For months, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has been at the center of a controversy regarding favorable treatment given by Koster to companies that support his political efforts.
In October 2014, a New York Times story revealed multiple instances of Koster implementing a “pay to play” policy, including an example in which he took $20,000 from a company and then settled favorably for the company in an unlawful marketing case.
At the time, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called Koster’s response to the serious allegations as “arrogant and dismissive.”
But the story prompted Koster, he claimed, to implement a new policy in November 2014 “banning donations from any company that he had targeted for investigation.” He even went so far as to say the policy would “the strictest conflict-of-interest provisions of any elected attorney general in the United States.”
Sounds great, right? Except he didn’t actually do that.
A state audit released today revealed Koster, who is running for governor, “hasn’t adopted a policy to address concerns that he’s been influenced by lobbyist perks.” The AP reports:
Koster later promised not to accept lobbyist gifts and put a freeze on campaign contributions from organizations under investigation by his office.
But an audit released Tuesday says Koster hadn’t formally adopted those policies as of February.