Aug 12: TV ad about Gideon’s tax-dodging business airs

Aug 13: Gideon amends financial disclosure to reveal previously unreported outstanding 2008 loan related to failed condo development

Members of the press:

The Gideon’s Way saga is ongoing -- Gideon’s most recent financial disclosure shows that the Gideons still have an outstanding 2008 business loan from the failure of their family condo development business -- directly contradicting Sara Gideon's statement to WMTW last week that "everybody was made whole."

But why didn’t Gideon’s prior financial disclosure show this outstanding loan?

Gideon has filed two financial disclosures. The first, filed in Oct. 2019, did not show the business loan. The second, filed nearly a year later in August 2020, did show the loan.

On August 12, a third-party mentioned Gideon’s 77 tax liens in a TV advertisement:

Aug. 12 1820 PAC ad mentioning Gideon dodging taxes

A day later, on August 13, Gideon amended her October 2019 financial disclosure to show they still owed between $50,000 - $100,000 to the bank that foreclosed on their condo project:

Gideon’s amended 8/13/2020 disclosure mentions the loan

Her original October 2019 disclosure did not disclose the loan at all:

Gideon’s 10/22/2019 disclosure does not mention the loan

Is it a mere coincidence that Gideon finally revealed the loan just one day after the ad began to run?

It’s clear that many, many questions about Gideon’s failed business  --  and her lack of candor as she attempts to distance herself from it -- remain.

She’s told three separate reporters three different stories about her role at the business:

• First, she claimed she had nothing to do with it, that it was a "business venture" that her husband was involved in "years and years ago.
• Next, when confronted with documents proving her involvement, she claimed she did "a couple of hours of marketing on that project."
• Finally, she told the Bangor Daily News that she worked over the course of two years with the business.
  "The candidate’s campaign has said she worked for the company briefly in 2006 and 2007, though it did not answer questions about whether she was paid or how much."

Sara Gideon’s family business didn’t pay its taxes while she was raising her neighbors' taxes as a town councilor. And now she's been caught making false statements about it.

Gideon should be asked: why didn't she disclose the outstanding loan until a group ran a TV ad about her business dodging taxes?