Democrats File Ethics Complaint against Daniel Reilly in Dist. 72 Race

The Rhode Island Democratic Party has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission that alleges former Republican House Dist. 72 Rep. Daniel Reilly, who is seeking to regain his seat, failed to disclose financial involvements in a corporation that listed a Portsmouth house he lived in as an asset.

In response, Reilly, who is hoping to unseat incumbent Democrat Linda Finn, said the allegations are a “desperate attempt” by his opponent a week before the election.

According to a Democratic Party release, the complaint alleges “that during the last election, Reilly filed a financial statement which failed to disclose his 25% ownership interest in “Doylestown Partners,” a corporation which owned — as its sole asset — his Portsmouth residence. Doylestown went through bankruptcy in 2010, calling into question both his ethics commission filing and his declared local address.”

Reilly also failed to disclose another position as co-director at Beachview Associates, a Florida corporation, according to the complaint.

The complaint also accuses Reilly of failing to disclose that his wages were garnished to satisfy a collections claim by Capital One for unpaid credit card debt and asks the commision to ”probe whether Reilly’s role in Doylestown constituted an indirect executive position in another firm, Caribbean Pacific Marketing. Doylestown was part-owner of the firm, which was the subject of a federal Department of Justice securities fraud investigation.

“It’s hard to believe that during his two years at the State House, Reilly served on the Finance Committee and the Commission on Municipal Financial Integrity” said Jonathan Boucher, executive director of the Rhode Island Democratic Party. “This doesn’t sound like the resume of someone voters would trust making big financial decisions for the state.”

In response, Reilly told the Providence Journal that the credit card account had been paid and was the result of a dispute for a business account his name was on. He also said his wages were never garnished, saying “this is the first I am hearing of that” and said since the debt arose from a business, “it would not be separately disclosed on my ethics reports.”

In terms of the bankruptcy, Reilly noted that it was his father, William J. Reilly, of Boca Raton, Fla., who filed the voluntary Chapter 11 petition, not him.

The bankruptcy case was eventually dismissed in 2010 when the house on Heidi Drive in Portsmouth was sold.

“This is clearly a desperate attempt by Linda Finn who, in the final week of an election…is trying to distract the voters of Aquidneck Island in District 72 from her despicably failed record in being just another crony of [former] Speaker [Gordon] Fox, voting to increase gas taxes and registration fees, voting against an independent investigation into 38 Studios, and being completely absent in her district,” Reilly said.

Finn was quoted in the Democrats’ release as saying ““While it’s up to the Ethics Commission to establish whether Reilly violated reporting requirements, the information in the complaint certainly paints a troubling picture.”

View the full complaint here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q82yjrhiqk8trjp/20141024114130954.pdf?dl=0