Troubling Allegations Against One of the Three GOP Chairman Candidates?
Daren Ward has had a checkered past. We wrote about it three or four years ago when he was running for GOP Chairman of Oklahoma County and it included a construction company lawsuit lost to a homeowner, with the result being that Ward walked away and started another company without paying tens of thousands in damages given to the retired doctor whose home was alleged to be harmed in a bungled remodel job. Left holding the bag was pretty much a roofer type guy that had been allegedly convinced to lend his name to run the company. Ward had worked hard in the years since and we forgave and forgot, businesses have problems at times, thinking that the worst was out on his past.
Then Friday night I was attending a meeting of the grassroots and around 7:45 a source showed up that had been vectored in by David Van at Sooner Politics and the source dumped a ton of info on us and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. If you take the items one by one reasonable explanations can be dredged up but the overall picture of Mr. Ward shows a long history of trouble, unusual business deals, unpaid state income taxes, and an inability to handle money/bank accounts responsibly.
The arrests out of Arkansas
The first charge was on a hot check in 1994 when Ward was 19 years old. Looks like charges were filed, a letter was probably sent out by the D.A. asking for restitution, and the charges were dismissed after Ward made good on the check. That ought to have been a learning experience for the young Daren Ward.
Then in 2003 another felony hot check prosecution, once again it appears that it was dismissed, again most likely after restitution was paid.
Then in 2006 Ward was 31 years old and was arrested on DUI (DWI), another hot check charge, and a charge of careless and prohibited driving, whatever that is. Again this appears to have been dismissed. One account was that the judge was a fellow Mason, for whatever that is worth. Other possibilities exist, it could be something like the Senator Bryce Marlatt APC arrest, actual physical control of a vehicle that was not moving and perhaps the officer made the wrong charge of DWI.
Then in 1999 Oklahoma shows an arrest warrant for embezzlement by bailee that was ultimately recalled and dismissed. Most likely because of a remodel job gone wrong or a financial deal, without going down to the courthouse and reading the files we simply don't know, but the case was dismissed. Still... it shows a pattern continued, wrong place, wrong time, or simply making bad choices.
Exaggerated Claims of Work History?
Daren claims on his GOP Chairman election website that he served as CFO of Bullion Financial USA from 2007 to 2010 where he grew the investments by $575,000,000, from what must have been $125 million up to $700 million. Yet on Daren's Linkedin account he omits that information. Why? If you google Bullion Financial USA Daren Ward the only results that lists a connection is Daren Ward's own website for the GOP chairman election and an address web site that lists Daren and another person at a residence in Edmond. Hardly the offices of a $700,000,000 operation..
Daren appears to have started this company down in Texas in 2007, three guys, him, a guy named Charles Garavitt, and a Panamanian fellow named Allen Cedeño . Two years later the company was dissolved in Texas and the franchise tax was involuntarily ended according to the state of Texas. Click on this link and search for Bullion Financial USA. One bit of unverified info was that it was alleged that they lost the franchise tax certificate due to a collection action on unpaid taxes but that is rumor at this point. Paying the franchise tax is basically a permit to run a business in the state of Texas. No tax paid, no business allowed. However it is not uncommon for businesses to move a corporation and just stop paying the franchise tax but that doesn't explain the fact that Texas said it was removed “involuntarily”. If the business was thriving, why shut it down?
Shortly before that dissolution in Texas Ward filed for a fictitious name in Missouri which is what most call a DBA, Doing Business As name. They used the same Edmond residential home. Why set up a business in Missouri but have the office in Oklahoma?
That brings up a huge question: Was Bullion Financial USA licensed in Oklahoma and what agency provided oversight and regulation to this sort of financial company? There is no current website for Bullion Financial USA but thewaybackmachine.com has plenty of site captures where you can see the old site and dig through the pages at this link. You will have to activate Adobe Flash to view the website so watch for that notice popping up. In the link above, look for the Account Options Tab, a menu on the lower right side, vertical menu. Click on that Account Options and look at the amazing returns they are offering. Here is a copy and paste of what you will find:
A currency market account in Switzerland will pay an annual percentage rate depending upon the duration of the account.
With a $100,000 minimum opening balance this account will be considered a Currency Market Deposit at Bullion Financial.
Duration of accounts must be a minimum of 12 months.
12 month contract yields a 20% annual return on principal
18 month contract yields a 20% annual + spread (Market Exchange)
24 month contract yields a 22% annual + spread (Market Exchange)
36 month contract yields a 25% annual + spread (Market Exchange)
60 month contract yields a 28% annual + spread (Market Exchange)
Although your money is available at anytime. In the event that you decide to withdraw your principal before the maturity date. Bullion Financial retains the rights to negotiate the interest payment at the withdrawal moment with NO penalty to the principal.
Was Daren licensed and regulated to make such financial claims and handle securities and can anyone show a list of happy investors that received 22% to 28% return on their money from one of these Swiss banks? At first it looks like a Ponzi scheme, those kind of returns on a bank account are unbelievable and would usually entail massive risk. Finra and the SEC don't show any results for either Daren Ward nor Bullion Financial USA. No results for his partner Charles Garavitt either. This investment contract from their old website shows that they were soliciting investments actively and put some effort and thought into it.
We did reach out to Ward very late Friday night through a mutual ally and the Bullion Financial USA deal was said to have been a currency trading operation, an early use of computers or bots, taking advantage of what was said to be a niche in the market, the Panamanian currency was said to kind of be off the radar with currency traders. Still, if there was little risk and 20 to 28% annual return, why not just borrow the money instead of paying investors that kind of cheddar? And if it was that profitable, why shut down in Texas?
Lastly in 2007 through 2010 when Ward claims he was the CFO of Bullion Financial USA he failed to pay Oklahoma taxes in 2006 and 2008. He must have made a lot of money to have paid over $4000 in Oklahoma income taxes but apparently those taxes went unpaid. That led to a tax warrant in January of 2016 against Ward and a Garnishment served ON BOK in March of 2016 and this was while Ward was serving as Oklahoma County GOP Chair. Not paying Oklahoma State income taxes is what brought down many an Oklahoma politician including former Oklahoma House Speaker Lance Cargill. Simply put, one cannot be a leader in an exposed position such as the GOP state chairman and not pay income taxes to the state.
The final allegation was that Ward registered a new business entity in Oklahoma using the same address as the Oklahoma County GOP. Not sure if that is unethical or illegal or against party ethics rules but it doesn't sound like something that a normal person would do and of course the question of why someone would register a business using the GOP county office. Questions arise, who actually pays for that office? If it is GOP money we have an Ethics Commission complaint. If Ward pays for that office and he donates the use of it to the party then the guy is a hero. Hard to get answers like that between 8 pm and 2 am on a Friday night.
Someone, actually a whole lot of someone's, had spent some time and money tracking all of this down before presenting it to the Sooner Tea Party on a platter and we were able to verify a lot of the info online. No doubt that Daren Ward has political enemies, some in high places. We also looked into David McClain around 2 am in the morning and while there were a bunch of David McClain's our best information is that his middle name is starts with L or V and nothing jumped out at us online. Given some time we might find something on McClain but no one wrapped the info up on a plate and tied a bow around it for us. A search on Darren Gantz left even less info, the Gantz family walks a straight line it seems.
If you recall our Sunday night newsletter last week we were elated that we had three good choices for GOP state chairman. Now it seems we only have two or at least two that we know less about. In the end, optics are important even if each individual allegation can be explained away and electing someone with recent tax problems, unpaid taxes actually from between 2006/2008 up until 2016, that would reflect badly on the state and the Republican Party.
Daren Ward might yet have a role to play in Oklahoma politics but it shouldn't be as the leader of the Republican Party where his past will become the focus instead of what needs done to make the state better for everyone.
Pam Pollard Breaks Party Rules
Refuses to Give GOP County Chairmen
the Required 10 Day Notice
Refuses to Give GOP County Chairmen
the Required 10 Day Notice
Which was a bald faced lie. Multiple people and officials called Pollard as early as 25 days in advance of the convention reminding her of the deadline.
However, at the Executive Committee, & State Committee meetings on Friday the lawyer and parliamentarian for the GOP blithly suggested that we ignore the rules and offer a motion to accept the filings as timely filed.
Why did Pollard wait till the last minutes to put this info out? Nothing in the proposed rule changes are needed this year and the proper thing according to State GOP Bylaws and Roberts Rules of Order is to push everything forward to the next convention with the caveat that these items be first on the agenda.
But Pollard, and most likely Senator Lankford who is pulling the strings on Pollard the last few years, want to stampede the convention.
The best solution is for all delegates to vote no on accepting the illegal agenda items. It is literally illegal to have these items on the agenda without the required ten days notice. Anything that needs done can be done with the state committee albeit with a slightly higher vote needed but if it is a good idea it will pass.
One of the items is binding delegates and raising the required percentage, the so called North Carolina model. Yet if Trump received over 50% of the vote in Oklahoma he would own all of the delegates in the primary anyway. And Trump is going to get a hell of a lot more than 50%, probably 95% in the Republican Primary in 2020 so why the rush?
