What Else Is Bill Owens Hiding?

What Else Is Bill Owens Hiding?
Dem Candidate Seems to Have Plenty of Secrets

Washington– As the campaign in New York’s 23rd Congressional District heats up, it looks like Bill Owens will have plenty of questions to answer before voters head to the polls. Just this week, Owens is already under fire for being less than transparent with central and northern New Yorkers regarding his financial dealings. Earlier this week, Owens revealed that he would seek an extension on the due date for his personal financial disclosure forms – possibly pushing their release until after election day:

“According to reporting in Politicker and the Watertown Daily Times, both the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, and the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, have asked for extensions in filing the financial disclosure forms required of all candidates.”

“Both of these candidates are essentially blank slates, in terms of the public’s knowledge about their business dealings or their financial histories.”

“Now it appears that they may remain that way until after the vote in early November.” (Brian Mann, “Show Me the Money? Not in the 23rd Special Election,” North Country Public Radio, 9/15/09)

Yesterday news broke that could explain why Owens is so trigger shy about releasing his financial documents: for starters, he is involved in a company accused of swindling shareholders and failing to pay taxes. Even worse, Owens, who served as a director of Champlain Enterprises, was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the company’s employees and was in the company’s leadership when the IRS came calling for a millions in unpaid taxes and penalties:

“The employees who filed the suit claimed that Owens, as a director of the company, had a fiduciary duty to prevent and correct the mistake.”

“Also, at one point in the 1990s prior to the filing of this suit, the Internal Revenue Service sought over $100 million in taxes and penalties related to the misevaluation of the stock offering. Owens represented Champlain in the resulting litigation, which was settled in 1999 for $658,727, plus interest.” (Jimmy Vielkind, “Owens Sits on Company That Gave Questionable Stock Offering,” PolitickerNY, 9/16/09)

“What else is Bill Owens hiding?” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Just days after Owens refused to disclose his financial information on time, news breaks that he’s implicated in shady business dealings that short-changed American taxpayers.  Central and northern New Yorkers have a right to know the whole story when it comes to Bill Owens, but he repeatedly refuses to cooperate. Unfortunately, this is the kind of behavior that voters might expect from a candidate whose only policy stance is an endorsement of government-run healthcare. With these shady dealings in the headlines, Bill Owens owes central and northern New York voters full financial disclosure now more than ever, but he seems more content to run and hide.”

Bill Owens seems content to sacrifice his own credibility in order to hide important financial information from voters. With Owens playing it close to the vest, central and upstate New Yorkers can only wonder what else he’s hiding.