POLITICO – Barbour’s $3.3 million blind trust
I wrote a few weeks ago about Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s ability to continue living the life of a high-flying lobbyist on the salary of a civil servant with his unusually wide use of the Mississippi State jet.
A source forwarded on some documents this week that offer another glimpse into Barbour’s lifestyle, his filings with the Mississippi Ethics Commission. The previously unreported documents show his continued payments from the lobbying powerhouse he founded, BGR, and his withdrawals from a blind trust with a market value of $3.3 million, according to its trustee, the president off the Bank of Yazoo City Griffin Norquist.
Barbour’s relationship with BGR was explored in 2007 stories by Bloomberg News and The New Republic, which relied on some of the same documents, which weren’t at the time public. The original, 2004 filing — available online for the first time here — said the trust also handle Barbour’s interest in BGR pension and “profit sharing” plans. Barbour was quoted by Bloomberg saying there’s no conflict of interest, as the payments are fixed indpedently of the firm’s success.
Politico
1/25/10
