IN-05: More Questions Raised About Spartz's Financial Holdings
New reporting from Importantville’s Adam Wren raises even more serious questions about Victoria Spartz’s financial holdings and potential self-dealing. Despite claiming to farm around 3,000 acres of land in the district, “a review of property records connected to Spartz and her in-laws reveals ownership of a far smaller agricultural footprint of about 570 acres” – 81 percent less acreage than she’s claimed. Yet Spartz, who claims between $1 million and $5 million from one of several farm properties on her PFD, cannot account for the missing acreage and “did not respond to follow-up questions” from the reporter.
This missing land is just the latest in a “string of curiosities” surrounding Spartz. Spartz repeatedly refused to answer questions about the source of a million dollar campaign loan and has now loaned her campaign more over the cycle than what she disclosed in available cash in her personal financial disclosure. Spartz has also used her political position to personally benefit, introducing legislation in the State Senate that would remove state oversight of lands like the ones her family had planned a multi-million-dollar development on. Spartz faced criticism from fellow Republicans who, earlier this year, warned that she couldn’t be trusted given her conflicts of interest.
Spartz’s missing farmland
Importantville // Adam Wren
Victoria Spartz has bet the farm on her bid for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. The Republican’s record as a farmer—from her time growing up around farm animals in Soviet-controlled Ukraine to her soybean outfit in Hamilton County—has been a central element in her pitch to voters.
An array of profiles of the candidate are quick to mention her sprawling farm operation. In August, Indianapolis Business Journal reported that the Spartz “family—including her in-laws—collectively farm about 2,000 acres of soybeans and wheat, but it’s a mixture of rented land and owned property.” Farm World, an agricultural trade publication, noted in April that Spartz and her husband Jason had a “3,000-acre commercial farm where they primarily grow soybeans along with some wheat.” Spartz herself has made similar claims. At a Hamilton County Plan Commission in June 2018, Spartz claimed to farm almost 3,000 acres across the county.
But a review of property records connected to Spartz and her in-laws reveals ownership of a far smaller agricultural footprint of about 570 acres. Her main soybean farming operation, EcoAgro USA, comprises just 150.6 acres. Spartz Farms, a partnership, is a 70.93-acre parcel. Broadened out, a search of other Spartz family farmland includes only 348.82 acres.
In total, Spartz and her family appear to farm 81 percent less acreage than she has claimed. In a statement, a spokesman for Spartz admitted she no longer farmed 3,000 acres, but did not respond to follow-up questions about the exact acreage Spartz and her family now farmed.
Farming makes up a significant part of Spartz’s wealth. She valued her soybean concern, EcoAgro USA, as worth between $1 million and $5 million out of assets that total between $8 million and $30 million, according to her personal financial disclosure. She valued Spartz Farms, a partnership, between $1 and $1,000, and recently generated between $100,000 and $1 million in annual income from this business. Spartz has loaned herself more than $1 million during the campaign.
https://dccc.org/breaking-more-questions-raised-about-spartzs-financial-holdings/
