Mike Rogers is a “stark example of how the so-called ‘revolving door’ … can fuel the explosion of immense wealth after years in public service.”
LANSING — Business Insider reported today that Mike Rogers “made good on his quest to get rich” after leaving office by spending nine years through the “‘revolving door,’ advising companies on issues he dealt with in Congress.”
Rogers left Michigan, sold his home in Howell, and multiplied his wealth making “more than $32,000 from paid speeches in 2022, nearly $2 million in income from board positions at tech companies and cybersecurity firms in the last two years, and assets totaling as high as $17.5 million.”
Rogers got rich shilling for big corporations, with “payments totaling roughly $1,975,000 since January 2022.” This includes a company that recently went bankrupt, a Spanish telecommunications company, and Nokia “despite little public information existing about his affiliation with the Finnish tech company.”
“Mike Rogers abandoned Michigan and walked straight through the revolving door to make millions from cushy corporate gigs. Rogers’ record is clear – he puts the interests of big corporations first, and Michigan families deserve better,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson Sam Chan.
Read Business Insider’s reporting on Mike Rogers’ “controversial” nine years through the revolving door:
Business Insider: 9 years through the revolving door: How the GOP’s top Senate recruit in Michigan got rich after leaving Congress
- Financial docs show that [Rogers] has multiplied his wealth since he left Congress in 2015.
- He passed through the “revolving door,” advising companies on issues he dealt with in Congress.
- When former Rep. Mike Rogers decided to retire from Congress in 2014, money seemed to have been at least a little bit on his mind.
- The Michigan Republican’s aides told the New York Times at the time that Rogers would take up a new gig as a talk radio host in part to “earn considerable amounts of money” and to take on “something more lucrative…”
- Over the last decade, according to property records and federal financial disclosure documents filed in 2015 and 2023, he made good on his quest to get rich.
- That includes more than $32,000 from paid speeches in 2022, nearly $2 million in income from board positions at tech companies and cybersecurity firms in the last two years, and assets totaling as high as $17.5 million.
- And Rogers added one more key asset to his portfolio in July, just three months before launching his Senate bid: a modest $295,000 house in exurban Detroit. Before that, he was living over 1,000 miles away in sunny Cape Coral, Florida, where he purchased a more than $1.5 million home in 2022.
- It’s a stark example of how the so-called “revolving door” — where lawmakers, staffers, and other officials capitalize on their experience as they move between the public and private sectors — can fuel the explosion of immense wealth after years in public service.
- Rogers first came to Congress in 2001, gradually rising through the ranks to become the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015.
- He became known for authoring major legislation dealing with cybersecurity and intelligence matters, including the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a bill designed to enable the government to obtain personal information from private companies for intelligence and security purposes. Critics of the legislation argued at the time that it would have created a “cybersecurity loophole” to existing privacy laws.
- As he prepared to exit Congress, he sold his home in Howell, Michigan for $137,500 in October 2014, property records show, leaving him without a Michigan residence.
- Couple that with his disclosed investments at the time, and Rogers’ net worth was somewhere between $800,000 and $1.7 million.
- But as his 2023 disclosure indicates, things have changed significantly since then.
- He also joined the boards of various companies and groups that operate in the cybersecurity space, including IronNet Cybersecurity in 2015, the MITRE Corporation in 2016, IAP Worldwide Services in 2018, and the quantum computing firm D-Wave in 2021 — along with several other positions.
- And it paid off. In December, Rogers disclosed payments totaling roughly $1,975,000 since January 2022, including $724,887 from IronNet, which recently went bankrupt; $191,000 from MITRE; nearly $160,00 from D-Wave; and over $20,000 from Telefonica Ingenieria, a Spanish telecommunications company.
- Rogers also received $460,000 from Nokia in the last two years, despite little public information existing about his affiliation with the Finnish tech company.
- And despite no longer hosting his radio show, Rogers continues to make big bucks from being a public figure. He disclosed earning $32,000 from the Washington Speakers Bureau, as well as $17,540 for a speech to Carnival Cruise Line.
- In sum, Rogers appears to have multiplied his net worth, disclosing between $5.5 and $14.5 million in various other investments, mostly mutual funds, along with over $3 million in real estate, including the new Michigan home, his Cape Coral residence, and the home in McLean.
- What makes Rogers’ case interesting is the fact that he’s required to lay it all out in the open via financial disclosures bookending his time in the private sector.
- But it’s relatively uncommon for politicians to run for office again once they’ve become ensconced in the ritzy life that awaits them after their service, and when they do, it’s often controversial.
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