***FACT SHEET***
Bass used his office as U.S. Congressman to profit his nephew's business, from whom he got millions in private stock not available to the public.
In 2005 & 2006, Congressman Bass wrote and successfully passed a law that created tax credits "ideally suited" to benefit a wood pellet company owned by his nephew. Bass even personally arranged a meeting between his nephew and the U.S. Secretary of Energy to lobby for funding the tax credit and promote the company (which Bass now denies, despite pictures and an article about it from the time).
As he was helping this company, Bass bought himself between $500k - $1M worth of the company stock in a private sale not open to the general public. Bass now insists this happened in the days after he left office, despite the original disclosure forms that actually list the sale in January and November of 2006, before he left office. But even by his own account, Bass made millions from his nephew's company that he lobbied for as Congressman. Today the stock is worth between $1 - $5 million.
KEY FACTS:
*** New England Wood Pellet President Steve Walker is Congressman Bass's niece's husband. [Union Leader, May 12, 2005]
*** Bass personally introduced legislation to create a 25% tax credit for renewable fuel home heating systems, which was included in the 2005 Bush Energy bill. [Bass Press Release, April 14, 2005]
*** This tax credit was described by the company as "ideally suited" to benefit them. [Pellet Fuels Institute Newsletter, March 2006]
*** Bass personally arranged a meeting between NEWP President and the U.S. Secretary of Energy to lobby for funding for this tax credit and to promote the company. [Pellet Fuels Institute Newsletter, March 2006]
*** Bass purchased between $500,000 - $1,000,000 of NEWP stock in a private sale not available to the public. [Bass U.S. House Financial Disclosure, Filed 3/9/07. Purchase of stock listed as "1/06" and "11/06". Bass now claims he meant 2007, though the form was filed in March of 2007, making the November date completely nonsensical.]
*** Bass announced he was joining the board of directors of NEWP ten days after leaving Congress. [Bloomberg, January 14, 2007]
*** In the year after he left Congress, his NEWP stock roughly doubled in value, to $1 - $5M total. [Bass Personal Financial Disclosure, Filed 5/3/09. Stock was worth $1-5M in 2008 but no new shares were purchased in 2008 or 2009.]
