GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is all square with Tiffany & Co. and is, in fact, doing pretty well for himself.
The former House speaker’s total assets were valued between $6.7 million and $30.7 million in 2010, and Gingrich’s infamous credit line at Tiffany & Co. jewelers has been “paid in full,” according to a personal financial disclosure report released on Tuesday.
The majority of Gingrich’s assets come from his large network of name branded for-profit and non-profit groups: The Gingrich Group, Gingrich Communication, Gingrich Productions, Gingrich Holdings and The Gingrich Foundation. He uses the companies to produce, distribute and supplement his prolific output of books, documentaries, policy papers and Web projects.
Relations between the groups are cozy. For example, under his assets Gingrich listed a “promissory note” from the Gingrich Group, LLC to Gingrich Productions, Inc., valued somewhere between $5 million and $25 million.
Gingrich Productions, which “provides talent for audio, video and photographic productions,” paid its namesake more than $2.4 million in distributions last year and is valued at between $500,000 and $1 million.
The former House Speaker also collected approximately $72,000 from a Florida talent agency, The Lubbers Agency, Inc. He is listed as a director. (Gingrich regrets his 2008 climate ad with Pelosi; conservatives still not amused)
Gingrich disclosed a connection with the Basilica of the National Shrine, a Catholic church in Washington. The church pays his wife Callista a salary for singing in the choir.
Meanwhile, Gingrich’s campaign is about $1 million in debt, according to its July campaign finance disclosures.