To Avoid Conflicts, Rick Scott Created a Trust Blind in Name Only

Rick Scott faced controversy within his first few months of office after being elected Governor of Florida in 2011. The Republican, who had made his fortune as a health care executive and investor, proposed reorienting the state’s Medicaid system toward managed care. This would have created vast potential markets for the chain of 32 urgent-care clinics that Mr. Scott had co-founded a decade earlier and which he transferred to his wife shortly before taking office.

Now that Mr. Scott is running for a Senate seat, he wanted to avoid future conflicts and created a $73.8 million investment account that he called a blind trust. But a closer inspection shows that he still has significant knowledge of these holdings, and many of the assets stood to benefit from his administration’s actions. In July he disclosed his wife’s holdings, and their equity investments largely mirrored each other, meaning that Mr. Scott could, if he wanted, track his own holdings by following his wife’s.

Mr. Scott has banked more than $200 million while in office, and if he wins the Senate seat, he could become the richest member of the next Congress. As his wealth is divided among a throng of investments and the rules of the Senate are more stringent, Mr. Scott would be forced to recuse himself on numerous issues.

Instead of commenting, Mr. Scott issued this statement: “I have never made a single decision as governor with any thought or consideration of my personal finances.” He added, “I will not apologize for having success in business.”

For more, refer to the news article.

See Kevin Sack & Patricia Mazzei, To Avoid Conflicts, Rick Scott Created a Trust Blind in Name Only, New York Times, October 17, 2018.

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.