Yesterday afternoon, The Oklahoma House Special Investigative Committee began its public probe into the Swadley's Foggy Bottom Swindle.
One person who spoke at the meeting was L.O.F.T. director Mike "Man In The Mirror" Jackson. He answered a litany of questions from lawmakers that revealed all the tender juicy chunks of possibly incriminating evidence his office has gathered during its investigation.
One person who was not at the meeting was Stitt's C.O.O. Steven Harpe. Although he was subpoenaed to appear before the committee and answer questions about how this swindle went down, he took a trip to the Virgin Islands instead...
Stegall references this social media post saying that Steven Harpe seems to be in St Thomas per social media.
— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) May 12, 2022
Rep. Stegall calls it “egregious” that Harpe isn’t here and decided to take a vacation during the “budget process” the legislator is working through pic.twitter.com/0ACNeJUkeH
Question – Do you think Stitt would let the C.O.O. of Gateway Mortgage go on his second or third honeymoon if they got screwed out of $16-million by a restaurant chain called Foggy Bottom Kitchen? Probably not!
Naturally, Harpe's absence irked lawmakers. I can see why. He makes $224,192 as our state C.O.O., so you'd think getting to the bottom of how the state blew $16-million on a restaurant chain called Foggy Bottom kitchen would be a priority, and come before a leisurely trip to the Caribbean.
Then again, Steve works for the same guy who jettisoned away to Santa Fe after declaring a state of emergency for the state he governs. Steve's also a sucker for yacht rock, so maybe he couldn't resist the trip.
In all fairness to Harpe, he got a note from his department's lawyer stating the Virgin Islands trip had been scheduled for an entire month and he couldn't cancel it on such short notice. He also had Atch-Attack stick up for him:
Speaker's office AND Rep. Martinez both told Harpe they'd be willing to reschedule. Did they mention that at their hearing today??
— Carly Atchison (@CarlyAtch) May 12, 2022
Whether he had a valid excuse or not, we still learned a lot about the Foggy Bottom Swindle while Steve was drinking piña coladas and gettin' caught in the rain.
Although some of the details tasted familiar – $100,000 smokers, excessive management fees, cushy contract – there were other new additions to the swindle that were fresh off the grill – 10-fold increase in food costs, $100-per-square-foot tile jobs, Swadley moonlighting as general contractor, etc.
You can read all about Swadley's invoicing and contract shenanigans over at News 9 or KFOR or NonDoc. While you're at it, you may want to check out this Frontier report about how Brent Swadley and Stitt's Head Grifter – Gino DeMarco – worked to get Swadley's the state park contract before it was open for bidding. And if you're really bored, read about this land deal DeMarco worked out for himself near Lake Murray!
My takeaways from everything are:
A) We're still at the tip of the brisket on this scandal, and
B) Maybe there's a reason both Brent Swadley and Gino DeMarco recently purchased mansions.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
