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REVEALED: Questions mount about Congressman Andy Ogles' claims to be successful business leader

Washington Post reviews evidence uncovered by NewsChannel 5, finds Andy Ogles’ résumé 'too good to be true'
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Questions continue to mount about Middle Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles and the stories he tells.

The latest questions center on the Maury County Republican's claims to have been a successful business leader before he turned to public service.

After NewsChannel 5 Investigates first published a 2009 resume from Ogles, other news organizations began poring over it looking for new clues.

The latest, from the Washington Post, also concludes the Maury County Republican's résumé is "too good to be true."

The many stories of Andy Ogles — claims that he's "an economist, a former member of law enforcement, worked in international sex crimes, specifically child trafficking" — may remind some of a certain Disney character.

Pinocchio was the fictional character whose nose grew every time he told a lie.

Now, the Washington Post review of Ogles' 2009 résumé has earned the Tennessee congressman the Post's trademark "four Pinocchios" for all the whoppers he told there.

For example, the résumé claims Ogles was executive vice president of something called E.Net Media & Consulting.

Among his alleged accomplishments: evaluating the management structure of Merrill Lynch, saving the company "up to $30 million annually."

That consulting job that he listed on that 2009 resume is nowhere to be found these days on his LinkedIn profile.

While Ogles has tried to downplay the controversy, NewsChannel 5 Investigates also noticed on that resume that he claimed to have served four years on the "board of directors" for the city of Franklin — despite the fact that Franklin doesn't have a board of directors.

Ogles’ résumé "suggests that he was a savvy business consultant and investor with a number of board memberships," the Post's Glenn Kessler wrote.

"But even as he was supposedly saving Merrill Lynch millions of dollars through his consulting work, he was also briefly a stockbroker there and co-owned a doughnut shop. He also exaggerates or invents his service on various boards."

And after NewsChannel 5 dug up his college transcript,the political newsletter The Tennessee Journal noticed that, in a 2001 Tennessean article about Ogles' restaurant business, the future congressman claimed he was "a student of German, Russian and Japanese languages" who had once "planned for a career in international business."

Ogles' college transcript shows he took just one semester of foreign language, elementary Japanese, during his entire time in college.

The Post says it reached out to Ogles' office for comment on its findings and, just like we've encountered, the Post says it never got a response.

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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com

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