On Wednesday we posted the shocking news in Oversight? Noem turns down national media spotlight at House Ways and Means Committee that South Dakota's telegenic skipped out on an opportunity to defend South Dakota's trust system--a suspect in the recent Pandora Papers investigation--because she had prior commitments.
Since then, those prior commitments have come to light via social media. At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger sums up her agenda in Noem Skips Chance to Defend SD Trusts in Congress, Attends Campaign Fundraisers in Virginia, Pennsylvania.
Via DFP, here's a sample of the bad news South Dakota suffered in the United States House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee:
The United States House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee heard testimony Wednesday on the Pandora Papers and hidden wealth. While conservatives blew plutocratic smoke complaining that the release of and reporting based on the Pandora Papers should make us worry about the privacy of global billionaires, financial experts told the subcommittee that the shadowy financial structures revealed by the Pandora Papers don’t do much good:
The hearing included testimony from two professors and a leader from the nonpartisan Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition.
All three argued that tax-haven states bring few benefits to their citizens while leading to tax evasion and cover for bad actors [Arielle Zionts, “Congressional Pandora Papers Hearing Puts South Dakota in the Crosshairs,” SDPB, 2021.12.08].
…and…
While South Dakota’s trust laws have long been the source of scrutiny both in and out of the state, this fall’s reporting of the Pandora Papers, a leak of financial documents to journalists, revealed that some foreign investors with ties to criminal activity or wage theft have trusts in South Dakota.
Wednesday’s lead witness, Beverly Moran, an emeritus law professor from Vanderbilt, noted that South Dakota is one of three states — along with Delaware and Wyoming — to allow for rare, so-called noncharitable purpose trusts. Moran argued these trusts are effectively shielded in secrecy as they possess no “beneficial owners” to report to regulators.
“The Pandora Papers focus our attention on noncharitable purpose trusts as tax avoidance vehicles,” said Moran [Christopher Vondracek, “South Dakota’s Trust Laws in Spotlight on Capitol Hill,” Worthington Globe, 2021.12.09].
Read Heidelberger's analysis of where Noem was instead on Wednesday and Thursday.
We first learned about the Wednesday fundraiser via this tweet by KSFY's Austin Goss. Not too far from the committee meeting earlier in the day, but the Governor had to pick her priorities:
Despite being in the area, she missed out on testifying before Ways and Means due to “prior commitments.” https://t.co/ptIV9folIM
— Austin Goss (@AustinGossSD) December 9, 2021
UPDATE: The original tweet we embedded was part of a thread that included this invitation, in which a Noem family member's information has been redacted in the present manifestation.
I deleted an earlier version of this tweet at the request of the Governor’s campaign, because it included personal contact information for Kennedy Noem. Here is the edited version: pic.twitter.com/Lq9mRvBzWQ
— Austin Goss (@AustinGossSD) December 11, 2021
[end update]
The next day, we saw this in our feed:
Great to meet @KristiNoem at the @PAGOP dinner tonight! pic.twitter.com/50a9SQDYWR
— Christian Nascimento For Congress (@CN4PA4) December 10, 2021
DFP has some of the deets on how this fundraiser fit into Noem's itinerary:
Noem didn’t have to get to McLean until 6 p.m.; House Oversight met at 10 a.m. She could have stayed on the Hill all day talking up South Dakota and still made it across the river to McLean, just 11 miles away, with time to spare. But Kristi had to save her strength for the campaign trail: she was slated to follow her Wednesday night campaigning in Virginia by headlining the Pennsylvania GOP Commonwealth Club dinner—”our marquee event of the year and you won’t want to miss it!”—at The Fuge (as in the Johnsonville Centrifuge!) in Warminster.
Where in the world is Kristi Noem? The question has persisted for months, along with her use of the state air plane, as Joe Sneve reported in the Argus Leader on November 1 in Judges ask for more information on allegations of nepotism, misuse of state-owned airplanes by Gov. Noem.
That her daughter Kennedy is working for her campaign committee would be nepotism? Your mileage may vary.
Photo: We do not think Governor Noem rode her horse to Virginia and Pennsylvania. We like the photo though.
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Like Sarah Palin, I doubt she'd get much traction in the national media if she looked like Golda Meir instead of Barbi.
Posted by: Steve Chesney | Dec 10, 2021 at 03:42 PM