LANSING — Today, The Detroit News reported that Rep. Jack Bergman rented a “stately home” in D.C. from “one of his top campaign donors,” the Kiyosaki family. The Kiyosakis have given more than $250,000 to Bergman’s campaigns since 2016. Earlier this year, the Kiyosakis sold the home to Bergman’s daughter in a “favorable seller-financed deal.” The home was sold to Bergman’s daughter for “the same price for which it was purchased in 2022.” Bergman’s office “didn’t answer other questions raised by the setup, including why Bergman didn’t purchase the home himself since he lives there.”

An expert told The Detroit News that the home may have been sold to Bergman’s daughter instead of to Bergman himself “because the ethics rules wouldn’t typically apply to an adult child of the member” and that the sale was “potentially structured to transfer something of value to the congressman’s family, while sidestepping the ethics rules.” Taxpayers have paid over $70,000 for Bergman’s D.C. lodging costs since 2023.

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The Detroit News: How a Michigan congressman came to live in campaign donor’s D.C. home

• U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman rented a stately home in Washington, D.C., owned for years by one of his top campaign donors who sold the house to the Michigan congressman’s daughter in a favorable seller-financed deal this year, a Detroit News investigation found.
• The three-story rowhouse on Capitol Hill features blue-painted brick that’s shaded in the springtime by a flowering cherry tree. Until earlier this year, it was owned by an entity managed by Kim Kiyosaki, the longtime business partner and former wife of Robert Kiyosaki, a Vietnam War buddy of Bergman’s and author of the bestselling “Rich Dad Poor Dad” financial self-help book.
• Together, the Kiyosaki pair has given more than $257,000 to Bergman’s campaign and affiliated committees since the Republican from the western Upper Peninsula began running for office in 2016, including $50,000 in August disclosed last week in campaign finance filings.
• In February, Kim Kiyosaki sold the home to members of Bergman’s family for $1.55 million ― the same price for which it was purchased in 2022 ― on a land contract, with all principal due in seven years in 2033, property records show.
• Bergman’s office didn’t answer other questions raised by the setup, including why Bergman didn’t purchase the home himself since he lives there. Bergman also didn’t provide any documentation or receipts requested by The Detroit News disclosing the monthly rent paid to his daughter or Kiyosaki.
• Brendan Fischer, director of strategic investigations at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said the house transaction involving Bergman’s daughter might have been an attempt to sidestep congressional ethics rules.
• “It does seem like it’s potentially a below-market-rate sale,” Fischer said. “I would suspect that the reason they’re transferring it to the daughter and son-in-law instead of the congressman is because the ethics rules wouldn’t typically apply to an adult child of the member. … It seems like it’s potentially structured to transfer something of value to the congressman’s family, while sidestepping the ethics rules.”
• Bergman’s team previously cited the high cost of living in Washington, D.C., in explaining why he has collected nearly $77,000 in taxpayer-funded reimbursements for his D.C. lodging costs since 2023. He got back $1,200 to $3,300 a month last year for lodging ― varying based on how many days he was in town for votes ― from an expense program sanctioned by the House that doesn’t require receipts.

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