Conflict of Interest Seen In Former HUD Secretary’s Transition Picks
When former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was selected by President Donald Trump to head the vast agency after he had defeated Carson in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary, Carson became the first opponent of Trump’s to join his team.
At the time, due to his financial disclosure forms (which are required to be filed in order to run for President), we know that the neurosurgeon had an estimated net worth of just over $15 million.
Having spent his career as a neurosurgeon, and one of the most highly touted neurosurgeons in the world, Ben Carson entered politics as a true outside months before Donald Trump ever embarked on his quest for the White House.
Now in 2024, just eight years after his loss to Trump, and proceeding his four-year stint as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Carson has doubled his net worth.
The retired neurosurgeon is now reportedly worth over $30 Million, more than doubling his net worth while serving as President-elect Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a position that paid Carson just over $200,000 per year.
How did Carson double his net worth while serving in government, you may ask?
Unfortunately for his supporters, and supporters of former President Donald Trump, the neurosurgeon appears to be far more duplicitous than his mild-mannered tone may have initially indicated, and a review of Carson’s conduct, as well as his insistence that top allies be placed in key position in the upcoming Trump Administration has resulted in a bombshell report being exclusively reported by Vantage News.
Ben Carson’s Son’s FVLCRUM Partners Raked In $302 Million In Funding, Some From Public Pension Funds
In 2024 it was announced that FVLCRUM Partners, a lower middle market buyout firm focused on addressing the U.S. racial wealth gap, had received over $302 million in fund commitments.
That fund, founded by Ben Carson’s son, Ben Carson Jr., proclaims to be dedicated to social justice, receiving funds from both private and public sources.
Controversially, some of the $302 Million raised by Carson Jr. and his FVLCRUM Partners came from the American public, even while Carson’s father served as a Cabinet member in the White House.
Some of the funds received by FVLCRUM Partners were contributed by banks, consultants, endowments, insurance firms, fund of funds, public pension plans, and high-net-worth individuals.
The same voters who flocked to the polls in swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan to elect Donald Trump, portraying himself as the working man, were simply unaware that Trump’s allies were robbing their pension funds blind in tn the name of social equity.
Not only did Ben Carson’s son receive funds from public entities while his father was a member of Trump’s cabinet, but he was also caught using his father’s influence to boost his business profile.
Ben Carson Caught Coordinating With His Son In Pay-To-Play Scheme During First Trump Administration
An anti-corruption organization called American Oversight conducted an investigation into the conduct of HUD Secretary Ben Carson during his time in the last Trump Administration extensively, even filing FOIA requests to obtain email communications.
It was reported that Carson’s son organized speaking engagements that directly benefited his business, which was taking public money, while Carson was a member of Trump’s cabinet.
Carson Jr. and his wife even went as far as to plaster their own names on the poster promoting the speaking engagement. See a photo of that crude advertisement below,
Carson Jr. then went on to use the event in order to connect wealthy businessmen and women who had contirbuted to his fund, and were friends and associated of his fund, with powerful government officials who had befriended his father as members of the Trump cabinet.
I thought Republicans were against familial corruption in politics?
In return for their wealthy business connections, the Carsons urged other members of the Trump cabinet to reach out and meet their son. During a May 2017 meeting between Candy Carson and Elaine Chao, then Transportation Secretary, Mrs. Carson urged the Cabinet member to make an introduction via email.
HUD Rewarded Ben Carson’s Son A $1.3 Million Grant While Carson Served Under Trump
In 2018 the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would be investing $1.3 Million into several Baltimore City neighborhoods. These specific neighborhoods are Poppleton and Park Heights.
There’s just one problem.
Ben Carson Jr., the son of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was considering making investments in the exact same area at the time.
Records uncovered by American Oversight show that Carson’s “speaking tour” arranged by his son directly coincided with approvals from HUD on properties located directly near the investments of his son.
Secretary Ben Carson directly approved funds to be allocated to areas that financially benefited his son, letting his son set up speaking engagements for the benefit of his own private business at the expense of the taxpayer.
Adding insult to injury, the private equity firm that Carson Jr. founded obtained some of their funding by robbing public pension funds, leaving Trump supporters planning on retirement unable to do so.
What could be more cruel?
Carson Now Lobbied For Board Member Scott Turner As HUD Secretary In Second Trump Administration
Apparently, doubling your $15 million net worth on a salary of just $200,000 wasn’t enough for Ben Carson, who is now doubling down on his corruption. The former Housing and Urban Development Secretary is now pushed Turner to be named as his successor in the upcoming Trump Administration.
But there’s another problem.
Scott Turner is a Board Member of the American Cornerstone Institute, an organization that was founded by Ben Carson after he departed his tenure as HUD Secretary under the first Trump Administration.
It appears that Carson, who abused his son’s business ties during his tenure as HUD Secretary, has installed yet another crony into the position he once held in order to further the corruption he exhibited while leading the agency.
Carson celebrated the nomination of Scott Turner as HUD Secretary on November 22nd on his Facebook page, even giving Turner credit for the ‘opportunity zones’ project that directly benefited his son in Baltimore City.
See that post below,
The many conflicts of interest present in the suggestions of former HUD Secretary Ben Carson paint the picture of a desperate abuser eager to hold on to a stream of corrupt income that has made him wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, and enriched his family.
Ben Carson Is Also Pushing Dana Wade As Deputy HUD Secretary
Initially, Carson promoted his former HUD chief of staff Andrew Hughes for the Deputy Secretary position, but Hughes is reportedly uninterested—so now Carson is supporting a woman named Dana Wade. Wade is reportedly the candidate supported by HUD Secretary Designate Scott Turner, although theoretically the Trump transition is making recommendations for the President for all sub-cabinet jobs.
Wade has long been an opponent of President-elect Trump, even being one of the few conservatives to abandon the former President for Ron DeSantis during the 2024 Republican Presidential primaries.
It reportedly cost DeSantis more than $160 Million to unsuccessfully challenge Trump in the Republican Primary, much to the dismay of Carson-chosen Dana Wade.
Wade previously served as assistant Secretary for Housing, Federal Housing Commissioner. More recently, the anti-Trump executive has worked for lawfirm Walker & Dunlop.
Wade previously worked for anti-Trump former House Speaker Paul Ryan as a budget analyst from 2009 to 2011. Ryan was pivotal in getting investigations launched into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russian officials during the 2016 Election cycle.
