Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Ossoff speaks to supporters at the “Its Time to Vote Rally” in Savannah, Georgia, Dec. 19, 2020.
With just over a dozen days left before the U.S. Senate runoff in the state of Joe, there is intense interest in the two Democratic candidates’ ties to the communist state, with Jon Ossoff recently coming under fire for refusing to disclose details of his personal finances and investments, including his media dealings with the Chinese Communist Party and the Qatari news organization.
Ossoff, a 33-year-old Democrat who campaigned as a self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusader, has released hard-hitting documentaries on fraud in countries such as Ghana through his production company, but has so far been unwilling to account for disclosed ties to communist countries and personal financial and investment information, according to the New York Post and financial media outlet Zero Hedge.
Ossoff has been silent about a $250,000 loan he made to Insight TWI Film Productions when he was CEO in 2013, at age 26, and has not disclosed donations he made when he became a majority shareholder. Questions have also arisen about how much money the Democratic Party favorite received from Communist China and Qatar after he struck a deal with a Hong Kong news organization and Qatar-backed Al Jazeera to air two of his films about the Islamic State.
In response, Ossoff insisted it was no big deal because the films he sold to Al Jazeera were in English, not Arabic, both versions are owned by Qatar, and he received “only” $1,000 from a Hong Kong company for the broadcast rights. But incumbent Republican Congressman David Perdue (R-Pa.) has alleged that the Hong Kong company is a “Communist news organization.
Ossoff declined to provide the Washington Post with more financial documents related to the company, calling the information “confidential. He also declined to disclose his tax returns and how much he inherited from his grandfather, who owned the Massachusetts tannery. But his personal disclosure form, filed as a candidate for Senate, shows his personal wealth to be between $2.3 million and $8.8 million.
Insight TWI founder Ron McCullagh met Ossoff at age 16 while vacationing with his family in France. I knew he could (do it),” McCullagh told The Washington Post. “I’ve been in business for 22 years and I’m looking for new blood to take over. Even though Ossoff has no experience in journalism or running a business.
Ossoff left the company in 2017, when he made his first unsuccessful foray into politics, running for Congress in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. That election was the most expensive House race in U.S. history.
According to reports, the candidates’ “wealth” and “trading records” have become the focus of two Senate runoffs in Georgia.
Ossoff’s challenger, 71-year-old Perdue, one of the Senate’s richest members with a net worth of $15.8 million, was recently investigated over a stock trading controversy. The Republican was once under scrutiny for his Pfizer stock purchases in the weeks following a Senate briefing on the epidemic in late January, but a review by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee found that Perdue’s stock trades did not appear to have any specific connection to the epidemic speculation.
Another Republican candidate, Kelly Loeffler, also dumped millions of dollars worth of stock after a private Senate briefing, though the investigation eventually cleared Loeffler of wrongdoing allegations.
Recent Comments