See full version: Inside Betsy DeVos’ Billions: Just How Rich Is The Education Secretary
The DeVoses own a sportsplex in Florida, a baseball stadium in Michigan and a resort in the Bahamas. They reportedly own at least ten yachts, including the 164-foot Seaquest. In 1991 Richard DeVos shelled out $85 million to buy the NBA's Orlando Magic. The team is now worth nearly $1.2 billion net of debt. here
Given Amway’s profitability and her own likely inheritance, that’s a reasonable, and perhaps conservative, estimate—even after factoring in the DeVos family’s exorbitant political spending (which has been roughly estimated at $200 million) and generous charitable giving (more than $1.6 billion, according to the family spokesperson).
They are also major private equity investors through their own Ottawa Avenue Private Capital and as investors in others’ funds, including billionaire Robert Smith’s Vista Equity Partners and AEA Investors, a firm partly founded by the Rockefeller and Mellon families. Dick and Betsy were early investors in home goods retailer At Home and own as much as $5 million worth of stock in Elon Musk’s privately held SpaceX. The couple agreed to sell off dozens of other holdings when Betsy was tapped to lead the education department, including investments in student lender SoFi and a company that sells laundry machines to college campuses. [links]
Still, they raked in money from at least 85 separate sources last year, according to an early draft of Betsy’s most recent financial disclosure obtained by Forbes. In all, she has disclosed that her share of these outside holdings—which do not include Amway or the Magic—are worth at least $335 million. [links]
Betsy, the daughter of auto parts magnate Edgar Prince and sister of Blackwater founder Erik Prince, owes the vast majority of her fortune to her marriage to Dick DeVos. His father, Richard DeVos Sr., cofounded Amway in 1959 alongside his high school friend, Jay Van Andel. What began as two buddies selling an all-purpose cleaner door-to-door quickly grew into an army of independent salespeople hawking vitamins, soaps and other household goods to friends and family—and, controversially, earning money by signing others up as distributors too. Dick DeVos ran the company from 1993 to 2002. Today one DeVos (Dick’s brother Doug) and one Van Andel co-chair the board. The families split ownership 50/50, according to a spokesperson of the DeVos family. here
It’s worth noting that, in one analysis, a staggering 98% of complaints and requests for relief came from students in programs run by for-profit companies. Only five non-profit colleges had bad or fraudulent loan claims and three of those had converted from for-profit ownership. [links]
For one, DeVos paused then announced plans to abolish the “gainful employment” rule that blocked federal student grants and loans from being used to pay for programs that gave students large debt burdens but not even minimal job prospects. That decision alone could strap up to 123,000 students with loans for education products that the government has already determined to be essentially worthless – adding an estimated $840 million in probably unpayable new student debt over ten years.
But DeVos isn’t a Queen of Student Debt because the amount owed keeps climbing. DeVos is the Queen of Student Debt because, short of personally going door-to-door selling predatory loans to pay for online credentials in snake oil sales, DeVos has done everything in her power to make sure the anchor of national student drags more deeply on the future of more and more students. more
If Donald Trump is the King of Debt, Betsy DeVos is Queen. more
DeVos’s yacht is reportedly one of 10 in the family’s fleet and is worth $40 million. If the vessel was registered in, say, Grand Rapids, Michigan—the state where RDV is located and that has in the past made an effort to compel yacht owners to pay use taxes—the Seaquest would likely be subject to Michigan’s 6 percent use tax. That would require the DeVos empire to cough up about $2.4 million: public revenues that help finance the kind of police services that the DeVos yacht crew called when the boat was untied. With the Cayman flag fluttering on its deck, the family can avoid the levy even as it cruises the Great Lakes. [links]
“If someone is buying a boat that is above 300 gross tons but below 500 gross tons, getting registered offshore means they can avoid being subject to U.S. Coast Guard inspection and certification requirements as either a ‘seagoing motor vessel’ or a ‘passenger vessel,’” said maritime attorney Mark J. Buhler. “The most commonly used offshore yacht registries have comprehensive large yacht safety codes that were specifically developed for large yachts, whereas the U.S. Coast Guard regulations and inspection requirements applicable to ‘seagoing motor vessels’ or ‘passenger vessels’ were created many years ago principally for vessels engaged in trade, and not really having large yachts in mind. Those requirements do not translate well to yachts, and most yachts are simply not designed or built to those particular standards.”
When someone untied a yacht owned by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s family, the episode was portrayed as an example of anti-Trump harassment. But the yacht’s foreign flag illustrated how an allegedly “America First” administration is full of moguls who have stashed their wealth offshore in ways that help them avoid taxes, regulations, transparency requirements and domestic employment laws. more
We already know that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s family shipping consortium routes its business through the Marshall Islands—a notoriously secretive tax haven. Federal records detail how Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton and Federal Reserve board appointee Randal Quarles held parts of their personal fortunes in investments based in the Cayman Islands, which are not necessarily required to adhere to America’s domestic financial regulations. more
Now there’s DeVos, one of the heirs of Amway’s multilevel marketing empire. When the family’s 164-foot yacht was untethered from a Huron, Ohio, dock, it was flying a flag of the Cayman Islands, where the yacht is registered, according to VesselTracker. According to federal records, the yacht is owned by RDV International Marine, which is an affiliate of the company that controls the DeVos family’s fortune… here
She has at nine other yachts, and it is not clear whether all of them are registered in the Cayman Islands. Maybe some are registered in Michigan or Ohio. Hard to keep track of so many yachts. Can you imagine how confusing it would be if you owned 10 cars? Even harder when you are talking yachts, each of which needs servants and crew.
Personally, I have a hard time believing someone like Betsy Devos’ can even comprehend the the challenges and needs of today’s debt-ridden students graduating from college. And, these students are not irresponsible people, frivolously running up college debt. Many of them, such as future doctors, are needed for the health and wellness of each person in our society.
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Since no one actually has a yacht or transportation vessel of such grand proportions, it’s hard to visualize such an expense. So, let’s compare it to something more familiar to normal people. Let’s say you have have a $30,000 car. The equivalent .025% damages to your car would be $7.50. That’s how rich Betsy Devos’ is. Her spending $10,000 to fix her yacht is the equivalent of you spending $7.50 to fix your car.
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It’s not wrong for Betsy Devos to own a boat worth $40 million, and store it in Ohio. It’s strange, yes. But if that’s what she wants to do with her money, so be it. [links]
So, is Devos qualified to represent the american people? Is she qualified to represent the american student? Let me just try to relate… here
For now, let’s ignore the fact that this $40 million dollar water vessel was docked in the land locked state of Ohio. Instead, let’s just wrap our head around the value of this recreation vehicle.