Watchdog group asks Congress to investigate Tennessee U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, flagging $1M discrepancy in financial disclosures

Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogles is the subject of an ethics complaint released Tuesday by the Campaign Legal Center. The watchdog group has flagged a more than $1 million discrepancy in Ogles’ financial disclosures to Congress.

The CLC asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Ogles violated financial disclosure requirements. In a letter to the office, the CLC compares Ogles to former New York Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from Congress for filing false financial disclosure statements.

“Unexplained inconsistencies in Rep. Ogles’ reported finances and allegations of him misrepresenting his background raise fundamental questions for voters about the transparency of their elected representative,” the complaint says. “The public has a right to know the sources of money that may be used to influence a federal election, as well as potential conflicts of interest that may arise due to a member’s financial obligations.”

The CLC finds that Ogles claimed he personally loaned his campaign $320,000 but did not disclose any assets that would allow him to make that loan. He didn’t disclose any bank accounts, the CLC says; he disclosed retirement accounts but did not report any withdrawals. Ogles also failed to report a $700,000 line of credit opened in September 2022, according to bank records.

“Rep. Ogles has allegedly misrepresented his professional history by repeatedly claiming, in various instances, to be an ‘economist’ who formerly worked in ‘law enforcement’ and ‘worked in international sex crimes’ or ‘human trafficking’ when he lacks meaningful career or educational background in any of these fields,” the complaint says.

The CLC also mentions Ogles’ 2014 GoFundMe campaign, in which he raised $23,565 for a children’s burial garden which, nearly a decade later, has yet to be built.

The complaint is not the first time Ogle has drawn federal scrutiny for his campaign finances. Ogles paid a $5,750 civil penalty to the Federal Election Commission for multiple reporting violations, including an alleged $90,000 in unreported receipts from October 2022 and an unreported $50,000 inter-committee transfer.