It is a fact universally acknowledged that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem--our governor--is in high demand at venues across the nation. Witness the recent headlines at Dakota Free PressNext Stop: Pennsylvania! Noem Resumes Out-of-State Campaigning and Coast-to-Coast Kristi Spoke to ALEC in San Diego Friday and Noem Returns to Vegas!
Sadly, a prior commitment kept South Dakota's governor away from the cameras in Washington DC on Wednesday. Via the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, the Associated Press's Stephen Groves reports in House committee wants trust secrecy in South Dakota cut after Pandora Papers:
Democrats on a U.S. House committee pushed Wednesday for reducing the financial secrecy that has allowed many of the world’s richest and most powerful to hide their assets in South Dakota and other trust-friendly states.
During a hearing called by the Oversight Subcommittee for the House Ways and Means Committee, Democrats said they were appalled by revelations in an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, dubbed the Pandora Papers, that show a booming, secretive trust industry in the United States, with South Dakota leading the way.
Advocates for greater financial transparency urged House lawmakers to make sure a recently-announced initiative from President Joe Biden’s administration sweeps trusts into reporting requirements for law enforcement and financial regulators. . . .
More:Pandora Papers put a spotlight on South Dakota trust laws, again
The federal government potentially stepping in to regulate trust industries would likely be an unwelcome development for Republican lawmakers in South Dakota, who have worked closely with the trust industry to develop a financial haven. When the Pandora Papers investigation revealed in October that South Dakota had forged the way for the United States to become a leading destination for the world’s wealthy to park their assets, the state’s GOP wore the distinction as a badge of honor.
Pascrell on Wednesday singled South Dakota out as the “the Grand Cayman of the Great Plains” but also acknowledged that Democratic-run states have indulged in the practice. Trusts in South Dakota have more than quadrupled over the past decade to $360 billion in assets, including an increase of $100 billion in the last three years, the Pandora Papers investigation showed.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican who sat on the House Ways and Means Committee while in Congress, declined an invitation to testify at Wednesday’s hearing, saying she had prior commitments. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. Pascrell said he would send a list of questions to the governor. . . .
At MSNBC's The Reidout Blog, Ja'han Jones shared a stronger opinion in Kristi Noem, 2024 prospect, won’t attend hearing on alleged corruption in her state:
The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight is scheduled to host a hearing Wednesday on the alleged tax cheats uncovered in the "Pandora Papers," an expansive journalism investigation into the financial dealings of the global elite.
The project, a collaboration of more than 100 media outlets across the world, detailed the seedy ways in which some of the wealthiest and most powerful people hide their funds.
The hearing is expected to focus heavily on reports that South Dakota has become an alleged financial haven for some sneaky characters. But South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a glutton for TV time, will be conspicuously absent.
Noem, a Republican who once sat on the House Ways and Means Committee, declined an invitation last week to testify at the hearing, stating she has “prior commitments.”
Hey, maybe that’s true. Maybe one of the nation’s biggest conservative grandstanders scheduled something that coincidently conflicts with an oversight hearing set to question her about accusations that her state is a piggy bank for nefarious rich people to stow their ill-gotten gains. Noem’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Usually, Noem, who’s been floated as a potential GOP candidate in the 2024 presidential election, isn’t one to shy away from TV cameras. She’s been a frequent guest on Fox News railing against everything from Covid-19 safety protocols to undocumented immigrants to school lesson plans about America’s true history of inequality.
Nonetheless, if not for her very important engagement keeping her away, I’m sure she’d love to attend Wednesday’s committee hearing and explain under oath how her state apparently became a safe space for the world’s ne’er-do-wells.
Maybe it’ll come up in her next cable news hit.
Jeepers.
Photo: Governor Noem spoke at the recent American Legislative Exchange Council's 2021 States & Nation Policy Summit. For more on the corporate bill mill known as ALEC, check out ALEC Exposed.
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