Utah's U.S. judges show wide-ranging portfolios

Speaking candidly about his rosy financial picture, the senior jurist said his actual worth in 2003 was close to the middle of the range.

"I'm proud of my financial situation. I've saved and worked pretty hard," said Winder, a federal judge in Utah for 27 years.

Winder's disclosure form lists 28 different investments and trust income, everything from dividend payments of less than $1,000 from General Electric and Johnson & Johnson, to three different investment funds that each paid him between $15,000 and $45,000 in 2003 alone.

For the entire year, Winder showed income outside of his judicial salary of at least $71,500, though it could have been as much as $275,000, reports show.

While he has no qualms releasing information about those businesses with which he has financial dealings, Winder does question the necessity of including the amount of money attached to a particular asset. It should be enough to ensure judicial independence, he said, simply to make public the identities of companies themselves.

"There can be a conflict, and it all comes down to that," Winder said. "I'm all for the idea of disclosure of the names and addresses and identities of the people that the judges might be litigating with."

If Winder has a potential conflict, it could be his investments in public projects such as health care, electrical and water development, and city bonds.

And he shows an interest in the Sacramento de la Plata gold mine, which he discloses was worth less than $15,000 and produced no income. Mention of that particular investment makes Winder smile and note that he has held onto the investment, for which he paid $6,500, since 1968.

Down on the list

At the other end of the spectrum is U.S. District Judge Dee Benson, who, as far as the government is concerned, had nothing to disclose. There are no outside positions or outside income of any kind, and he has no debts or liabilities.

Behind Winder in being able to afford country club dues is U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene, who listed 73 investments, mostly blue chip stocks that paid small dividends, along with several investment and bond accounts.

All told, the investments produced less than $60,000 in income but had a minimum value of $245,000 and a maximum of $1.5 million.

If Greene has a potential conflict, it is his financial affection for high-tech stocks such as MCI Worldcom, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Intel, Hewlett Packard and Dell Computer. But he also has a diversified portfolio showing lots of bonds, money markets and nice, safe tax-free investments such as T-bills and government bonds.