while campaigning."
NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm stated, "Rep. Fox's so-called "interpretation"
of the law as allowing huge secret loans to candidates for personal expenses
is a joke. It is directly contradicted by the law. Fox cannot give a single
example when a judge or the Federal Election Commission has ever upheld
his view that candidates can take large secret loans from political contributors
in the middle of a campaign."
Boehm also took issue with Fox's claim that he filed the loan properly
with the Clerk of the House. "Fox's claim is flatly false. He never
disclosed the loan until 1994, two years after he received it. He filed
two Financial Disclosure Forms with the House for the period January 1,
1991 through July 31, 1992. In both of them, Fox claimed to have no liabilities
over $10,000 despite the fact that he received the $25,000 loan from his
contributor in June 1992. Both forms were personally signed by Fox below
a statement pointing out that knowingly filing a false Financial Disclosure
Form may subject the signer to civil and criminal sanctions."
Finally, Boehm stated that the claim of Fox chief of staff Jan Friis in
the December 18, 1997 issue of Roll Call , a Capitol Hill newspaper,
that Fox made no personal contributions to his 1992 is also flatly false.
"Fox's own report to the Federal Election Commission filed in December
1992 shows that he made over $6,000 in personal contributions to his campaign
in 1992, largely after receiving the secret loans of $25,000 from Toll
and $10,000 from McBride."
Boehm called on Congressman Fox to immediately disclose the loan documents,
payment history and all information pertaining to the loan that the law
requires candidates to disclose to the FEC and the Clerk of the House.
The written complaint concluded, "Virtually every fact relied upon
in this complaint is found in the public record. The facts are crystal
clear: a candidate in a close race used an illegal $25,000 loan from a
major donor to finance his campaign. To avoid public scrutiny of the illegal
loan, he filed false Federal Election Commission reports and false Financial
Disclosure Forms with the Clerk of the House. He was subsequently elected
to the House twice with razor-thin margins."
Rep. Fox was a candidate for Congress in 1992, losing in the general election.
He ran in 1994 and won a narrow victory. In 1996 Fox ran for reelection
and won by 84 votes. Throughout the series of Congressional campaigns,
Bruce Toll was a routine contributor of the maximum amount allowed by law
despite the large personal loan that remains outstanding.
NLPC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation promoting ethics and accountability
in government. NLPC was a plaintiff in the lawsuit which succeeded in opening
the records of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force. NLPC checked
the Financial Disclosure Forms and Federal Election Commission reports
of every Pennsylvania Congressman as part of an ethics project. No other
Representative was found to have illegal loans from major contributors
to their campaigns.
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