Three Questions Bernie Moreno Must Answer After AP Report Exposes Involvement In Family Enrichment Scheme

Three Questions Bernie Moreno Must Answer After AP Report Exposes Involvement In Family Enrichment Scheme

July 30, 2024

Columbus, OH - Bernie Moreno owes Ohioans answers after an Associated Press report found that he is "heavily invested" in and profited off of a scheme with his brothers by funneling U.S. taxpayer money into banks that financed projects his family oversaw.

The AP found that, under Moreno's brother's leadership, the Inter-American Development Bank funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars to "banks that worked with Amarilo," a company owned by a different brother. The report found that Moreno is "heavily invested" in Amarilo, has up to $1.5 million invested in two of the funds associated with the scheme, and is a "majority owner" of a parcel of land worth up to $5 million with ties to the scheme.

Following the AP's report, here are three questions Moreno must answer about his enrichment scheme:

1. How much money do you have invested in Amarilo and the two Yellowstone Capital Partners investment funds?

2. Will you make the details of your investments in Amarilo and Yellowstone Capital Partners available for Ohioans to see?

3. Have you profited off of U.S. taxpayer dollars being funneled towards the property you are a "majority owner" of in Costa Rica?

Read More:

Associated Press: Senate candidate Bernie Moreno campaigns as an outsider. His wealthy family is politically connected
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July 28, 2024

• Many of Luis Alberto Moreno's connections in business stem from his time as president of the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, the largest source for long-term financing in Latin America and the Caribbean. During his tenure from 2005 to 2020, he oversaw the biggest capital increase in the international bank's history. But he also drew criticism from U.S. lawmakers for the way the bank, whose mission is to fight poverty in the region, lost nearly $1 billion by plowing a large chunk of its cash reserves into mortgage-backed securities at a time Wall Street was fleeing toxic assets blamed for triggering the 2008 global financial crisis.

• Another brother, Roberto Moreno, is co-founder and president of Amarilo Construction, one of Colombia's largest builders of affordable housing… corporate records show at least some of IDB's funding going to banks that worked with Amarilo, and Bernie Moreno's financial disclosures indicate he is heavily invested in a U.S. affiliate of the company.

• The IDB loaned or underwrote bonds totaling $360 million to two private Colombian banks to promote affordable housing through its private-sector lending arm. One of the banks, Banco Davivienda, financed Amarilo's development of a Bogota apartment complex between 2019 and 2020, according to the mortgage lender's 2021 annual report. Meanwhile the other financial institution, Bancolombia, signed an alliance in 2020 with Amarilo and Yellowstone Capital Partners, a private equity firm the construction giant created in 2009 to source institutional investment. It has operations in both Colombia and the U.S.

• According to Bernie Moreno's 2023 personal financial disclosure, he is a majority owner of a Yellowstone-associated parcel of land in Costa Rica worth between $1 million and $5 million. He also has invested between $750,000 and $1.5 million in two of Yellowstone's U.S. investment funds, one of which targets opportunities in the American housing market.

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