According to his 2010 financial-disclosure form, the most recent one available, the Republican presidential candidate has most of his investments in the stock of gold-mining companies—in addition to other holdings in real estate, cash and “short” funds that rise in value as stock prices fall.
But the most peculiar thing might be what we didn’t find listed: holdings of gold bullion or coins. That would seem to contrast with Rep. Paul’s public statements on his investment strategy.
Rep. Paul’s advocacy of holding gold is well-documented, and it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he held a significant investment in the physical stuff.
If he does have gold, he’s not listing it on his financial-disclosure forms, which members of congress must file annually. It could be a simple oversight, or Rep. Paul might have indeed unloaded his entire bullion holding just in time to miss a huge runup in gold. Or, he might just think that he doesn’t have to disclose it. A spokeswoman for Rep. Paul didn’t respond to several requests seeking comment.
Rep. Paul has disclosed coin holdings in the past. His 2002 disclosure listed “Coins – Semi-numismatic” as one of his assets, though it didn’t specify their value. “Semi-numismatic” is generally parlance for coins whose value is derived partially from their collectible value but mostly from their bullion content.
The coins disappeared from his form the next year. An earlier look at Rep. Paul’s portfolio by Barron’s found that he reported he held semi-numismatic coins worth between $100,001 and $250,000 on his forms between 1994 and 2002.
Could he have sold them all? Sure. But even though Rep. Paul stopped reporting coin holdings in 2002, he continued to say he owned them in interviews. In an interview with Fox Business Network in 2010, for example, he had this exchange at about the 1:35 mark:
Host: Congressman, do you buy the coins or do you invest in gold-mining shares or do you put your money into a gold mutual fund? How do you do it?Paul: I over the years have bought coins because I like to, you know, have possession, but no, I’ll buy some gold shares too. Now that’s closer to an investment, because you’re dealing with management and, you know, dealing with…maybe they hit a strike. So that’s an investment and you have to evaluate it. But coins and buying gold … I see it as not so much buying gold and betting on the price of gold going up but betting on our government ruining the value of our money.
That interview would seem to suggest that he still owned and bought coins in 2010.
Experts we spoke to said that it was their understanding that members of congress have to disclose gold and coin holdings.
“If someone just asked me that question, ‘Do I have to disclose gold bullion or something of numismatic value?’, I would say that they have to go on [the form],” says Kenneth Gross, who leads the political law practice at law firm Skadden Arps. He notes that it’s conceivable Rep. Paul was advised otherwise by a lawyer or ethics committee, but adds, “It seems to me that it’s an investment.”
Another attorney whose practice includes ethics issues in the House of Representatives said that he would similarly expect a gold holding to appear on the form.
Incidentally, if Rep. Paul had had gold holdings worth $100,000 at the end of 2002, when gold traded at around $350 per ounce, it’d be worth around $476,000 now. An investment toward the upper end of the reporting range ($250,000) would be worth almost $1.2 million. Source