David Givens' opponent cites Enron-style scheme

Kentucky state Senator David Givens continued to use his office to benefit himself financially by operating a questionable "agriculture" business until the state quietly shut it down last September, Republican state Senate candidate Don Butler said.

Senator Givens is Co-Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. The name of Givens' company, of which he was described alternately as an officer or owner, was Green River Cattle Company.

"It is tough to track it all down but after taking some hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and producing nothing, Green River Cattle Company looks like the Enron of Kentucky agriculture," Butler said. "It wasn't much of a company, there were no cattle, no river and the only green was the taxpayer money going into David Givens' pocket." 

Givens showed income from Green River Cattle Company on his Legislative Ethics reports through 2010. Givens has also come under fire in his re-election bid for claiming falsely to have never voted to raise taxes.