Early this year, as revelations came to light that Florida Democrat Congressman Alan Grayson was swindled out of 18 Million dollars, Grayson proceeded to cash in the assets he had foreign corporations, and domestic corporations doing business outside of the United States.
Congressional regulations require members to disclose their transactions only in monetary ranges, it is estimated that Grayson profited a minimum of $1,830,000 from the sale of stock in 7 different corporations.While there may be nothing illegal about Grayson’s activities, they are certainly hypocritical. While millions of Americans across the U.S. lose their health insurance coverage as a result of Grayson’s Obamacare law, and thousands of other unemployed Americans nationwide continue to search for work, why is an elected member of the U.S. Congress, investing millions of his money in foreign corporations and promoting foreign job growth?
The first major source Grayson’s newly found fortune is his sale of Lukoil stock. From this he made between $250,000 and $500,000.
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Lukoil is Russia’s second largest oil company. According to their corporate website, “Most activity is concentrated in four federal districts of the Russian Federation: the North-West, the Volga, the Urals and the South”.
The second and more hypocritical of Grayson’s investments is his profiting from Offshore Drilling, an activity which he vehemently opposes. Not only does he financially invest in corporations that engage in offshore drilling, the company is a Brazilian based corporation, headquartered in Rio De Janeiro. Similar to his Russian Lukoil Investment, his sale of Petrobras stock garnered him between $250,000 and $500,000.
On his official campaign website, Grayson clearly asserts that he “believe[s] that offshore drilling in Florida poses a tremendous risk to the environment”. Even more interesting is a statement that Grayson used during his 2008 campaign, but was later expunged from his campaign website, but not from cache or from the votesmart website.
“The Arctic Refuge, other coastal waters and other vulnerable areas also should be protected from greedy energy companies.”-Alan Grayson
Interestingly enough, Grayson has owned stock and profited immensely from offshore drilling. On their official website, Petrobras explains their operations as follows; “We currently operate three producing fields in the Gulf of Mexico – Cascade and Chinook,…and Cottonwood” Cascade and Chinook fields are located only 300km off the coast of New Orleans. Cottonwood is also located near New Orleans.
Remember Grayson’s comments about the ““greedy energy companies”? These are the same company he has invested and PERSONALLY PROFITED FROM. Grayson even went as far as propose that the government “just track down every single person who said ‘Drill Baby Drill’ and putting them all in prison”. (Source-Newsmax)
On their official website, Timmins Gold (NOTE: Spelling difference. Timmons Gold as it appears on Mr Grayson’s financial disclosure forms cannot be found. However, Timmins Gold can be found and therefore the assertions made here are based on Timmins Gold.)
According to Timmins website, “The Company owns and operates the open pit heap leach San Francisco Gold Mine in Sonora State, Mexico.” The website also explains the company’s stance on hiring.
“Timmins Gold has the stated objectives of respecting the land, water and air and the areas adjacent to our work. We act positively to help the communities near our operations …in addition to local hiring.”
By choosing to invest his money in foreign entities and in foreign corporations, Grayson is directly supporting overseas job creations and outsourcing American jobs overseas.
The second corporation, Endeavour Silver, a Canadian corporation based in Vancouver, “operates three high-grade underground silver mines in Mexico” according to its website.
Additionally Endeavor Silver has 6 more Mexican exploration sites and an exploration site in Chile. Endeavour Silver proudly states that “ Our commitment to local hiring injects money into local economies…it also contributes to local and national prosperity in Mexico”.The CEO even tells of this great story on their website, explaining how the company chose to hire Mexicans over Americans – shedding any doubt of the true intentions of Grayson’s investments to help Americans.
“After acquiring the Bolañitos [operation]…We had two options: we could bring in an American company to restore the shafts, laying off all 273 local employees, or we could bring in a consulting group to train the existing employees in this work, allowing them to retain their jobs and learn new skills.”
The company ultimately chose to retain the Mexican labor.
“Green Peace”Grayson is currently running for re-election, and faces a Democrat primary challenge from a liberal college professor. Grayson is expected to get past his primary, and face off with Republican Jorge Bonilla, who also faces primary challenge, but is the overwhelming favorite to win his primary race.
Bonilla has been somewhat of a thorn in Grayson’s side, as he has relentlessly been criticizing and taking Grayson to task on all of this socialist-leaning positions, as well as his over-the-top and divisive rhetoric.Expect Bonilla to pounce on Grayson over this offshore oil drilling hypocrisy.
Considering that Grayson boasts about being a “long-time member” of groups like The Sierra Club, The League of Conservation Voters, The Nature Conservancy, and a few others, we here at the Shark Tank wonder if Alan “Oil Can” Grayson’s memberships to these green-friendly groups will be revoked, now that he has been “outed” as a supporter of the “bad-for-the-earth” oil industry?
Shark Tank reporter, Special K, contributed to this story
