GOP Firm's "CEO's" In The Dark (They'd never heard of debt-ridden sock-puppet company)

[Mister Ed]

Here in Minnesota, the Party of Fiscal Responsibility has racked up enormous debts, and seems to be resorting to some shady practices to hide the true extent of it. The state Republican Party hasn't paid the rent on its headquarters in eleven months, and is on the verge of being evicted.

The article below, from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, raises the possibility that a dummy company may have been created to hide some of the debt. Two men listed as CEO's of that company had never heard of it, until debt collectors came calling.

This past winter, George Fraley got a certified letter from a Republican attorney demanding payment of more than $219,000 in overdue legal fees from the 2010 gubernatorial recount.

There were two problems: The letter listed Fraley as CEO of a company he'd never heard of -- Count Them All Properly Inc. Second, he never agreed to bankroll the recount for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.

Fraley's fight to get his name removed from the corporate filings for Count Them All Properly is coming to light as state regulators and a watchdog group are probing whether the company was created chiefly to keep debt off the books of the state Republican Party, which owes creditors $2 million, including recount debt.

GOP activists were rocked again last week when they learned that the party is $111,000 behind on rent. On Tuesday a Ramsey County district judge will conduct a hearing on whether the party can be evicted from its longtime St. Paul headquarters.

More at...
http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/149385415.html

[rucky]

1. This could become a pretty big story.

[myrna minx]

2. I'm sure Amy Koch is relieved to be out of the headlines, for now. Oh wait...

[gratuitous]

3. "You mean we still have to pay the attorneys?"

I'm sure this is just a big misunderstanding. Checks will be written, maybe even cashed, and all this unpleasantness can just go away then, okay? Okay? I said, OK?

[Angry Dragon]

4. throw them all into debtors' prison