LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The seller of a house where Gov. Matt Bevin’s family is living invested in a Louisville medical device company partly owned by Bevin a few weeks before the sale of the house at nearly a million dollars below market value.
Neil Ramsey gained a substantial tax credit when he invested $300,000 in Neuronetrix Solutions LLC through state government’s “Angel Investment Act” program, The Courier-Journal (https://cjky.it/2pU0s93 ) reported that state records show.
Ramsey has been a major donor to Bevin political causes. He and his wife gave $4,000 to Bevin’s 2015 campaign for governor. He gave $15,000 to Bevin’s inauguration committee, and he has given $22,500 to the Kentucky Republican Party since May 2015.
Bevin appointed Ramsey last summer to the board of the Kentucky Retirement Systems.
Bevin Communications Director Amanda Stamper did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment on the Neuronetrix investment. Ramsey did not return a phone call or emails asking about the investment or talk to a reporter who tried to ask questions in person.
Under the angel investment program, Ramsey and other investors received a transferable income tax credit equal to 40 percent of their investment, which amounts to $120,000 for Ramsey.
The newspaper reported that a Ramsey company sold a mansion he restored in the Louisville suburb of Anchorage to a company named Anchorage Place LLC and that Bevin and his family are now living there.
Ramsey sold the mansion and surrounding 10-acre tract to Anchorage Place for $1.6 million, low compared with the Jefferson County property valuation administrator’s value placed on the total property of about $2.5 million.
Ramsey has said $1.6 million is a fair market price and that the PVA doesn’t account for difficulty in selling a high-end house. He has also said he received valuable sewer and road access considerations in the transaction.
Bevin reported in a financial disclosure statement he filed with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission covering his holdings as of Dec. 31 that he is a member of the Neuronetrix board and that he owns at least 5 percent. Four years ago, he told Insider Louisville he was the largest shareholder in the company.
K.C. Fadem, a manager of Neuronetrix Solutions, declined to say how much of the company Bevin owns or make any comment.
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Information from: The Courier-Journal, https://www.courier-journal.com
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