The late California senator Dianne Feinstein was also one of them richest member The congressman’s Bay Area real estate empire is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Whoever wins the November 5 election California’s next senator There will be a very different financial picture.
Democratic Representative Adam B., 64, of Burbank. Schiff has worked for the government since graduating from Harvard Law School, working as a law clerk for a U.S. District Court judge, in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, and for the state legislature. . Sacramento and, since 2001, the House of Representatives.
Steve Garvey, a 75-year-old Republican, graduated from Michigan State University and played first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres for 18 years.
Since retiring from baseball in 1987, Garvey has worked as a salaried spokesman for more than a dozen companies, two of which were subject to federal regulators. He has portrayed himself as a successful businessman, but financial disclosures and court filings reveal that he is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Schiff’s stalled investment
As a member of the House of Representatives, Schiff earns $174,000.
In an August financial disclosure, Schiff reported earning between $43,310 and $134,000 in additional income last year through capital gains and stock dividends — some shared with his wife, Eve — and his 2021 book, “Midnight In Royalty from “Washington”.
Schiff’s investment portfolio is valued at $1 million to $2.37 million, and includes mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and Apple shares held by his wife. He has a Burbank condo and a home mortgage in suburban Potomac, MD, with a combined balance between $350,002 and $750,000.
Schiff’s net worth puts him in a completely different place between of California’s congressional delegation.
That ranks well below California’s wealthiest representatives, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), whose estimated net worth topped $200 million in 2023. But he’s still well ahead of members whose net worth is hovering at or below $0, including Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord).
Schiff’s investment strategy has gradually shifted away from individual stocks toward mutual funds that hold shares in multiple companies, a Times review of Schiff’s financial disclosures shows. His wife’s Apple shares, worth between $100,001 and $250,000, are the only remaining stocks in his portfolio.
Between 2007 and 2009, Schiff sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of shares in pharmaceutical giant Wyeth Corp., which manufactured Robitussin and Advil. The company was acquired by Pfizer in 2009, and Schiff sold his last Pfizer shares in 2015.
He also sold shares in 2015 from industries that Democrats have recently abandoned. He sold shares worth up to $100,000 in Altria, one of the world’s largest cigarette producers, and shares worth up to $60,000 in gas and oil companies, including pipeline company Kinder Morgan.
Since the publication of his 2021 book, Schiff has reported earning up to $2.05 million in royalties over three years. The book details his work on investigations of the Trump administration and his work as lead prosecutor in Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial.
Garvey’s meager fortune
In a disclosure filed in August with the U.S. Senate, Garvey reported earnings of $75,174 last year and $66,295 from speeches, memorabilia signings and other events. Garvey also reported income of between $60,000 and $130,000 from retirement plans, including Major League Baseball pensions.
Garvey and his wife reported very modest wealth. He has less than $30,000 in his checking accounts and one investment in the stock market: shares of Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia Corp., worth less than $15,000.
The revelations make no mention of the expansive, Spanish-style ranch where the couple lives in Palm Desert.
Garvey said a decade ago the couple purchased the home from her mother-in-law when they planned to downsize, Say One interviewee said the house “was really the home of all the grandchildren and was a place we thought was special, so we bought it from her.”
Riverside County property records show the home was deeded to Garvey’s mother-in-law before it was transferred to Sisters in Christ LLC in 2006. Records show the Utah company names Garvey’s sister and mother-in-law among its managers.
Property records show the home’s tax bills are sent to a La Quinta, California, address to a limited liability company in the care of Garvey’s mother-in-law. sacramento bee It was the first to report that the home’s property taxes are paid by the Sisters in Christ.
Last year, the Coachella Valley Water District placed a lien on the Palm Desert house for $1,715.23 for “delinquent fees, penalties and interest.” The bill was sent to the limited liability company.
Garvey’s campaign did not answer questions about his finances, including his real estate holdings, investments and loans.
Financial skeletons in the closet are not inherently disqualifying for a candidate for public office, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and the former head of the city of L.A.’s Ethics Commission.
The question, he said, is to what extent Garvey is willing to tell the public about his debts, including how he collected them — especially as he seeks a public role that involves “some level of “Financial Skills” included.
“How people conduct their personal financial affairs does not always have a direct correlation to their performance in their professional lives,” Levinson said. “But some people will say, if you can’t pay your debts, can we trust you to keep our financial house in order?”
hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt
Garvey owes millions of dollars to private creditors and the government.
some loan date until the 1990sGarvey’s first decade after retiring from baseball, where he was earning $1.25 million per year with the Padres. They faced rising costs for legal fees, spousal support, and child support. become a father without marriage,
Garvey said in a court declaration in the 1990s that he suffered a “financial disaster” when the Internal Revenue Service disallowed a tax deduction he claimed in connection with an investment in the early 1980s, The Times reported in 2006The IRS ruling means he owes $937,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest, he said.
“Am I expected to repay every debt? Do I want? Absolutely,” Garvey said in 2006. “The day I am able to be debt free is the day I will be the happiest person.”
Garvey has been sued at least seven times for unpaid debts, including by the attorney who handled the legal dispute over one of his child-support cases. The law firm claimed Garvey owed approximately $200,000. Garvey agreed to pay $100,000 in a 2004 settlement. It is not clear whether the loan was repaid or not.
Garvey, his wife and their companies have been named in hundreds of thousands of dollars of state and federal and tax liens, the extent of which was previously informed By Politico. Garvey’s disclosures on the U.S. Senate list include up to $750,000 in tax liabilities.
Garvey said earlier this year that he was working to pay off his tax debt. Records show the couple paid off several liens since the early 2000s and added $25,000 to their 2006 lien.
But there is no indication that their recent loans have been paid off. According to Riverside County tax records, the couple has accrued more than $275,000 in IRS debt since 2010, including a lien imposed last year for $25,742.37 that stemmed from unpaid taxes from 2012.
Spokesperson of a company linked to ‘Ponzi scheme’
As California’s housing market boomed in the mid-2000s, Garvey took a job as a celebrity spokesperson for an Orange County mortgage broker.
National Consumer Mortgage was run by former Cal State Fullerton baseball star Sam Favata, who had been Garvey’s friend for more than three decades, Garvey later said. Favata was famous for throwing lavish parties at his Yorba Linda home, including one party where Garvey, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and khakis, was photographed mingling with customers.
In addition to the mortgage business promoted by Garvey, Favata also ran a scam investment arm that promised 30% to 60% returns to customers who refinanced their homes and invested the cash. Favata used the money of scammed new investors to pay monthly returns to clients who had previously invested, a structure known as a Ponzi scheme.
Prosecutors said Favata stole $32 million before the business collapsed. The Securities and Exchange Commission never accused Garvey of wrongdoing, but said Favata had used his fame to give “an appearance of legitimacy” to the scam.
Before Favata was sentenced, Garvey wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford asking for mercy. Favata was “fundamentally a decent and caring man who made a tremendous mistake,” Garvey wrote, and said he was grateful for his friend “going to bat.”
Favata pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and was sentenced to five years in prison, which Garvey described as “sad day,
Garvey also joined the long line of creditors in bankruptcy court trying to get some money back from the bankrupt company, filing a claim for $675,832 they said they were owed.
The trustee investigating the bankruptcy of National Consumer Mortgage saw it differently, and attempted to recoup the $157,000 that Garvey had already received. The company trustee stated that at least $28,000 had been transferred to Garvey in the three months before the company’s collapse.
Garvey did not admit any wrongdoing. He agreed to pay $20,000 in monthly installments of $400 to the trustees in 2010.
Pitchman for weight-loss drugs and reverse-mortgage
In 1999 and 2000, Garvey worked as a spokesperson for a weight-loss supplement called Enforma, which contained ephedra, an amphetamine-like herb. later banned,
In a 30-minute infomercial, Garvey told viewers that they could lose weight by taking two pills called “Fat Trapper” and “Exercise in a Bottle” and eating high-calorie foods such as barbecued ribs and buttered biscuits.
The Federal Trade Commission sued Garvey. in 2002Saying that he had made “categorically false” claims about the drugs. In a significant decision for celebrity spokespeople, a federal court Government Garvey was not liable for false claims in the advertisements.
More recently, Garvey has returned to the mortgage industry to promote an Orange County company that sells reverse mortgages and educates real estate agents how to sell them to their clients. The reverse-mortgage industry, which focuses particularly on older Americans, has long relied on aging celebrity pitchmen, including actors Tom Selleck and Henry Winkler.
A decade ago, Garvey also sold some of his most financially prized awards in the auctionIncluding his 1981 Dodgers World Series trophy (sold for $39,381.60) and his 1974 Most Valuable Player award (sold for $68,481.60).
He told the Palm Springs Desert-Sun That financial problems were not the reason for the sale. He said, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, he wanted to raise money to spread awareness about the disease.
