On financial disclosures submitted as mayor of Maury County, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles omitted several significant financial interests from financial disclosures ― including his own salary, a line of credit, and state retirement account ― that he later disclosed on federal forms.
Ogles, R-Columbia, a freshman congressman representing Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, is currently seeking reelection. He faces Metro Council member Courtney Johnston in the Republican primary on Aug. 1.
State law requires all state and local officials to submit forms disclosing personal financial interests each year. Personal interest disclosures filed with the state throughout Ogles’ years as mayor of Maury County reflect three significant omissions.
Twice on personal financial interest forms filed with the state, Ogles did not disclose a line of credit with Bankcorp South taken out in February 2020. Ogles reported a line of credit valued between $250,000 and $500,000 initiated in 2020 on his 2023 Congressional disclosure but the line of credit does not appear on any of his mayoral disclosures from 2021 onward.
State disclosure forms include a section specifically for loans owed by officials. Ogles signed twice under penalty of perjury that he did not hold any outstanding loans other than an Interfirst home mortgage initiated in 2022. His 2020 state interest disclosure was filed weeks before the line of credit was initiated in February, but it does not appear in his 2021 or 2022 disclosures.
Ogles also reported a state TCRS retirement account to Congress in 2023. That retirement account never appeared in any of his five mayoral disclosures.
Ogles also never reported his $112,000 annual salary as mayor on his personal financial disclosures to the state.
Neither Ogles’ office nor his campaign responded to The Tennessean’s questions on the matter. Ogles declined to speak to The Tennessean at a recent campaign event.
In January 2024, the Campaign Legal Center filed a Congressional Ethics complaint seeking further scrutiny on more than $1 million in financial discrepancies in Ogles’ federal campaign and personal finance disclosures.
Underreported value of investment property to Congress
In his 2022 Congressional financial disclosure, Ogles significantly undervalued an investment property he had purchased, according to Maury County property records.
Ogles made one property purchase in 2022: a 2,683 square foot, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home with an extra garage on 2.27 acres, adjacent to his family home on Neeley Hollow Road, that he purchased for $660,000.
The sale was finalized in September, weeks after Ogles won the Republican primary in 2022, and before the November general election.
On his Congressional disclosure filed in May 2023, Ogles reported the investment property, but valued it between $250,000 to $500,000, not $660,000.
Ogles didn’t keep the home. He sold it a year later at a $60,000 loss to his district director, James Amundsen, a former colleague at Americans for Prosperity, according to Maury County property records.
Signing the personal disclosure forms
Meanwhile, disclosure forms filed with the state are statutorily required to be signed by at least one attesting witness, which does not include the filer themselves. Notarization is not required.
As a candidate in 2018, and for the first two years of his term as mayor, Ogles submitted his disclosure form witnessed by his wife, Monica, according to copies of the reports obtained by The Tennessean.
But in 2022 and 2021, Ogles submitted forms to the Bureau of Election Finance signed by “William Ogles,” and “Andy Ogles.”
Ogles’ Congressional office and campaign team both did not respond to questions about who witnessed Ogles’ disclosures those years.
Ogles has used his first and middle names interchangeably during the course of his career. Ogles went by Andy in High school, but changed to William when he worked at Abolition International in 2011, according to the organization’s tax filings. He changed and went by Andrew Ogles when he went to work for Americans for Prosperity, according to news coverage from the time.
Lauren Topping, an attorney with the Tennessee Bureau of Elections and Campaign Finance, told The Tennessean in an email that the commission’s online platform “does not support the inclusion of a witness signature,” so electronically filed statements of interest “will not be witnessed because the filing system does not support it.”
“If a statement were submitted on paper, arguably, it should be witnessed. But, because when that paper filing is entered into our system it will not show a witness, we do not regularly enforce the witness requirement,” Topping said.
Topping said because most filings are done electronically, the bureau does not penalize filers without a witness.
“An official should not witness their own Statement of Interest document, but, if they do so, there is no penalty or action taken,” Topping said.
Ogles’ street name, Neeley Hollow Road in Columbia, is also misspelled as “Neely” on all five filings.
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com or on X @Vivian_E_Jones.
