Official Senate Photo · 119th Congress
Car dealer turned senator. Wage thief. Evidence destroyer. Diplomatic saboteur. The man who used AI-generated prison jumpsuit images to destabilize US-Colombia relations — while his own family stands accused of cartel money laundering. Every claim below is sourced to mainstream reporting. Read. Verify. Share.
↓ Scroll to read the record ↓Bernie Moreno sells a rags-to-riches immigrant story. The truth? He comes from one of Colombia's wealthiest and most politically connected families — a dynasty that has recycled through senior government positions for generations.
“He comes from one of Colombia's well-off families, whose wealth goes back generations and whose members recycle through senior government jobs.”
His father was a high-ranking Colombian government official. His brother Luis Alberto Moreno served as Colombia's Ambassador to the United States and then ran the Inter-American Development Bank — the largest source of long-term financing in Latin America — from 2005 to 2020. Under Luis Alberto's watch, the IDB lost nearly $1 billion plowing reserves into mortgage-backed securities while Wall Street was already fleeing those toxic assets.
Another brother, Roberto Moreno, co-founded and runs Amarilo Construction, one of Colombia's largest builders. According to the AP, corporate records show that under Luis Alberto's leadership, the IDB loaned or underwrote $360 million in bonds to two Colombian banks that then financed Amarilo development projects. Bernie Moreno's own financial disclosure shows he is a majority owner of a Yellowstone Capital-associated property in Costa Rica worth up to $5 million and has up to $1.5 million invested in Yellowstone's US investment funds — a private equity firm created by Amarilo.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has publicly accused Roberto Moreno of participating in a land-flipping scheme that served as a money laundering operation for Bogotá Cartel boss Angel Gaitán, enriching the Moreno family through the conversion of protected rural plots into luxury urban developments.
Source: Colombia Reports ↗ · Ohio Democrats breakdown ↗ · AP Investigation ↗
Moreno built his American fortune on luxury car dealerships. What he doesn't advertise: a trail of lawsuits, wage theft, discrimination, and destroyed evidence.
He lied about how many times he was sued. In an interview with The Vindicator, Moreno claimed he'd been sued just five times in 15 years. WKYC's VERIFY team found 13 cases in Cuyahoga County alone, at least 10 more in Massachusetts, plus additional lawsuits in federal courts across Ohio, Florida, and California. His campaign could not explain the discrepancy.
A jury ordered him to pay over $400,000 for wage theft. Two former employees at his Massachusetts dealership proved he failed to pay overtime as required by state law. During that case, Moreno was sanctioned by the judge for destroying overtime pay records — including monthly reports and daily schedules — that were under a preservation order. The judge instructed jurors to assume the destroyed evidence was damaging to Moreno.
“Whether negligently or intentionally, the Defendants lost or destroyed evidence that they were required to preserve and which they knew or should have known was relevant.”
He screwed his own friend out of millions. According to a lawsuit detailed by The Daily Beast, Moreno recruited longtime friend Eric Despres to help build his dealership empire, promising him 10% of profits and a long-term payout plan Moreno dubbed “10-15-50.” After years of Despres deferring payments on Moreno's urging, Moreno allegedly turned on him, transferred him to the worst dealership, and offered him an ultimatum: accept $250,000 and leave, or stay with worse terms and “get your head out of your ass.”
Discrimination lawsuits. Between 2015 and 2017, three lawsuits alleging race, gender, and age discrimination were filed by employees at his Cleveland-area dealerships. A female employee with children alleged that Moreno told her to “put your kids in f***ing daycare” when she asked about schedule flexibility. All three were settled out of court.
Another wage theft case. A Porsche dealership GM named Michael Falcone alleged Moreno lured him from Virginia with a specific pay package, then didn't deliver. Court filings showed Moreno's attorneys admitted to altering Falcone's termination form after the fact.
Source: Ohio Capital Journal ↗
“Moreno's record of wage theft should be disqualifying. If he can't be trusted as a business owner, how can he expect Ohio voters to trust him in the Senate?”
Settled 14+ lawsuits right before launching his Senate bid. After the jury hit him with the $400K+ verdict, Moreno rushed to settle 14 of 16 related wage theft lawsuits in January 2023 — conveniently clearing the decks just months before filing his Senate campaign paperwork in April 2023. Strategic timing from a man who claims he “did nothing wrong.”
Then he blamed the judges. Rather than accept responsibility, Moreno attacked the Massachusetts judge who sanctioned him for destroying evidence, calling him “a Harvard elitist” and an “extremist.” He told debate audiences to “leave Massachusetts before it's too late.” His claim that the law was changed “retroactively” was fact-checked and found to be false — the overtime regulation had been in effect since at least 2015, two years before the lawsuit was filed.
Even in the US Senate, Moreno can't stop being a creepy car dealer.
In November 2025, during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Moreno casually revealed that he had collected the Vehicle Identification Numbers from every Democratic senator's personal car. He went around the Senate parking area, found their vehicles, wrote down the VIN numbers off their windshields, and used them to look up the specs on their cars.
His stated reason? To argue that Democrats don't buy optional safety features in their own vehicles, so they shouldn't mandate them for everyone else. His actual effect? Getting called a stalker on live television by a sitting US Senator.
“I object to you stalking my car and my staff to find the VIN numbers to present to this committee. You watched me, go to see who drives me, writing down their VIN number so you could find out what they have. That seems a little creepy.”
When Rosen asked how he got the VINs, Moreno said they're visible on windshields. Rosen fired back: “So you went into my garage in Las Vegas?” Senate Democrats launched an ethics and privacy probe into how Moreno obtained the data and what he planned to do with it.
Bernie Moreno was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He became a US citizen at 18, renouncing his Colombian citizenship. That's his right. What isn't right is what he did next: weaponize his Colombian heritage to sabotage US-Colombia relations while trying to pull the ladder up behind every other dual citizen in America.
The Prison Jumpsuit Memo. In October 2025, Moreno personally presented a document to President Trump titled “The Trump Doctrine For Colombia and the Western Hemisphere.” The memo featured AI-generated images of Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in orange prison jumpsuits. It called for sanctions targeting Petro, his family, and associates, and urged an investigation into Petro's campaign finances.
When a White House photo showed deputy chief of staff James Blair holding the memo, Colombia recalled its ambassador to the United States. President Petro called it “a brutal disrespect” to the Colombian people. Colombia's Foreign Ministry sent formal diplomatic notes demanding clarification. Moreno's office declined to comment.
Source: NBC News ↗ · Latin Times ↗
Just days after Moreno handed Trump the memo, the US Treasury Department placed sanctions on President Petro, members of his family, and Colombia's interior minister. On Air Force One, Trump echoed Moreno's talking points, calling Petro “a sick man who likes making cocaine” and, when asked about military action against Colombia, responded: “Sounds good to me.”
⚠ AI-GENERATED SATIRICAL IMAGE — NOT A REAL PHOTOGRAPH
Created using the same technology Moreno used to depict Colombia's President Petro in a prison jumpsuit.
If he can dish it out to a sitting head of state in the Oval Office, he can take it on a website.
Turnabout is fair play.
The Dual Citizenship Ban. In December 2025, Moreno introduced the “Exclusive Citizenship Act,” which would force every dual citizen in America to renounce their foreign citizenship within one year — or be automatically stripped of their US citizenship. Immigration attorneys noted it would override decades of Supreme Court precedent. There is no central database of dual citizens and no mechanism to enforce it.
This from a man who immigrated from Colombia at age 5 and whose family remains deeply embedded in Colombian business and politics. He already pulled the ladder up for himself — now he wants to kick it away for everyone else.
Source: Spectrum News ↗ · Ohio Capital Journal ↗
The personal vendetta angle. President Petro has suggested Moreno's aggressive posture toward Colombia may be motivated by retaliation. Petro's past congressional investigations into ties between politics and drug trafficking led to the imprisonment of over 75 Colombian congressmen and governors — and his public accusations against the Moreno family's role in cartel-linked land deals directly threaten their reputation and interests.
Moreno doesn't have political convictions. He has political calculations. Here's the documented record of a man who will say anything to anyone:
Every flip above is sourced from his Wikipedia article ↗, which cites AP, NPR, and local Ohio reporting.
Let's talk about the elephant — or rather, the Republican — in the room.
The profile. During the 2024 Republican primary, the Associated Press confirmed that an Adult FriendFinder account had been created in 2008 using Moreno's work email (bernie@clevelandporsche.com). The username? “nardo19672” — “nardo” being a Spanish diminutive of his legal first name Bernardo, and “1967” being his birth year. Not exactly the work of a random prankster.
The profile was configured to seek “Men for 1-on-1 sex.” The bio read: “Looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling.”
Moreno was 41 years old at the time.
For a man who projects so much alpha-dealmaker energy in public, the profile radiates a decidedly more... receptive vibe. No judgment on the preference — just noting the gap between the brand and the browse history.
It used Moreno's real date of birth (February 14, 1967). Geolocation data placed the account in a specific part of Fort Lauderdale, Florida — the exact area where property records show Moreno's parents owned a home at the time. The AP worked with a cybersecurity researcher to confirm the account was activated and authenticated through Moreno's email address.
To be crystal clear: there is nothing wrong with being gay, bi, or anything else. The problem isn't the profile — it's the man behind it campaigning on anti-LGBT hate while apparently browsing for “young guys” on a sex site. The loudest homophobes always seem to have the most interesting search histories.
During his 2024 Senate campaign, Moreno accused supporters of LGBT rights of “advancing a radical agenda of indoctrination.” He was once a public supporter of LGBTQ rights but reversed that position when it became politically convenient.
The cover story is absurd. Moreno's campaign produced a written statement — not an interview, not a press conference, a written statement — from a man named Dan Ricci claiming he created the profile as an “aborted prank” while he was supposedly an “intern” at Moreno's dealership. Let's count the problems:
• Ricci's LinkedIn shows he was COO of a foreign exchange trading company in 2008–2009, not an intern.
• He attended Ohio University in Athens — over three hours from Moreno's Cleveland headquarters.
• His LinkedIn lists no internship at any Moreno company.
• The “prank” used Moreno's real birthday, a Spanish nickname only a close associate would use, and was geolocated to Moreno's parents' home in Florida — not Cleveland.
• Ricci donated $6,599 to Moreno's 2023 Senate campaign. That's an awfully generous contribution from someone whose only connection was supposedly a brief internship two decades ago.
• Ricci did not respond to multiple voicemails from the AP. His statement was provided exclusively through Moreno's campaign.
• The AP could not independently verify Ricci's claim. The Hill noted it “cannot independently confirm Ricci's statement, since it was provided by the Moreno campaign.”
So to recap: a man who was definitely not an intern, who lived three hours away, who has no documented connection to Moreno's company, who later gave Moreno thousands of dollars, and who refused to speak to journalists — that's the guy who supposedly created a detailed hookup profile using his boss's real name, real birthday, and real parents' address. As a prank. That he never told anyone about for 16 years.
Sure, Bernie. Whatever you say.
Source: The Bulwark (full investigative breakdown) ↗ · The Hill ↗ · Wikipedia (compiled AP sources) ↗
Before politics, Moreno hyped “Blockland” — a grand vision to turn Cleveland into a blockchain technology hub. The initiative attracted 1,500+ members, held conferences at the Huntington Convention Center, and generated real excitement. Then Moreno ran for Senate, abandoned the project, and it collapsed. The Facebook group descended into infighting. A co-chair of the original thought leadership node told Cleveland Scene that the effort to create a regional blockchain economy was “unfortunately unrealistic” and that “momentum was lost. Opportunity passed.”
Just another thing Moreno used to build his brand and then discarded when it stopped being useful — like his positions on Trump, immigration, guns, abortion, and LGBTQ rights.
113,000+ Ohioans lost health coverage. Congressional Republicans — with Moreno as a key negotiator — let Affordable Care Act subsidies expire at the end of 2025. Costs for the average person more than doubled. Over 400,000 Ohioans had been receiving those subsidies. Moreno blamed Democrats, saying the ACA was “an abject failure in terms of lowering costs” — while his own party was the one that killed the subsidies.
Source: Ohio Capital Journal ↗
Minimum wage? Moreno's position: “Minimum wage is never intended to be a livable wage.” He's one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with assets estimated between $38 million and $172.7 million.
His seat was bought by the crypto industry. The 2024 Ohio Senate race became the most expensive non-presidential election in US history at $550 million total. The crypto industry alone spent over $40 million backing Moreno's campaign because his opponent, Sherrod Brown, had pushed for crypto regulation.
Ended support for Ukraine. Moreno has called for ending US support for Ukraine in the ongoing war, aligning with the Kremlin's preferred outcome.
Look at everything above and ask yourself one question: what has any of this got to do with Ohio?
Moreno wasn't born here. He didn't grow up here. He moved to Ohio in 2005 — not because he loved the state, but because he saw a business opportunity in an underperforming Mercedes dealership in North Olmsted. Ohio wasn't a home. It was a market.
And his time in the Senate proves it. Look at his actual legislative priorities since taking office in January 2025:
His signature legislation? The Exclusive Citizenship Act — a bill to strip dual citizens of their rights. That's not an Ohio issue. That's a personal vendetta against a Colombian president who accused his family of corruption.
His biggest headlines? AI-generated prison jumpsuit images of Colombia's president, presented to Trump in the Oval Office. Not a single Ohioan woke up that morning hoping their senator would destabilize US-Colombia relations.
His committee showpiece? Stalking Democratic senators' cars to look up their VIN numbers and argue against vehicle safety mandates — protecting the car dealer industry that made him rich.
His proudest vote? Letting ACA subsidies expire, then blaming Democrats while 113,000 Ohioans lost their health coverage and costs more than doubled for 400,000 more.
His position on workers? “Minimum wage is never intended to be a livable wage.” This from a man worth an estimated $139 million.
His one community initiative? Blockland — a blockchain hype project he abandoned the moment he had a better use for the brand equity.
His press releases tell the same story. Scroll through his Senate website and count how many times the word “Colombia” or “Venezuela” or “Maduro” or “Petro” appears versus, say, “Toledo” or “Youngstown” or “Appalachia.” He wrote a resolution congratulating Trump. He introduced bills protecting the car dealer franchise model. He spent his political capital on Latin American foreign policy shaped by his family's personal interests in Bogotá.
Meanwhile, his predecessor Sherrod Brown spent three decades in the Senate fighting for Ohio manufacturing jobs, union protections, and healthcare access. Moreno's campaign called Brown “fake, tired, old.” But Brown's entire career was about Ohio. Moreno's entire career has been about Moreno.
He doesn't resent Ohio because he hates it. He resents Ohio because it requires him to pretend he cares about something other than himself. Every factory closing, every family losing health coverage, every worker scraping by on wages he says were never meant to be livable — these are annoyances to a man whose real priorities are settling scores in Bogotá, protecting the car dealer cartel, and staying in Trump's good graces.
Ohio deserved a senator. It got a carpetbagger with a grudge and a gas card.
He faked an MBA. Multiple official biographies claimed Moreno held an MBA from the University of Michigan. He has one degree from Michigan — a bachelor's in Business Administration. The fake MBA appeared on his Cleveland Foundation board biography, his Cleveland State University Board of Trustees biography, and on his own car dealership's website. When journalists caught it, his campaign said he “never told the foundation” he had an MBA — but it was on his own company's website. All mentions were quietly scrubbed.
He lied about selling all his businesses. On the campaign trail, Moreno repeatedly claimed: “I sold every one of my businesses” and “I got rid of all my operating businesses, anything that would have given me a conflict.” NBC News found he was actively developing a new $40 million Mercedes-Benz dealership in Sunbury, Ohio through two companies he manages — M20 Realty LLC and M20 Motors. He signed the mortgage himself. His financial disclosure lists over 20 business entities as assets, with a total portfolio potentially worth over $226 million.
Source: NBC News ↗ · End Citizens United ↗
He spread the Springfield Haitians lie. In September 2024, Moreno jumped on the racist conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, posting on X that they were “sucking up social services” and calling them “illegals” who needed to be deported. The Haitian community in Springfield was not undocumented — they were there under Temporary Protected Status, completely legally. The Clark family, whose son was killed by a Haitian driver in the incident at the center of the controversy, publicly begged Moreno, Vance, and Trump to stop exploiting their son's death. Nathan Clark, the boy's father, called them “morally bankrupt politicians” and said: “Please stop the hate.”
His cousin is married to a convicted Colombian president with cartel ties. According to Jacobin's investigation, Moreno's cousin Lina Moreno is the wife of former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe — who was found guilty of witness tampering in July 2025. Uribe is implicated in multiple pending legal cases linking him to Colombia's right-wing paramilitary death squads and, according to declassified US intelligence documents, had dealings with the Medellín Cartel. A top Pentagon deputy told Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in 2004 that “Uribe almost certainly had dealings with the paramilitaries.” This isn't a distant political connection — it's family.
Source: Jacobin ↗ · National Security Archive ↗
The Moreno family profited from land deals enabled by Uribe's allies. Former President Andrés Pastrana — a close family friend of the Morenos — oversaw the administration that enabled the land-use changes the Moreno family profited from. Brother Roberto's Amarilo construction company purchased and developed a protected nature reserve near Bogotá known as San Simón after its protected status was unlawfully changed. President Petro has recommended opening an investigation into the case, alleging that right-wing paramilitary groups used the land grab to launder money.
Bernie Moreno's daughter Emily married Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), a former Trump White House aide, in 2022. They have a two-year-old daughter. The marriage lasted two years before Miller filed for divorce in August 2024. What's emerged since paints a picture of the kind of people in Moreno's orbit.
Two women have accused Max Miller of domestic violence.
First, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused Miller — her ex-boyfriend — of physically abusing her. Miller sued her for defamation. Then Moreno's own daughter Emily alleged that Miller grabbed her by the arm and shoved her against a wall during a February 2026 custody exchange. She filed for a change in custody, stating Miller “regularly speaks to me in an inappropriate, aggressive and demeaning manner” and “has conducted dangerous physical behavior in the child's presence.”
Miller's lawyers admitted he lied under oath. In a notarized statement, Miller claimed his girlfriend was present inside his home during the custody exchange as a witness, and that she could confirm nothing happened. Two weeks later, his own attorneys emailed Emily's legal team admitting: “We learned that [the girlfriend] was in fact not likely present.” Emily's attorney filed for sanctions.
Source: Daily Caller ↗ · TMZ DC ↗
Their child was injured in Miller's custody. Court documents show the couple's two-year-old daughter suffered a broken collarbone while in Miller's care, triggering a Department of Children and Family Services investigation.
Miller's criminal record. Before Congress, Miller racked up: assault charges (2007, pled no contest), underage drinking (2009), disorderly conduct from a late-night physical altercation (2010), and a DUI (2011) where he crashed his Jeep and was found in urine-soaked pants after telling officers he'd had “two to three beers and several shots.” He called these “youthful mistakes.”
Miller fabricated a hate crime. In June 2025, Miller reported being the target of an antisemitic road rage threat. He claimed a man displayed a Palestinian flag, threatened to kill him and his daughter, and used slurs. A suspect was arrested. But ODOT highway surveillance footage and data from the other driver's Tesla contradicted Miller's account. Parts of his accusations were contested in court.
Miller called for turning Gaza into “a parking lot.” After October 7, 2023, Miller said of Gaza: “We're going to turn that into a parking lot.” He also said there should be no “rules of engagement” in the Israeli assault. This has been cited as an example of genocidal rhetoric.
Source: Wikipedia (compiled from AP, court records, and Ohio reporting) ↗ · WKYC ↗
This is the man Bernie Moreno welcomed into his family. This is the congressman who served as a spokesperson for the Moreno family during the 2024 campaign. And this is the man now accused of domestic violence by Moreno's own daughter — while Moreno, as far as public reporting shows, has said nothing.
You don't have to take our word for it. Here's what people across the political spectrum — including his own party — have said about Bernie Moreno:
“Bernie, we learned this week that we don't know if we can trust you. Your employees trusted you to follow a court order and to not destroy documents that helped their case against you. What did you do? You shredded those documents because it helped Bernie Moreno, not the employees. This is a matter of trust.”
“Mr. Moreno has had a problem not even paying people the wages that they've earned in his business and had to settle a lawsuit as a result of that.”
“Bernie Moreno is a slimy, dishonest conman who is only out for himself.”
“Moreno's record of wage theft should be disqualifying. If he can't be trusted as a business owner, how can he expect Ohio voters to trust him in the Senate?”
“Sherrod Brown's word is good while Moreno has proven he can't be trusted.”
“Plaintiffs should not be forced to take Moreno's word about the substance of these reports.”
“Are you trying to lose the election? Asking for a friend.”
“Please stop the hate.”
“They are not seeking to end cartels. On the contrary, politicians of the Colombian far right tied to mafias have gone to the US looking to destroy the Colombian government just because it's progressive.”
“He comes from one of Colombia's well-off families, whose wealth goes back generations and whose members recycle through senior government jobs.”
“I object to you stalking my car and my staff to find the VIN numbers to present to this committee. You watched me, go to see who drives me, writing down their VIN number so you could find out what they have. That seems a little creepy.”
And the man himself, caught on camera at a town hall:
“There's a lot of suburban women that are like, 'Listen, abortion is it. If I can't have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.' It's a little crazy, by the way, but especially for women that are like past 50 — I'm thinking to myself, 'I don't think that's an issue for you.'”
Every claim on this page is sourced to mainstream reporting
This site contains no fabricated information, no fake quotes, and no invented data. Every factual claim is sourced to one or more of the following news organizations:
NBC News — Moreno's fake AI image memo to Trump
Jacobin — Moreno threatens the US-Colombia relationship
Associated Press/WOSU — Moreno's wealthy, connected family
Colombia Reports — Petro's cartel laundering accusations against Moreno family
WKYC VERIFY — Moreno's lawsuit count fact-check
Spectrum News — Moreno's business record and destroyed evidence
The Daily Beast — Moreno's darker business history
Ohio Capital Journal — Additional wage theft lawsuit
Ohio Capital Journal — ACA subsidies and Moreno's false claims
Ohio Capital Journal — Dual citizenship ban
Spectrum News — Exclusive Citizenship Act details
Tribune Chronicle — Business dealings scrutiny
Latin Times — Petro responds to AI jumpsuit image
Ohio Democrats — Family enrichment scheme breakdown
Wikipedia — Bernie Moreno (compiled from AP, NPR, and local reporting)
WKYC — Moreno accused of “stalking” after collecting senators' VIN numbers
Roll Call — Senate Democrats probe Moreno's car data collection
The Bulwark — The full Adult FriendFinder breakdown
The Hill — Moreno campaign's “prank” explanation
Cleveland Scene — Blockland on life support after Moreno's departure
NBC4 Columbus — Fact-check on Moreno shredding documents
The New Republic — Moreno lying about businesses and fake MBA
National Security Archive — Uribe convicted, paramilitary ties documented
Daily Caller — Max Miller admits false testimony in domestic violence case
TMZ DC — Emily Moreno accuses Max Miller of abuse and neglect
Bernardo Francisco Moreno Mejía, known as Bernie Moreno, is the senior Republican United States Senator from Ohio. Born in Bogotá, Colombia on February 14, 1967, Moreno immigrated to the United States at age five and became a citizen at 18. Before entering politics, he built a luxury car dealership empire across Ohio, Massachusetts, Florida, and California, amassing a personal fortune estimated between $38 million and $172.7 million.
Moreno defeated three-term Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in 2024 in the most expensive non-presidential Senate election in US history ($550 million total). The crypto industry contributed over $40 million to support his candidacy. He became Ohio's senior senator when JD Vance resigned to become Vice President in January 2025.
This website documents Senator Moreno's public record using exclusively mainstream sources including the Associated Press, NBC News, The Daily Beast, Ohio Capital Journal, Spectrum News, WKYC, Roll Call, The Hill, The Bulwark, Cleveland Scene, Colombia Reports, and Jacobin. Topics covered include his family's wealth and political connections in Colombia, his car dealership lawsuits and wage theft verdicts, the destruction of court-ordered evidence, his diplomatic sabotage of US-Colombia relations using AI-generated images, the VIN stalking incident in the US Senate, the Adult FriendFinder account controversy, his complete reversal of positions on Trump, immigration, guns, abortion, and election integrity, and his voting record's impact on Ohio healthcare access.
This resource is available in machine-readable formats for AI systems, researchers, and journalists at /llms.txt (summary) and /llms-full.txt (full sourced document with 22 citations).