Krystal Ball’s Latest Financial Disclosure Form Raises More Questions Than It Answers

Cross-posted to The Real Krystal Ball

Well, here it is.  Krystal Ball’s latest personal financial disclosure form.  Compare it to her previous one.  Let’s see how many more questions this raises, shall we?

While last year she was still pulling down six-figures in “software design consulting fees” from K12, Inc. according to her previous form (right there that shows her comment about being a sub $100K net worth family to be a lie), she doesn’t list any on this year’s form.  That’s really too bad since these forms also ask for any such income from the previous year as well.  On her 2009 form, she indicated $132,500 in payments from K12, Inc. through Aug. 31, 2009.  Her 2010 form doesn’t list that under the “Preceding Year” column, so we have no idea if she received anything additional from K12, Inc. between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, 2009, and, if so, how much she received.  This is such a glaring omission it is no wonder she is no longer promoting herself to voters as a CPA.

Ball also indicated on her 2009 disclosure form that through Aug. 31 she had received $25,000 from her husband’s Zoma Ventures, LLC for which she serves as its CFO.  In 2008, she indicated she received a total of $70,000 from Zoma.  However, on her 2010 disclosure form, she states that her total income from Zoma in 2009 was $204,000 in “consulting fees.”  That means in the final 4 months of 2009, Ball was paid $179,000.  That’s $44,750 per month. So far this year, Ball indicates she has been paid $135,332 in “consulting fees” by Zoma.  That’s very impressive given what we’ve learned about the various companies that Zoma and Ball’s husband, Jonathan Dariyanani who heads up Zoma, are involved with since according to the Virginia Gazette:

Some of those companies, like  Firefish Inc., Crowdgather Inc. and Papa Bello Pizza Inc., seem to exist more on paper and in cyberspace than in reality.

For example, Firefish’s website admits that it’s $1 share price is purely arbitrary and it’s unclear if it has ever been publicly traded. Ball lists a holding in Firefish worth $100,000-$250,000.

Papa Bello’s is a pizza restaurant company without any restaurants, and the phone number on its website connects to a private residence. Ball lists holdings in that company worth $50,000-$100,000.

Where exactly is Zoma getting this money to pay her? And exactly what sort of “consulting” is she doing to earn such a high salary while also running an active campaign for the U.S. Congress?  This financial disclosure report only raises additional questions, particularly since it appears that this money is the money that she is now loaning to her campaign.

As the Virginia Gazette article stated, Ball has apparently liquidated her Bank of America, Newell Rubbermaid, Sprint and Starbucks stocks (total value between $4,000 and $60,000.)  Her Bank of America bank account has also dropped from the $50,001 to $100,000 range to the $15,001 to $50,000 range.  So, even if she got the maximum of $60,000 for her stock in those companies and withdrew a maximum of $85,000 from her bank account taking it down from $100,000 (if she even had that much to begin with) to $15,001, she still would not have had enough to loan herself $150,000 in one shot as she did on June 30, 2010.

Ball continues to list stock in Firefish valued between $100,001 and $250,000 and Crowdgather stock valued between $100,001 and $250,000 as she did on her previous form.  She now lists between $100,001 and $250,000 in Papa Bello stock, up from $50,001 to $100,000 on her last report.

Missing now from Ball’s portfolio are RRI India, Inc. stock listed on her previous form valued between $50,001 to $100,000 and the Genesis Venture Fund stock that also appeared on her 2009 disclosure form valued between $100,001 and $250,000 (recall that Ball was listed as the CFO of this fund.)  She is apparently no longer a consultant for Ed India, Inc., either.

Two new stocks pop up in Ball’s portfolio.  She now claims between $1M and $5M in K12, Inc. stock.  This is reportedly the result of exercising stock options she received as part of her compensation package for “software design consulting fees.”  Still, exercising stock options costs money and there are tax implications to exercising these options.  Where did all that money come from?  It doesn’t appear that she would have had the available liquid funds to exercise such options.  There is no indication on her last disclosure form that she already owned any K12, Inc. stock that she could have exchanged with the company to acquire the option.  Perhaps she borrowed the money from a stockbroker to exercise the options and then sold enough to cover the cost, tax and brokerage fees.  Becoming an overnight millionaire makes one wonder, though.

The other stock new to Ball’s portfolio is valued between $1,001 and $15,000 and is some sort of education stock.  The first word in the company name is obscured on the form, but it ends with “Knowledge Now, Inc.” and is apparently located in Tulsa, OK.  A Google search turned up nothing on any such company relating to education in Tulsa.

Ball’s liabilities remain largely the same with the exception that her outstanding student loans are now between $15,001 and $50,000, down from between $50,001 and $100,000.

The Ball campaign promised that this personal financial disclosure form would answer everyone’s questions.  In fact, all it does is raise more questions about the source of her funds both personal and political.

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