A retired federal judge has brought a civil lawsuit against Orange County Board of Education’s Mari Barke for allegedly failing to disclose as much as $14 million in income and business interests since her election.
It comes amidst a state campaign finance probe by the Fair Political Practices Commission into Barke’s disclosure filings.
The August 25 complaint – filed by Lynn Riddle, a retired U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge for the Central District of California – says that until March of this year, Barke had only reported $99 worth of income, business interests, investments and gifts since assuming office in 2018.
“Mari Barke’s failure to report her income is an abuse of our system of open governance; it must simply be called out and rectified,” said Riddle in a Tuesday news release, adding that she should have consulted with Board of Education lawyers on how to disclose income.
“Mrs. Barke’s false disclosures cannot be seen as anything other than grossly negligent or willful, neither acceptable by a school board member responsible for supervising the wise use of education funds,” Riddle said in the news release.
Barke declined to comment when reached by phone on Tuesday, saying she needed to consult her attorney.
Barke is employed by the California Policy Center, while her spouse, Jeff Barke, works as a Newport Beach concierge physician who owned as many as three medical practices and authored at least 50 books, including “Covid-19: A Physicians Take on the Exaggerated Fear of the Corona Virus.”
The Barkes have a home in Rossmoor, which at some point they allegedly transferred ownership of to a family trust, which “may own other incoming generating assets,” Riddle’s complaint states. “But [Barke] failed to disclose even the existence of the trust, much less any assets or income, on her Form 700s.”
“Defendant claims that her principal professional endeavor is to educate local elected officials such as herself on critical issues including government transparency,” the complaint reads. “And yet somehow she, as a local elected official, failed to be transparent with more than $14 million in income, investments, business positions, and real property, which the Act requires to be disclosed.”
[Read: OC Board of Education’s Mari Barke Faces Financial Disclosure Probe]
After Riddle complained to the state Fair Political Practices Commission in February – and after the FPPC agreed to investigate later that same month – Barke filed amended financial interest statements (known as Form 700s) in March showing she “failed to disclose at least $14 million in income, investments, business positions, and real property holdings over the last four years,” the complaint reads.
Under the Political Reform Act of 1974 – the same state law that created the enforcement arm now looking into Barke’s financial reporting – Riddle had originally requested Spitzer to investigate.
Because Spitzer didn’t act on Riddle’s request for 120 days, Riddle filed the civil complaint.
Under the law, a person who fails to disclose their income may be liable for the amount not reported.
As the plaintiff, Riddle is entitled to half the amount ultimately collected, while the State of California can collect the other half of the civil penalty, according to a news release from Riddle’s attorney, Lee Fink of Brower Law Group.