Roberti releases financial disclosure statements on primary eve

The congressional campaign of Dan Roberti released financial disclosure statements in an email sent Monday night, the eve of today’s three-way Democratic primary in the 5th Congressional District.

Roberti released a disclosure form for 2012 that reflects the divestment of a 50 percent share of his father’s lobbying business from a trust that benefits the candidate. The ownership interest was a central feature of a negative ad by one of his opponents, Elizabeth Esty.

He also released an amended form for 2011, showing new valuations after a review by a third-party evaluator.

The documents were released with a statement from his lawyer, James Wade:

“Dan Roberti filed his personal financial disclosure form today in accordance with the rules of the House Ethics Committee. He has requested it be made available to the press immediately.

“In May of this year Dan requested that I assemble a team of professionals to examine the assets in his trust set up by his father several years ago. Dan’s directions were clear that we were to examine all of the assets in the trust and to determine a fair market value of those assets at this time.

“As to the Daniel F. Roberti Greenwich Trust, Dan has effectively divested himself of all of those assets. In keeping with his wishes to be the most transparent and unbeholden candidate to special interests in this race, this process has been completed. We are presently involved in divesting Dan from his final asset, which is not involved with his father’s government relations business in any way.

“This has been a thorough process in divesting Dan from any interests tied to his father’s government relations business.”

Wade’s comment on the 2011 amended filing:

“After a thorough review it was determined that the overall asset value was the same, but some assets were valued less and others more than originally assessed by an earlier third-party evaluator. Based on this thorough evaluation, we are also attaching an amended report. Together, these reports reflect a complete picture of Dan’s personal finances.”