Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, whose past as a car dealer has been ridiculed and scrutinized by his Democratic rival, is preparing for a return to the auto industry.
In a recently filed statement of personal financial affairs, Moreno identified himself as a manager of two companies, including a real estate company he lists as an asset, that are developing a Mercedes-Benz dealership, according to public records.
Moreno, who has said several times during his bid to defeat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown that he sold all of his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest, confirmed his involvement in an interview. He described himself as an investor in the venture, which will be run by his son Kevin.
Construction on the Columbus dealership isn’t expected to begin until around the time of the November election, Moreno said, adding that if he wins, he plans to divest his stake in the real estate company. Moreno said that because the company isn’t yet generating revenue or providing income, he doesn’t consider it an operating business like the businesses he divested himself of as part of his campaign promise.
“I have divested all of my operating companies, anything that would have been a conflict for me,” Moreno said in a May interview with Kitco News, which covers the precious metals and cryptocurrency markets, another sector in which Moreno has invested.
In a video interview with a local GOP official this year, Moreno also framed his divestment as a way to buy him more time for a grueling campaign against Brown.
“I knew it was going to be very difficult to beat Sherrod Brown. What did I do? I sold all my companies, made sure I had no conflicts of interest so I could focus my full attention on this,” he said.
The Senate race in Ohio is a potential tipping point for partisan control of the chamber. Brown and Montana Sen. Jon Tester are the only two Democrats seeking reelection this year in states that former President Donald Trump won twice. Brown, Moreno and allied groups on both sides have already spent more than $100 million on advertising in Ohio, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm.
Democrats have attacked Moreno’s business dealings, particularly his record as a car dealer. Brown’s campaign has run ads that play on clichés about dishonest car salesmen, while portraying Moreno as an unscrupulous businessman who mistreats workers, citing past lawsuits over workplace discrimination and overtime against his companies.
“The guy who ran against me ran a car dealership and made a lot of money,” Brown said last week at a campaign event near Youngstown. “I talk about the dignity of work all the time, as you know. That’s who I am, what I stand for, what I care about. And he had to pay $400,000 in back wages to his employees because he missed overtime.”
Moreno has portrayed Brown as a career politician with too many ties to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, to be trusted in a state where Trump defeated them by 8 percentage points.
“His fake slogan is the ‘dignity of work,'” Moreno said this month at an event in Medina, near Cleveland. “How would he ever know about the dignity of work? How would he know? He’s never held a job that wasn’t an elected official, ever.”
Moreno has also tried to neutralize Democratic attacks on his business portfolio by promising to avoid conflicts of interest.
“One of the things I firmly believe in is not just running for office and setting an example as a senator, but [to] “I want to set an example as a candidate, which means you have to be completely free of conflicts of interest,” Moreno said in January during a meeting with pastors. “I don’t believe senators should trade stocks, own companies. You have to be completely clear, completely clean, of all conflicts of interest.”
In his recent personal financial disclosure statement, a form that Senate candidates must file, Moreno listed more than 20 “business entities” as assets, including M20 Realty LLC, as well as other limited liability companies and limited partnerships. Moreno said the entities are a combination of non-operating partnerships and real estate holdings, including properties where he and family members live.
M20 Realty and M20 Motors LLC each filed articles of incorporation with the Ohio secretary of state in June 2022, records show. M20 Motors then registered Mercedes-Benz of Sunbury as a trading name in September 2022, with its address listed as Moreno’s home near Cleveland. 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 Delaware County property records. Around that time, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA entered into a mortgage agreement with M20 Realty. Moreno signed the mortgage as manager for M20 Realty and signed a landlord/tenant agreement between M20 Realty and M20 Motors on behalf of both companies, according to copies available on the county website.
Moreno said the Sunbury project has been in the works for four years, since before he sold his last car dealerships to focus on a blockchain venture. He sold his stake in blockchain company Champ Titles last year, netting more than $5 million, according to his 2023 financial disclosure form.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
