The claim that car salesman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno had an MBA from the University of Michigan appeared both on his application to open a business as a car salesman and in his a brief biography of Moreno when he joined the Cleveland Foundation board. However, a university spokeswoman said Monday that Moreno only has a bachelor’s degree in business from 1989.
On Tuesday afternoon, Moreno’s campaign blamed the first incident on “an employee who made a mistake,” saying it did not know how the alleged credential ended up in the Cleveland Foundation bio.
Moreno is running in what is expected to be a tight race against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown for a key U.S. Senate seat.
The first appearance of the claim that Moreno had an MBA from Michigan came as part of a November 25, 2011, application to open an Infiniti car dealership in Coral Gables, Florida. The document was entered as evidence in the case Florida lawsuit and forwarded to Capital Journal.
It listed Moreno, 57,’s date of birth, his address in Westlake, Ohio, his Social Security and driver’s license numbers, and his academic qualifications. It said he graduated from Pinecrest Academy in Florida in 1985 and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Michigan in 1988.
Then it says, “Postgraduate Studies, ’88-’91, University of Michigan, MBA, Business.”
But when asked what credentials Moreno had earned at the university, officials with the University of Michigan’s Office of Public Affairs on Monday said Moreno only had a bachelor’s degree in business, awarded with “high distinction” on April 28, 1989.
The Moreno campaign responded by pointing to a separate document filed on April 23, 2010. It did not mention a degree, and the Moreno campaign stated:First (2010) application for Infinity was produced by Bernie.”
But tclaimed that the certification actually appeared in a document filed more than a year later, which the Moreno campaign said was “prepared by an employee who made a mistake.”
The campaign quoted Rob Kistler, who was said to be Moreno’s chief financial officer at the time.
“This was a clerical error on a later form that Bernie did not make,” it said.
In another instance, Moreno’s campaign said it did not know how an MBA from the University of Michigan came to be attributed to Moreno in 2014 when he joined the Cleveland Foundation’s board. In his biography it is written: “Moreno began his career in the automotive industry after earning a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
Moreno “never told the foundation he had an MBA. I’m not sure why they mentioned it; you’d have to ask them,” a Reagan McCarthy campaign spokeswoman said in an email.
She did not respond when asked whether Moreno had taken any steps to correct the claim.
Moreno’s 2018 biography, when he chaired the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees, notes that he held multiple degrees from Michigan. His biography from that time states, “Mr. Moreno holds a business degree and a liberal arts degree from the University of Michigan.”
This biography is no longer on the university website. The only one that remains is that describes Moreno as Founder of Cleveland State University’s Center for Sales Excellence. This biography does not include information about numerous degrees from the University of Michigan.
“After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan, Moreno began his career in the automotive industry with Saturn Corporation,” it reads.
Cleveland State said Tuesday it removed Moreno’s previous biography when he left the university’s board in 2018.
It appears that Moreno also received multiple degrees from the University of Michigan. archived biography which appeared on the Mercedes Benz of North Olmstead website.
But his staff said that when Moreno was a student, business students at U of M first spent two years earning an associate degree in liberal arts and then another two years earning a bachelor of business degree.
“There is not a single example that you can point to where Bernie himself claims to have an MBA,” McCarthy said, despite the fact that an Infiniti dealership application claiming to have the degree was sent under his signature. “Every example that you gave is from a different person or entity.”
