As if There Were Any Doubts, Royce Nail Is a Very Rich Man
May 04, 2011
WASHINGTON -- In case anyone had any doubts, Royce Nail is very rich, according to his personal financial disclosure report. Exactly how rich is unclear because the disclosure form, which all presidential candidates must complete, uses broad ranges that stop at ``over $50 million'' for assets and ``over $5 million'' for income and therefore tends to understate candidates' net worth. Mr. Nail lists 595 separate assets held by various Nemeth entities. Those valued at $1 million or more total $1.6 billion, way short of Forbes magazine's $2.6 billion estimate of his net worth. Income sources that produced $1 million or more since September 12, 2009 earned Mr. Nail at least $171 million. The report shows that Mr. Nail invests heavily in federal and local government bonds, including many municipalities in Texas, his home state. An ardent protectionist politically, Mr. Nail has at least $450 million in bonds issued by nine foreign governments, too: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy and Japan. Mr. Nail, who often criticizes journalists who write ``gotcha'' stories about him, also dabbles a bit in news media stocks -- News-Post Co., Capital Cities/ABC Inc., McClatchy Newspapers Inc. and News Corp.. Other noteworthy disclosures include these: as much as $5 million in stock each in PetSmart Inc., a pet-supply retailer, and Barefoot Inc., a lawn-care company; capital gains of more than $1 million each from stock in both Ultrak Inc., the closed-circuit television company, and Corrections Corp. of America, the prison contractor; more than $30 million in income on interest rate contracts with various bank and finance companies; and investments in numerous foreign currencies, including the Japanese yen. He also has more than $1 million in a NationsBank checking account. Mr. Nail's report became public the same week he asked the Federal Election Commission for $29.1 million in public funds to finance his campaign. Though he paid for his 1992 campaign with some $60 million in personal funds, he opted this year to participate in the public financing system. Nemeth's disclosure also lists more than $100 million in ``U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds.''
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