Republican Bruce Rauner
Businessman Bruce Rauner, the GOP's gubernatorial nominee in Illinois, seems to be having trouble getting his Cayman Islands story straight. After the Chicago Sun-Times revealed on Monday that Rauner, a billionaire investor, maintained part of his fortune in offshore accounts in the Caymans, the Chicago Tribune reported that back in June, Rauner told them the private equity firm he once ran and still invests with had no funds there.
Oops: GTCR, Rauner's former company, does indeed have money in the Caymans, a notorious tax haven. Caught red-handed, Rauner's now trying to claim it's all de minimis, because we're only talking about "just a couple of investments." I'm sure that those "just a couple of investments" are larger than what most people earn in a lifetime.
Rauner's also not helping himself by repeatedly swearing that "[t]hose particular setups had no impact on my personal tax rate—none whatsoever." That's created another problem for Rauner, because he's steadfastly refusing to release his tax returns, almost certainly because the Tribune previously reported that he's paid an effective tax rate of just 15 percent on his earnings. Seriously, bro, you can't claim that some exotic offshore investment vehicles didn't affect your bottom line and expect us to take you at your word.
Rauner needs to put up or shut up. Instead, he's doing neither. God bless him.
