JIM AND KATIE KING: Questions abound

Imagine if you will that you are a rich bank owner with a couple of kids to send through college. Also as a CPA you can find loopholes, or play with the books, to make their tuition a write off helping your bottom line with tax breaks. Hard for most of us who work for a living to imagine but a real life scenario nonetheless.

Take Katie King, and her dad Metro Council President Jim King for example. King is owner of the King Corporate Group which owns King Southern Bank, his CPA firm, and Peoples Bank in Nelson County. It has been said that Katie received paychecks from her dad for work she supposedly did on behalf of King Corporate Group or specifically King Southern Bank. Matter of fact what were her qualifications and what work did she actually perform?

Reasonable questions to be sure.

A great way to pay for college and get the write off huh? I mean Katie had all kinds of time to work at King Southern while attending school full time AND playing volleyball. Kind of hard to find where she would have time for a job isn't it? Good way to give money to the kid for college AND get the write off too. Not exactly legal so perhaps it should be investigated for merit.

Strike One.

Let's look at Katie's living arrangements shall we? She resides at 2440 Tyler Lane, a public record, and though the house is in her name the tax bill is sent to where? You guessed it 2900 Newburg Rd or King Corporate Group headquarters. So now King also pays the tax bills on property Katie owns.

Hmm. Strike two?

Finally this. According to mortgage records on file Katie has a mortgage on her house through People's Bank in Nelson County. Who owns the bank? Why none other than Metro Council President Jim King of course. Nelson County bank opens branch in Jefferson CPA office - Business First of Louisville:

Why would the mortgage be out of County in Nelson through a different bank then the one he owns here? Perhaps there is more to the financing than we know. Either way it is very interesting to say the least. It would also be interesting to note that she got a mortgage of $145,000 in 2002 on this property yet what was she doing for income at that time? Were mortgage guidelines followed in this regard since her dad owns the bank?

Strike Three.

For now we know that Katie reportedly received a paycheck from King while a student for work that probably was not performed thus enabling him to write off at least a portion of her tuition. This seems awful close to illegal action. We also know that Katie has her mortgage through daddy's bank, in another County, of which the tax bills get paid through King Corporate Group not Katie herself which makes one wonder again about the write off being given to daddy King.

And finally a mortgage one wonders who is really paying for, Jim King or Katie. Was it taken out of County to be harder to track and question? Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Questions should abound about possible tax evasion, possible lending violations, and many more.

Kind of makes you wonder how she has gotten by on her County Attorney salary doesn't it?

And of course we believe she had $194,000 to lend her own campaign to buy an election.

Time to seek answers.

There will be more to come.