Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, released long-awaited financial disclosure forms Tuesday. But exactly how much those millionaires are worth remains a $30 million or $40 million question.
Forms put Bennett's personal net worth in the almost laughably large range between $1.1 million and $40.2 million, and Cannon's between $7.6 million and $31.2 million. That doesn't include the value of personal homes or cars.
Forms that members and candidates must file with Congress do not require them to list the exact value of assets. Instead, they check off preset categories, which have wide ranges.
Personal financial disclosure forms were originally due on May 15, but Bennett and Cannon both received automatic 90-day extensions.
Democrat Kathleen McConkie Collinwood, who is challenging Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, also received a similar extension. She said Wednesday she has filed her form, but her campaign was unable to immediately provide a copy. She is the last congressional member or candidate to release her disclosure form.
Bennett has said that his net worth had taken a dive in recent years. Six years ago, he said it was about $30 million. Last year, he said it had dropped all the way to about $10 million.
That was caused, he said, by heavy investment in risky start-up businesses, many of which had floundered.
But he adds that making such investments in the past are what made him a millionaire. Most of his fortune came from helping to build the time-management firm of Franklin Quest (now Franklin Covey) from a tiny company into a major corporation.
He has said he still hopes that one or more of the new companies he's invested in — from an energy research firm to land development companies — will become another Franklin Covey.
Bennett was on vacation and unavailable for comment Tuesday. But his press secretary, Mary Jane Collipriest, said Bennett's net worth had no major change since the previous year when he said he was worth about $10 million.
"It's hard to pin down an exact number because the bulk of his investments are in companies that are not publicly traded," she said.
Cannon said in an interview that he chooses not to narrow how much he is worth beyond the $7.6 million to $31.2 million revealed by forms. He was quoted years ago as saying he is worth "more than $20 million," but later said — and repeated Tuesday — that was taken out of context and may not be correct.
Forms raise questions about how solid some of Cannon's assets may be.
His single largest asset listed is a loan he made to his Cannon Industries investment firm. The loan, valued between $5 million and $25 million, accounts for two-thirds of his total personal assets. However, his form showed he received no payments from that loan last year.
Forms show that he made several other bad loans. For example, he decided to "turn over to collection" loans he made to Chuck Warren (a former chief of staff who resigned when another aide accused him of sexual harassment) and to a man he first met in a "road rage" fight.
Cannon said he first met Dennis Bacon after he followed him home in a "road rage" incident, and they fought in Cannon's driveway. He said they later became friends, and he made loans to Bacon and his brothers, Steve and Chris. Cannon turned over to collection loans he made to all the Bacon brothers.
Also, Cannon had other loans worth between $153,000 and $395,000 to other individuals and companies on which no payments were made to him in 1999.
E-mail: lee@desnews.com