A closer look into U.S. Senate candidate Mike Durant’s required financial reporting shows he is an extremely wealthy individual, with a multimillion-dollar estate in Colorado, who has benefited from recent federal bailout funds, used his company’s services to further his campaign and purchased copies of books he has written using campaign contributions.
FEC filings reveal that his campaign paid $11,648.10 to Pinnacle Solutions, the company Durant founded and of which he still serves as CEO, before he sold the company on December 31, 2021.
Durant’s company had previously taken $6 million in fully-forgiven PPP funds from the federal government before he in-turn dumped over $4 million into his campaign after announcing his candidacy in October. That infusion of cash also came before Durant sold the company.
The campaign funds Durant paid to Pinnacle Solutions were listed for a variety of reasons, including rent, telephone, travel and lodging, graphic design consulting, and administrative consulting services. The expenses were from November and December 2021. Expenses from January through the end of March 2022 will be disclosed in April.
Durant’s current FEC disclosure also showed that his campaign paid $18,312 to Penguin Random House LLC on November 29, 2021, for “supporter gifts.”
Penguin Random House is the publisher of Durant’s biography, “In the Company of Heroes,” as well as his other book, “The Night Stalkers.”
Durant’s personal financial disclosure shows that Durant continues to make royalty monies from sales of those books.
The terms of those royalty agreements are as follows:
“In the Company of Heroes”
- Hardcover: 10 percent on first 5,000 copies, 12.5 percent on next 5,000, and 15 percent on all copies thereafter
- Mass Market Paperback – 10 percent on all copies sold
- Trade Paperback – 7.5 percent on all copies sold
- Other editions – 15 percent of all copies sold
- Licensing royalties – 50 percent for all except: 80 percent in Schedule A countries, 66 percent in English in Canada, 75 percent in all other languages, 90 percent first periodical right
“The Night Stalkers”
- Hardcover: 10 percent of first 5,000 copies, 12.5 percent on next 5,000, and 15 percent on all copies thereafter
- Mass Market Paperback – 8 percent on the first 150,000/10 percent thereafter
- Trade – 7.5 percent on all copies sold
- Other editions – 15 percent on all copies sold
- Licensing royalties – 50 percent for all except: 80 percent in Schedule A countries, 66 percent in English in Canada, 75 percent in other languages, 90 percent first periodical rights.
From 2020-2021, Durant reported earning $1,591.99 in book royalties.
“In the Company of Heroes” is the same biography in which Durant neglects to mention his sister, while framing his father as a hero. Associated Press reporting from the 1990s reveal that Durant’s father confessed to Durant that he raped and sexually abused Durant’s sister for years.
Durant’s personal financial disclosure also shows that he charged the U.S. military $17,375 for paid speeches from 2020-2021. The disclosure listed his personal assets at being valued between $39,686,078 and $113,590,999.
In the same time period, he gave additional paid speeches to the likes of Goldman Sachs, Capital One and Sigma Financial.
The Durant family’s disclosed financial liabilities are limited to a single mortgage on a property in Colorado that is held by an LLC and valued between $5,000,001 and $25,000,000.
After publication, Durant’s campaign reached out to APR to say that all expenses paid to Durant’s company, Pinnacle Solutions, were in line with federal requirements and that Durant would not receive royalties from books purchased by his campaign.
Durant will face Rep. Mo Brooks and Katie Britt in the Republican Primary May 24.
Bill Britt is not related to Katie Britt or her husband Wesley.
