Staff Reports
The Florida Commission on Ethics has approved a settlement with former state Rep. Doug Holder to resolve an ethics complaint that he filed “inaccurate” financial disclosures in 2010-14.
A spokeswoman said the panel OK’d the agreement unanimously at its Friday meeting. Holder, a Sarasota County Republican, will pay $6,500 in civil penalties.
The 50-year-old Holder, now a lobbyist, served in the House 2006-14. He ran unsuccessfully in 2016 to succeed GOP state Sen. Nancy Detert, losing to fellow Republican Greg Steube.
Holder had admitted to filing inaccurate financial disclosures and later filed corrected disclosures, according to documents filed with the commission.
He also “acknowledged a $20,000 loan” he had failed to report as a liability.
The complaint was filed last year after the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and others raised questions about Holder’s disclosure forms.
In part, “during his 2015 divorce, Holder listed among his debts five ‘unsecured promissory’ notes totaling $212,000 owed to his father that never were included on his financial disclosures,” the paper reported.
