On Alaska U.S. House candidate’s disclosure form, successful investments and a conspiratorial publisher

Republican U.S. House candidate Nick Begich III is a millionaire, a successful businessman and co-owner of a company that has produced books promoting discredited conspiracy theories.

According to a personal financial disclosure form published at the end of September, Begich holds a 17% share of Earthpulse Press, a company founded by his father, known both as Nick Begich II and Nick Begich Sr.

Speaking before a debate in Kodiak, Begich III said he has that share because he “wrote a check” to support his father, and state business laws require that a company have at least two board members.

A past resume listed Begich III as a project manager who improved the company’s since-deactivated storefront, but Begich III said he doesn’t now participate in the company’s operations and is a passive shareholder.

His father agreed with that assessment.

“He’s not an employee, nor has he ever been. He’s on my board because I have to have two board members, and he’s someone I trust, and he invested in my company very early,” Begich Sr. said by phone.

Begich III is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in this year’s election. Also competing are Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe and Democratic candidate Eric Hafner. Neither Howe nor Hafner have submitted personal financial disclosure forms to the U.S. House.

Begich III previously challenged Peltola in 2022, and his tie to Earthpulse was addressed in that campaign as well, but it has come under increased scrutiny and attack in his current campaign.

In 2002, a book co-authored by Begich Sr. and published by Earthpulse incorrectly blamed HAARP, an aurora research project now owned by the University of Alaska, for weather conditions. Recently, viral social media posts blamed HAARP for Hurricane Helene, contributing to violent threats against first responders and meteorologists.

Asked whether he believes what’s published in Earthpulse’s books, Begich III said “no.”

“I don’t even think I’ve read any of them,” Begich III said.

His father agreed, saying: “His personal beliefs, as they relate to my work, are totally different and separate.”

Earthpulse is a small component of Begich III’s financial portfolio, according to his federal disclosure form. Begich runs an IT consulting firm, and he and his partners occasionally took equity shares of startup companies rather than require payments in cash.

“We’d help them with building their products — the technical parts of their products — but we’d coach them on how to generate investor interest, how to build their product, where to find customers, and then, typically, what would happen, they would raise a round of financing, hire their own employees, build out their own teams, and we would disconnect from there,” he said.

That approach has paid off, and he’s made additional investments with his business partners.

He’s also an investor in cryptocurrency and has a valuable collection of miscellaneous items — baseball cards, coins and similar objects — as well.

He also owns some publicly traded, self-directed shares. The financial disclosure form lists UCore, developer of the proposed Bokan Mountain mine in Southeast Alaska, and Graphite One Inc., the developer of a proposed graphite mine near Nome, as two examples.

If elected, Begich said, he would take his hands off those investments.

“I would not want to be involved in trading any of that. If that’s happening, it would be happening at arms’ length from me, as I think it should be for all members of Congress,” he said.

The financial disclosure form for incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola is comparatively simple. It lists a state pension, her congressional salary, a 529 college savings plan for her children, and a pension from Novagold USA Inc., the developer of the Donlin Gold mine in Southwest Alaska.

Peltola worked as Donlin’s community manager for six years, then resigned after the 2014 Mount Polley Mine dam breach contaminated rivers in British Columbia.

She became an opponent of the Donlin Mine at that point but reversed her opposition this year, joining other members of Alaska’s congressional delegation in a legal brief supporting the mine’s construction.

Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.