NBC News: Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Plans New Car Dealership Amid Scrutiny Of His Businesses

Columbus, OH – New reporting from NBC finds that Bernie Moreno’s been caught “preparing a return to the auto industry” and will open a new Mercedes-Benz dealership in Ohio after repeatedly claiming he “sold off all of his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest” on the campaign trail. While he was claiming that he “sold every one of [his] businesses,” public records show Moreno actually purchased $9.5 million of land in Delaware County and secured financing through a mortgage agreement with Mercedes-Benz for a new dealership, which will break ground in November.

Moreno has faced scrutiny for his record as a car salesman, which includes over a dozen lawsuits where Moreno refused to pay his employees what they were owed, deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying them, and lied about selling Chinese-made cars that Ohio workers say shipped Ohio jobs overseas.

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NBC News: Ohio GOP Senate candidate plans new car dealership amid scrutiny of his businesses
Henry J. Gomez
August 27, 2024

• Bernie Moreno, the Republican Senate nominee in Ohio whose past as a car dealer has been mocked and scrutinized by his Democratic rival, is preparing a return to the auto industry.

• In a recently filed personal financial disclosure statement, Moreno identified himself as a manager of two companies — including a realty business that he lists as an asset — that, according to public records, are developing a Mercedes-Benz dealership.

• Moreno, who has said several times during his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown that he sold off all of his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest, confirmed his involvement in an interview.

• “I got rid of all my operating businesses, anything that would have given me a conflict,” Moreno said in an interview in May with Kitco News, which covers the precious metals market and cryptocurrency, another business in which Moreno has invested.

• “I knew defeating Sherrod Brown was going to be very difficult. What did I do? I sold every one of my businesses, made sure I had no conflicts of interest, so that I could focus my complete attention to do this,” he said.

• “One of the things I firmly believe in is not just to run for office and set an example as a senator, but [to] set an example as a candidate, which means be completely free of any conflicts of interest,” Moreno said in January at a town hall event with pastors. “I don’t believe that senators should trade stocks, should own companies. You’ve got to be completely clear, completely clean, of any conflicts of interest.”

• In his recent personal financial disclosure statement, a form that Senate candidates are required to file, Moreno listed more than 20 “business entities” as assets, including M20 Realty LLC, as well as other limited liability companies and limited partnerships.

• M20 Realty and M20 Motors LLC each filed articles of organization with the Ohio secretary of state in June 2022, records show. M20 Motors then registered Mercedes-Benz of Sunbury as a trade name in September 2022, listing Moreno’s home near Cleveland as its address. Moreno’s financial disclosure identified him as a manager for both companies and listed M20 Realty as an asset that “had a value of more than $1,000 or generated income of more than $200.”

• In April, weeks after Moreno won the Senate primary, M20 Realty acquired land in Sunbury, a suburb north of Columbus, for $9.5 million, according to property records in Delaware County. Around that time, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA entered into a mortgage agreement with M20 Realty. Moreno signed the mortgage as a manager for M20 Realty and signed a landlord/tenant agreement between M20 Realty and M20 Motors on behalf of both companies, according to copies accessed on the county’s website.