The clearinghouse that keeps financial disclosure statements for members of the General Assembly cannot account any such records for Christopher Murphy during his final year a state senator.
“I was unable to locate anything,” Carol Carson, executive director of the Office of State Ethics, told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers Friday.
Lawmakers such as Murphy, now a congressman who is running for U.S. Senate, are required to detail sources of income in excess of $1,000 for them, their spouses and children on an annual basis, as well as any securities they own in excess of $5,000.
They must also list all blind trusts, real estate they own and debts in excess of $5,000, though they have the option of invoking a privacy shield on such debts so that they are only known to the Office of State Ethics.
A spokesman for Murphy, who served in the state House and then the state Senate, issued a statement to the newspaper saying that the Democrat has been transparent about his financial interests.
“Chris filed federal financial disclosures covering this time period that exceed the reporting requirements from the state,” Murphy spokesman Ben Marter said. “Chris will work with the state to make sure that their files are up to date.”
The Office of State Ethics replaced the state Ethics Commission in 2005 and Carson took over as its executive director in 2007.
Carson couldn’t say with 100 percent certainty that Murphy didn’t file a statement of financial interests in 2006.
“I can’t find it. Could it be here? Yes,” Carson said.
The clearinghouse is required to hold onto financial disclosure statements for five years and can then request to destroy them, which it had planned to do for the 2006 filings.