The House of Representatives Ethics Panel determined that he is likely to violate federal campaign finance laws, primarily by reporting inflated personal loans to make office bids appear stronger. We recommend further investigation of Andy Ogles.

In his first run in Congress representing the newly drawn 5th Congressional District in 2022, Ogles reported that he received a $320,000 personal loan for his campaign. A Culleoka Republican said in an April 2022 press release that he raised $450,000, including a six-figure injection into the campaign. His first report with the Federal Election Commission showed that he only raised $250,000.

In May 2024, he revised his campaign finance report for the past two years, admitting that he had only provided $20,000 in loans to the campaign, and that an additional $300,000 was in a joint account he shared with his wife. Still, Ogles and his campaign manager were unable to “conclusively” confirm the $20,000 source with an ethics committee investigator.

The Ethics Committee states that “there are substantial reasons to believe that Ogles omitted or misrepresented the necessary information in his financial disclosure statement or the FEC Candidate Committee report.” I voted 6-0 to ask for it,” the board’s report stated. . It also states that more reviews are needed as Ogles’ campaign committee may have accepted the excessive contributions reported as personal loans and his contributions.

The Congressional Ethics Office began reviewing media coverage of Ogles’ finances and whether he earned enough to lend the campaign $320,000. Ogles refused to cooperate, refused to write a document and took part in the interview.

On the last day of the panel’s review, Ogles’ lawyers provided a letter saying that they had identified $320,000 in personal funds available for the campaign, but only $20,000 was transferred.

Addressing his revised report, Ogles said $320,000 was his campaign “pact” from assets such as banks and retirement accounts.

However, the Ethics Committee said it refused to work together to “stoke” the ability to assess “intention” to overreport loans and cash on his account. However, he says he is responsible for inaccurate reports.

Nashville car dealer Magneatry Beeman served as treasurer for Ogles in the early part of the campaign, when Thomas Dotwiler was replaced early in the campaign.

Tennessee District 5 Congressman confirms FBI fraud investigation

The report also said that Ogles “provided inappropriate documents for his accounting, which apparently controlled the finances of his campaign “to rule out the treasurer and manager of his campaign.” He says he did. He also took advantage of some opportunities to fix them with actual amounts.

An Ogles campaign manager, not identified in the report, “surmised” to the Ethics Committee that Ogles may have overreported the loan amount and made the campaign strong and “purchased the primary.” He defeated former Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell and former brigadier Kurt Winstead.

“This $300,000 difference is insignificant or unoverlooked,” the Ethics Committee found.

The Ogles campaign manager said the campaign didn’t seem to run on “cash crunch” at the time, but that was “severe more in hindsight” than they thought.

The report states that Ogles had “significant control” over the campaign’s finances, with neither his account nor his manager having access to bank accounts and not relying on him for information. The treasurer told the ethics committee that Ogles provided “misleading documents” about the $320,000 loan.

The Ogles campaign manager told investigators that dealing with campaign finance is “just a reflux information” from Ogles.

The 2023 US financial disclosure form filed in September 2024 includes loans worth between $500,001 and $1 million from FirstBank in September 2022. He could not disclose previously.

It came after Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, filed a complaint that claimed there was nearly $1 million in financial inconsistency between his home disclosure form and the campaign finance report.

Ogles’ lawyers confirmed that in September 2022 a $700,000 credit line opened that was not included in candidates and members’ financial disclosures. He did not indicate whether it was used to fund the $20,000 loan.

After the major Republican victory at Ogles last August, FBI agents searched for property and seized mobile phones as part of a fraud investigation.

ocean-report-and-findings