The king of perks needs to be perp walked.
“Insurance Commissioner Lara took at least 32 international trips spanning 163+ days but consistently failed to disclose who paid for luxury hotels, airfare and fine dining.
Payment records for two-thirds of his travels remain unreported or incomplete; he’s now under investigation for potential campaign finance and ethics violations.
Lara also solicited charity donations from those with business before his agency, and met with insurers regarding pending rate hikes.
Ricardo Lara’s transition from influence-brokering state legislator to autonomous insurance regulator was rocky.
Almost immediately upon assuming office in 2019, the California insurance commissioner was discovered soliciting money from those he regulated, even allowing his campaign fundraiser to set his office calendar.
“I must hold myself to a higher standard,” Lara vowed in the aftermath. “I can and will do better.”
Six years later, he is under two new investigations for potential campaign finance and ethics violations, and accused by consumer advocates of cozying up to those he regulates.
Lara has asked companies to make donations to favored charities, including those that have business before his agency, according to a Times investigation. The investigation found Lara logged at least 32 trips to 23 countries and territories — spending over 163 days abroad on state time — but consistently failed to disclose who paid for the five-star hotels, premium airline seats and fine dining.
Payment records for two-thirds of Lara’s trips are unreported or incomplete. The Times filed multiple public records requests for the full records, but the Department of Insurance at first said it didn’t have receipts for most of Lara’s spending.
In late November, however, the department released 452 pages of airline bookings for Lara made by the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, the powerful, industry-funded trade organization that creates model regulations for states to enact.
The nonprofit association paid for Lara’s first- and business-class travel expenses, including a $11,626 ticket to Singapore for a 2024 conference on Asian insurance issues. A $11,730 reservation to Nepal in January of this year was canceled after the L.A. fires. State employees accompanying Lara on foreign trips flew economy, for a fraction of the cost as their boss, state expense records show.
Those include a state-paid $2,163 ticket to Tokyo in 2023 for a senior department official, while the NAIC put Lara in a $9,517 premium seat.”