Occasionally we manage to strike a raw nerve with our blog posts about political shenanigans in Louisiana. Our post on Tuesday (Sept. 2) about U.S. Rep. John C. Fleming’s campaign contributions apparently was a case in point.
But it wasn’t the fact that Fleming, a Republican from Minden and a physician, has taken more than $200,000 from special interest political action committees (PACs) this election cycle.
Nor was there any dispute about our claim that Fleming brooks no dissenting opinion and blocks access to his Facebook page to anyone who disagrees with him.
But apparently, he doesn’t want it known that he once owned and/or operated a payday loan company.
On Friday (Sept. 5) we received a terse email from Fleming’s communications director, one Doug Sachleben, protesting that part of our post as being incorrect.
Sachleben did not say whether he works out of Louisiana or Washington, but that really is irrelevant. Here is the verbatim content of his email:
In your piece on my boss, the portion below is wrong. Rep Fleming has never owned or operated a payday loan company. I’d appreciate if you removed that.
Doug Sachtleben
Communications Dir.
Rep John Fleming
He then lifted a quote from our Tuesday blog post, apparently for our benefit:
“Fleming, a doctor who apparently did not make enough money as a medical practitioner, once ran a payday loan company, an enterprise that offers short-term loans to low income families at the friendly annualized interest rate of up to 390 percent.”
Well, we hate being wrong. That’s why we researched our story in advance.
Accordingly, we went to our original source, the corporate records contained on the Louisiana Secretary of State’s web page.
In response to Sachleben, we copied and pasted a number of corporations listed in John C. Fleming’s name. These included Fleming Expansions, Fleming Acquisitions, Minden Family Care Center (a Professional Medical Corporation), Fleming for Congress, LLC, 1 Subway, LLC, Fleming Payday Loans, LLC.
Each of the corporations included the name of John C. Fleming as either an officer or an agent and in some instances, both. In a few cases, Fleming’s wife Cynthia also was listed as an officer.
More importantly, each of the six corporations had the same domicile address: 119 Homer Road in Minden.
Fleming and his wife also were owners, officers and agents in a dating service, Fleming Dating Development, Inc.
We replied to Sachleben, attaching a copy of the Fleming Payday Loans, LLC corporate records.
He wrote back this explanation:
At that time there were a lot of employees requesting advances on their paychecks. To pay people in advance of their work would have been problematic for many reasons and an accounting nightmare. The Fleming Group formed an LLC on paper with the thought of offering temporary interest-free loans to only its employees to accommodate their requests. The more it was considered, the more problematic it appeared; so they scrapped the idea entirely. There was never any desire or consideration to get into the payday loan industry as a business.
Wow.
In his incredulous clarification, he neglected to explain how a “problematic idea” managed to be incorporated on September 2, 2004, and the affidavit to dissolve was not filed until Aug. 4, 2009—a year after he elected to Congress. Why would Fleming leave a “problematic idea” on the books for five years when he would have been required to file annual reports, tax returns and other paperwork?
And while he’s at it, perhaps Sachleben can also offer either a denial of those campaign contributions (taken directly from Fleming’s campaign finance reports) or explain why his boss would accept funds from outfits with such tawdry records of fraud, influence peddling and other unsavory activity.
Here are the Secretary of State’s web page printouts on Fleming’s corporate entities:
| FLEMING EXPANSIONS, L.L.C. | Limited Liability Company | MINDEN | Active |
| Previous Names | |
| Business: | FLEMING EXPANSIONS, L.L.C. |
| Charter Number: | 34627521K |
| Registration Date: | 4/20/1998 |
| Domicile Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Mailing Address | |
| 119 HOMER ROAD | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Status | |
| Status: | Active |
| Annual Report Status: | In Good Standing |
| File Date: | 4/20/1998 |
| Last Report Filed: | 3/27/2014 |
| Type: | Limited Liability Company |
| Registered Agent(s) |
|
| Officer(s) | Additional Officers: No |
|
||||||||||||
| FLEMING PAYDAY LOANS, L.L.C. | Limited Liability Company | MINDEN | Inactive | |||||||||
| Previous Names | |
| Business: | FLEMING PAYDAY LOANS, L.L.C. |
| Charter Number: | 35772196K |
| Registration Date: | 9/2/2004 |
| Domicile Address | |
| 119 HOMER ROAD | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Mailing Address | |
| C/O JOHN C. FLEMING | |
| 119 HOMER ROAD | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Status | |
| Status: | Inactive |
| Inactive Reason: | Voluntary Action |
| File Date: | 9/2/2004 |
| Last Report Filed: | 8/18/2008 |
| Type: | Limited Liability Company |
| Registered Agent(s) |
|
| Officer(s) | Additional Officers: No |
|
| FLEMING FOR CONGRESS, L.L.C. | Limited Liability Company | MINDEN | Active |
| Previous Names | |
| Business: | FLEMING FOR CONGRESS, L.L.C. |
| Charter Number: | 36736015K |
| Registration Date: | 4/30/2008 |
| Domicile Address | |
| 119 HOMER ROAD | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Mailing Address | |
| 119 HOMER ROAD | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Status | |
| Status: | Active |
| Annual Report Status: | In Good Standing |
| File Date: | 4/30/2008 |
| Last Report Filed: | 4/8/2014 |
| Type: | Limited Liability Company |
| Registered Agent(s) |
|
| Officer(s) | Additional Officers: No |
|
| MINDEN FAMILY CARE CENTER (A PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL CORPORATION) | Business Corporation | MINDEN | Active |
| Previous Names | ||||
|
||||
| Business: | MINDEN FAMILY CARE CENTER (A PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL CORPORATION) | |||
| Charter Number: | 34480626D | |||
| Registration Date: | 12/19/1994 | |||
| Domicile Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD. | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Mailing Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD. | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Status | |
| Status: | Active |
| Annual Report Status: | In Good Standing |
| File Date: | 12/19/1994 |
| Last Report Filed: | 12/3/2013 |
| Type: | Business Corporation |
| Registered Agent(s) |
|
| Officer(s) | Additional Officers: No |
|
| FLEMING ACQUISITIONS, L.L.C. | Limited Liability Company | MINDEN | Inactive |
| Previous Names | ||||
|
||||
| Business: | FLEMING ACQUISITIONS, L.L.C. | |||
| Charter Number: | 34525360K | |||
| Registration Date: | 4/25/1996 | |||
| Domicile Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD. | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Mailing Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD. | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Status | |
| Status: | Inactive |
| Inactive Reason: | Voluntary Action |
| File Date: | 4/25/1996 |
| Last Report Filed: | 5/2/2012 |
| Type: | Limited Liability Company |
| Registered Agent(s) |
|
| Officer(s) | Additional Officers: No |
|
| 1 SUBWAY, L.L.C. | Limited Liability Company | MINDEN | Active |
| Previous Names | |
| Business: | 1 SUBWAY, L.L.C. |
| Charter Number: | 34529383K |
| Registration Date: | 5/31/1996 |
| Domicile Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD. | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Mailing Address | |
| 119 HOMER RD. | |
| MINDEN, LA 71055 | |
| Status | |
| Status: | Active |
| Annual Report Status: | In Good Standing |
| File Date: | 5/31/1996 |
| Last Report Filed: | 5/12/2014 |
| Type: | Limited Liability Company |
| Registered Agent(s) |
|
| Officer(s) | Additional Officers: No |
|
Louisiana Voice 
Good for you!
If you will notice the date the corporation was made inactive, you’ll see it’s no mere coincidence as to why they jumped on that fact being pointed out to readers. That inactive status was added during Fleming’s first run for Congress when this issue was first raised. He apparently decided being a loan shark didn’t look good running for office.
“The truth will set you free.” Great backup and tell it like it is. Can’t wait to hear their apology, but I won’t hold my breath.
don’t know if this will help – but he shows it as a dormant corp on his US House Financial Disclosure forms for all years. http://clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-search.aspx
He dissolved the corporation barely six months after taking office (Aug. 4, 2009) so, yes, it was/has been dormant during most of his term of office. But he originally incorporated on Sept. 2, 2004, more than four years before he was elected. Those years would not show up on his House Financial Disclosure forms because he was not in office during those years.
Heh heh. Good work. Why didn’t they just let it go?
’cause they just are not that bright!?
Good work, Tom, loan sharking would fit this man perfectly, he is a bully, he has plenty of money now wants the power to go with it….
Having heard it in three different campaigns, I can tell you there will be no apology and the response will be as follows: That was never a real company it was an accounting strategy to allow him to advance money to his employees but not from his company’s books. The spin he uses is that the evil media made a benefit he was giving his employees seem sinister and forced him to take away that benefit.
If it was out of the noble gesture of “helping out ” his employees, I’m sure he charged zero or a minimal interest amount on those loans correct?
Naaahhh!
When I first started reading this post, I thought he was going to say he created this payday loan company so his poor patients could pay the medical bills they owed him.
My first job out of college I worked for a guy who had a loan company, a mortgage company, a clothing store, other businesses, and slum rental properties consisting mostly of houses he had repossessed. He would kindly give clients of his loan and mortgage companies part of their loans in vouchers for the clothing store, promising discounts when they used them. They were also encouraged to open credit accounts at the store and run up high balances above the amount of the vouchers. When they couldn’t pay, he would sue them (he was also an attorney with a private practice), get judgments and ultimately write off the bad loans when they still couldn’t pay. I was able to find another job fairly quickly. I realize this is off-topic, but I was reminded of him when I read this post about Dr. Fleming. I’m not accusing Dr. Fleming of anything like this, I’m just saying…
Poor Doug Sachleben, bless his heart. He’s gonna learn not to mess with Tom!
Fredster, don’t shoot the messenger, I’ve been fighting Fleming since his first campaign. Nor do I mean to diminish the work Tom has done. It’s just this is an old battle, that is why they seized on that point to answer. Of course he was practicing usury on his customers, if not the general public. However, when it got raised at the start of the first campaign he shut it down and when challenged at debates in 2008 had that pat answer. The same one that will come again this time. I think the key thing is that Tom has hit on something in the other data, which is why the Fleming team chose to try and divert the focus to a topic the media in the 4th District will dismiss because their news morgues have the story dead and buried.
Glad to hear that about you fighting Fleming since the beginning. Being from Sela, I didn’t know much about Fleming until his infamous “I can’t live on $400k” statement. In case anyone missed it, here it is. Also I wonder if that 400-600k included his Congr. salary and any monies he made from, ya know, actually being a physician.
http://youtu.be/HW2VW-Z1M94
Other than spending a lot of time digging up stuff on the computer, what have you accomplished?
….Well, for openers, I’m not running for office, not feeding off the public, not holding myself out to be something I’m not, not selling my soul to Wall Street, polluters, lobbyists or other special interests—all while asking people like you to vote for me.
You remind me of Jindal’s former press secretary Kyle Plotkin. When columnist Robert Mann criticized Jindal, Plotkin tweeted Mann, “Instead of criticizing, why don’t you run for office?” So apparently the message from Plotkin and good folks like you is if you aren’t a member of the elite, i.e. public office holders who hold themselves out to be virtuous and who ask for your vote by making outrageous promises to “change” this or that, you have no right to judge their performance. If you are an elected official, according to Plotkin, you have carte blanche to take money from these people, cavort with hookers (Vitter), or do anything else you like and people like us can just keep our mouths shut. Is that about it?
Oh, to expand on your question, I’ve written a couple of books, managed, along with my wife, to raise three pretty successful children, and serve as an usher at my church.
I’ve picked up a few awards for news reporting along the way, served on the Louisiana Priorities for the Future Committee (Education) and was named an Outstanding Young Man of America (a very long time ago) by the U.S. Jaycees.
And though I couldn’t pitch, catch, run or hit (other than those minor shortcomings, I believe I could have been a pretty good player), I did manage to coach an amateur baseball team for 10 years.
I also managed to get you to read my blog post even though you obviously disagree with me. (Unlike Fleming, I allow dissenting comments.)
And I extricated myself from the Republican Party after decades of deluding myself into thinking it had my best interests at heart. I have taken the 12-step program to becoming a Recovering Republican.
And yourself?
Tom, Your reply here is among, if not the best, response I have read when office holders or their staff throw the “why don’t you run for office” pitch. I don’t know if it is the “instant” communication of today or perhaps a nostalgic, rose colored glasses remembrance of the past, but it seems to me that more elected officials today fail to understand and connect with their constituents who volunteer and work in and for the community not for any individual recognitions, but just because they are a part of that community. The necessity to appease one’s base is becoming more important than the community as a whole because with a strong spotlight one can not only blind supporters but keep dissent and decay in the darkness.
Good article as usual, but the first paragraph in your reply…it’s just excellent.
Richard Haydel
Love your reply. Bravo.
@bill bryan: Exposing the Edmondson deal and saving taxpayer dollars was quite an accomplishment for Tom. Apparently some of our legislators are too dumb or stoned to know what laws they are creating. And others thought their dirty deed would slip on through. Thank goodness Tom went a diggin’.
@bill bryan, the difference is if you consistently made comments like that, on Flemings/our official Facebook page, you would be blocked, so it would appear that all of his constituents agree with him….. that’s just fundamentally, wrong, but what is worse is that Flemings Lemmings think its, okay! He uses the Constitution, Religion, Paranoia, Bigotry, to further his narrow minded agenda. I am very glad Tom Aswell, has brought this to light, as the MSM is sadly missing, and I know keeping up with the Jindal Administrations shenanigans is a full time job, i
Is it possible that he never operated a physical payday loan location? I have given employees loans before and gotten stuck. I’m not defending him, just asking for clarification. How much income did this loan company loan generate?
Of course it’s possible. The point is, his communications officer first responded that he “never” had a payday loan company when corporate records on file at the Secretary of State’s office clearly show otherwise. When I pointed that out, he came back with his benevolent B.S. about it being only a paper entity and that it was a bad idea and never pursued. Well, he pursued it by incorporating and it remained a viable corporate entity for five years (and as such, he would have been required to file income tax returns and corporate reports)—until six months after he took his seat in Congress.
The payday loan company he owned and ran was located in the same building as his Subway restaurant. He partitioned the building into two spaces and put the Subway on one side and the payday loan company on the other side. No doubt that he owned it, ran it, profited heavily from it. I live in Minden. I know. When it came to light, he closed it down under the guise of expanding his Subway. PS: There was no bathroom in the payday loan company. If the employees needed to use the restroom, they had to walk all the way around the building and use the restroom at Subway. He may have added one down the road, but I don’t know where it is now since he expanded. If he denies this, he is lying. This is the google image from December 2007. One side is Fleming’s Subway store. The other side is Fleming’s bathroomless Check into Cash. Can’t lie out of this. https://goo.gl/maps/JLLzCVyvNGL2
How many confounded Republican doctors does Louisiana have serving in Congress, and is there even one of them doing anything except whining about and voting to end the Affordable Care Act which is being embraced by additional states as we move along? Let’s see, Cooksey, Fleming, Boustany, Cassidy-are there more? Are any of them doing anything for the state in Washington. Are they the only ones wealthy enough to be able to run for the office? After watching the progress of these characters, I sure don’t think that doctors make good congressmen or very good wild hog shooters either!
I want to know how all these simple minded men that you must treat with kid gloves became doctors. I’ve fought with Fleming many times before he banned me and am starting to row with Cassidy and neither one of them can take a lick of criticism. They come up with the dumbest, most unChristian arguments you can imagine and act like you slapped their grandma in their replies.
Perhaps you idiots could actually spell his last name correctly…..or at least consistently throughout the article. But then again.. I don’t think a lot of people actually read this dumb blog.