The revelations about Clarence Thomas and his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow just keep getting worse.
The Supreme Court justice is already under fire for accepting what likely amounts to millions of dollars worth of gifts from Crow over many years, none of which he reported.
Now, new reporting from The Intercept and the Project on Government Oversight reveals that Crow has maintained dual citizenship in the notorious tax haven of St. Kitts and Nevis since 2012 after buying in through a shady investment program. That makes Crow’s assets and spending extremely difficult to trace, raising serious new questions about his lavish — and undisclosed — gifts to Thomas.
The Intercept’s reporting team is following the money to uncover the full extent of Thomas’s corruption and Crow’s questionable dealings. But it’s clear that exposing the full nature of their relationship will require a long-term reporting effort, from developing sources and connecting with whistleblowers to unraveling complex financial information designed to hide the truth.
If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Earlier this year, ProPublica revealed a series of lavish gifts from Crow to Thomas, including trips on Crow’s private jet and a nine-day vacation on the billionaire’s 162-foot luxury yacht in Indonesia valued at over $500,000.
One of Crow’s companies bought and renovated Thomas’s mother’s house, where she still lives rent free. And Crow paid for the private school tuition of a grandnephew whom Thomas is raising “as a son.”
Whistleblower documents reviewed by The Intercept and the Project on Government Oversight indicate that Crow and his family paid approximately half a million dollars for their dual citizenships in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Crow has not responded to questions or explained why he sought dual citizenship, but tax experts say that the people seeking foreign passports in such tax havens often include fugitives, members of organized crime, and sanctioned oligarchs. With Crow’s shocking largesse already in the headlines, it’s clear we need to keep digging.
