TribBlog: McCaul Addresses Reporting Error

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, says his failure to report millions in stock transactions on financial disclosure reports from 2008 and 2009 resulted from a clerical error made by his accountant. Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, reported earlier today that the congressman, who is presiding over the ethics trial of U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., didn't fully detail the sale of his wife's stocks in Clear Channel, the media giant owned by her father, Lowry Mays. 

McCaul says his 2008 financial disclosure was "100% accurate and complete as to the detailed ownership of stock sold by my spouse and children, as well as the amount of income these transactions generated" and that the mistake happened when his accountant, Millan & Company, "placed one X in the wrong column, literally out of hundreds of columns in my report, assigning an incorrect aggregated value to the transactions."

Here's the full statement: 

In response to recent media reports concerning my Personal Financial Disclosure reports (PFD or report), my staff and I confirmed with the Ethics Committee that a 100% complete, electronic copy of my 2009 report was transmitted to the Committee for pre-filing screening.  After adopting the committee’s guidance, my accountant, Millan & Company printed the PFD to file a hard copy version with the Clerk of the House, in which two pages, out of over 120, were inadvertently cut off by a printing error. For anyone to say there was under-disclosure to the Ethics Committee is simply false and misleading.  The Committee has the full and complete report in the electronically pre-filed version.

My 2008 financial disclosure was 100% accurate and complete as to the detailed ownership of stock sold by my spouse and children, as well as the amount of income these transactions generated.  In fact, I voluntarily over-disclose this detailed ownership information which is not required under the disclosure rules, but I provide it in order go above and beyond the rules and be completely open.   

In disclosing the aggregated dollar amount of these transactions in the transaction section of my 2008 report, Millan & Company made a clerical error and placed one X in the wrong column, literally out of hundreds of columns in my report, assigning an incorrect aggregated value to the transactions.  Significantly, the income from these transactions is 100% disclosed in the income section of this report.