A senior US State Department official has disclosed receiving a holiday valued at $11,900 (€10,700) from Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison, after travelling with him and a group of friends last year.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that State Department official Sarah B Rogers went on a trip last year to the Mediterranean that was paid for by Stripe’s Collison.
A spokesperson for Collison has said no business meetings were conducted on the trip and that his payments business, Stripe, has no ongoing dealings with the State Department.
They added that for the past eight years, he has taken personal friends on a trip each year.
READ MORE
During the trip, Collison and his group of friends visited “museums and historical sites in various cities, including the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Tbilisi’s churches, and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum”, the spokesperson said.
Details of the trip were released in a financial disclosure by Rogers, who described Collison as a “pre-existing friend predating my government service”. Collison’s spokesperson said they have been friends for several years.
She added that the expenses for the trip, which was “for purposes of tourism”, were covered by Collison and she valued the gift at $11,900 in her disclosure.
Rogers went on the trip a month after she was sworn in as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
A State Department spokesperson said Rogers has known Collison for several years and that she planned the Mediterranean holiday before her confirmation.
Rogers, and the rest of the group, made the trip to the Mediterranean region on Collison’s private plane.
George Mason University economist and professor Tyler Cowen was also in attendance on the trip. He told the Washington Post he and Collison organise this trip every year to various cities worldwide to visit historic sites.
Collison and his brother John set up payments giant Stripe in 2010, which was valued at $159 billion earlier this year.
Based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Collison’s net worth rose more than 70 per cent this year to $16.3 billion.
The businessman, who holds a US green card, has lived in the US and on occasion donated to political causes in the country.
He previously donated towards a group supporting Hillary Clinton’s bid for US President and other Democratic Party candidates.
In more recent years, Collison has donated to Republican campaigns and this year provided more than $33 million to campaigns that sought to defeat a new wealth tax being proposed in California.
