It’s no secret that Sen. Mitt Romney is exceedingly wealthy. He famously installed an elevator for cars in a home he owned in California.
But, for all of his business success in the private sector, he’s amassed only the seventh-largest fortune among the 535 members of Congress.
Insider analyzed thousands of pages of financial disclosures to calculate the wealth of nearly every member of Congress.
Romney’s wealth is estimated to be just north of $85 million. Most of that comes from his time with the private equity firm Bain Capital where he rose to CEO of the firm. He also has much of his wealth in Goldman Sachs mutual funds.
The analysis says the wealthiest member of Congress is Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is worth more than $200 million. Scott derives much of his wealth from founding two health care companies.
The 15 wealthiest members of Congress are worth more than $1.3 billion, which represents more than half of all the wealth in Congress.
The least wealthy member of Congress is Texas Republican August Pfluger, who reported more than $2 million in liabilities.
Earlier this week, Insider said Freshman Rep. Blake Moore was one of 14 members of Congress who violated a federal conflict of interest law known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge or STOCK Act “by failing to properly disclose financial trades.”
Moore made 76 trades that were not reported by the deadlines mandated in the STOCK Act. The Insider report gave Moore a “red” or “danger” rating, meaning he could potentially run into ethical problems. A member of his senior staff also violated the law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who came in at #15 on the list of wealthiest members with an estimated $45 million in assets, poured cold water on the idea of banning congressional lawmakers and their spouses from owning individual stocks.
“We’re a free market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” Pelosi said.
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