|
|
| Next: Lost large icons in taskbar |
| Author |
Message |
ploesch
Joined: Aug 22, 2003
Posts: 4060
|
 Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale |
|
|
Reid Got $1M in Land Sale
| Quote: |
...
In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.
The Nevada Democrat's deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He's never been charged with wrongdoing _ except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.
..... - .....
Senate ethics rules require lawmakers to disclose on their annual ethics report all transactions involving investment properties _ regardless of profit or loss _ and to report any ownership stake in companies.
.....
|
For the most part, I don't really care about his land Deal, it seems no one was hurt, and it wasn't an underhanded deal to Bilk people out of their money.
However, as the article points out, it is a clear Violation of Senate Ethics Rules.
So, what should happen to him?
Should he resign, be censured, or should the poeple just vote him out?
It does get a little more concerning though. While not unusual in itself, there is a question as to whether or not reid may have used undue influence to get the property rezoned and federal lands granted to make the deal go through.
| Quote: |
Nevada land deeds show Reid and his wife first bought the property in January 1998 in a proposed subdivision created partly with federal lands transferred by the Interior Department to private developers.
Reid's two lots were never owned by the government, but the piece of land joining Reid's property to the street corner _ a key to the shopping center deal _ came from the government in 1994. |
| Quote: |
Clark County intended for the property Reid owned to be used solely for new housing, records show. Just days before Reid sold the parcels to Brown's company, Brown sought permission in May 2001 to rezone the properties so a shopping center could be built.
Career zoning officials objected, saying the request was "inconsistent" with Clark County's master development plan. The town board in Spring Valley, where Reid's property was located, also voted 4-1 to reject the rezoning.
Brown persisted. The Clark County zoning board followed by the Clark County Commission voted to overrule the recommendation and approve commercial zoning. Such votes were common at the time.
Before the approval in September 2001, Brown's consultant told commissioners that Reid was involved. "Mr. Brown's partner is Harry Reid, so I think we have people in this community who you can trust to go forward and put a quality project before you," the consultant testified
|
I assume there will be some investigation into this matter, and I'm willing to wait and see. I just hope people treat this matter fairly. There is definitely violatins of Senate Ethics requirements, and an investigation will tell us if there were other Violations, or if everything was handled normally. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
silmaril8n
Joined: Jan 29, 2004
Posts: 1743
Location: Phoenix, AZ
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
|
| I'm also interested in what he has to say about it. As for what to do? Hard to say until they get the facts out.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
silmaril8n
Joined: Jan 29, 2004
Posts: 1743
Location: Phoenix, AZ
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:28 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,219960,00.html
| Quote: |
Reid hung up the phone when questioned about the deal during an AP interview last week.
But in a news conference Wednesday in Las Vegas, the senator said he believed he did nothing wrong but was willing to change his ethics report's account of the sale if the Senate Ethics Committee ordered him to do so.
"Everything I did was transparent," Reid said. "I paid all the taxes. Everything is fully disclosed to the ethics committee and everyone else. As I said, if there is some technical change that the ethics committee wants, I'll be happy to do that."
The senator's aides said no money changed hands in 2001 and that Reid instead got an ownership stake in Brown's company equal to the value of his land. Reid continued to pay taxes on the land and didn't disclose the deal because he considered it a "technical transfer," they said.
They also said they have no documents proving Reid's stake in the company because it was an informal understanding between friends.
Senate ethics rules require lawmakers to disclose on their annual ethics report all transactions involving investment properties — regardless of profit or loss — and to report any ownership stake in companies. |
There's more interesting info in the article as well. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sgt Schultz
Joined: Dec 07, 2002
Posts: 6829
Location: St. Louis area
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:36 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
| I am curious to see what the ethics committee decides or comes up with on this one with Reid. Seems that it should at least be looked at by them. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
xavierx
Joined: Nov 06, 2004
Posts: 3871
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:37 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
| This just proves what I said in another thread - they're all corrupt, even the ones screaming loudest about the corruption of the other side. Those on either side who try to pretend that their side is better are only fooling themselves, and falling into the trap that the politicians want us to - fighting amongst ourselves instead of solving the real problem, the politicians! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sgt Schultz
Joined: Dec 07, 2002
Posts: 6829
Location: St. Louis area
|
| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
| xavierx wrote: |
| This just proves what I said in another thread - they're all corrupt, even the ones screaming loudest about the corruption of the other side. Those on either side who try to pretend that their side is better are only fooling themselves, and falling into the trap that the politicians want us to - fighting amongst ourselves instead of solving the real problem, the politicians! |
I agree completely. The problem is that a large percentage of the public actually believes them. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mommabear
Joined: Feb 20, 2003
Posts: 6185
|
| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:31 am Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
| Quote: |
The AP's John Solomon, the go-to guy at the Associated Press for any anti-Democratic efforts, and this piece is absolute crap. The crux of the claim:
| Quote: |
| Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show. |
Actually, he did own that land. It just so happened that three years ago, he transfered the property from his own personal name to that of an LLC.
It'd be kind of like me selling Daily Kos, and someone claiming I reaped a windfall from it because I "sold it three years ago". I didn't. Daily Kos became an LLC. As did Reid's piece of land.
And btw, this was all disclosed to the ethics committee. The place were things got sloppy is that Reid continued to disclose ownership of the land as a personal asset rather than ownership in the LLC which owned the land. But that's it. Fact is, the LLC had no other assets other than this piece of land, and Reid disclosed ownership of the piece of land. ...
Update III: A tax lawyer reader writes:
| Quote: |
FYI, I am a tax attorney. A single member LLC (i.e. an LLC owned 100% by a single person) is treated by the IRS as non-existent for tax purposes. The LLC owner continues to treat himself as the direct owner of the property for tax purposes as if the property were never transferred to the LLC. That could explain why someone might continue to consider himself the owner of property which he has transferred to a single member LLC.
A multiple member LLC is treated as a partnership for tax purposes. Again, if an existing partnership transfers property to an LLC owned by the same partners in the same percentages, the LLC will usually be treated as the same entity as the orignal partnership, and again an individual might reasonably believe that no transfer has taken place.
|
The latter paragraph is relevant to this discussion. Reid owned a 75 percent interest in two plots of land, his partner 25 percent. They created the LLC in the same exact percentages.
Ultimately, there might be a technical violation of Senate rules -- Reid has asked for clarification from the ethics committee. But bottom line is that Reid followed the spirit of the law. He disclosed his ownership of the land -- down to the exact plots -- which would allow for watchdogs to monitor any potential conflicts of interest. That is better than disclosing ownership in a shadowy private LLC, with no public access to its assets. (Which is, btw, essentially what Hastert did.) |
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/11/175829/67 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
osprey
Joined: Sep 04, 2003
Posts: 1390
|
| Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:02 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2006/10/12/1013edreid.html
| Quote: |
Currently, he's trying to explain a land deal in Nevada on which he made a pile of money and which may not have been properly disclosed. When the property was sold in 2004, it belonged to a company formed with a long-time friend and included a parcel that once had been owed by Reid. Despite having transferred his parcel to the company, the Nevada Democrat continued to report in Senate documents that he still owned it personally. That's a breach of Senate disclosure rules, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the transaction details.
Reid is now considering whether he should amend his disclosure statement.
Two months ago, the Los Angeles Times reported that Reid had smoothed the way for a campaign contributor and friend to develop a huge tract of land northeast of Las Vegas. Reid tried twice — before he was successful — to get a utility right-of-way moved from the proposed development site onto public land.
The first effort stalled because of objections from the Bureau of Land Management and others that the developer wasn't going to pay anything for a deal that would greatly increase the value of his development site. Eventually, it was determined the developer should pay the federal government more than $10 million.
Then there are the free boxing tickets Reid took from the Nevada Athletic Commission. The panel was hoping to block formation of a national boxing commission; Reid favored one.
Only after the Associated Press reported this summer that Reid got the expensive tickets did the senator decide he would no longer accept such gifts.
Unfortunately, Reid's ethics meter only seems to work when it's too late. |
Here is a real newspaper, not some biased blog. The Journal/Constitution is not a conservative newspaper either. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mommabear
Joined: Feb 20, 2003
Posts: 6185
|
| Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 8:48 am Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Here is a real newspaper, not some biased blog. The Journal/Constitution is not a conservative newspaper either. |
But gosh, as many would point out to the other side, this might be from a newspaper, but it's in the editorial section. Therefore, it's just another opinion piece, isn't it? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
xavierx
Joined: Nov 06, 2004
Posts: 3871
|
| Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 1:27 pm Post subject: Re: Reid Got $1M in Land Sale [Login to view extended thread Info.] |
|
|
Why is it so hard for liberals who spend so much time saying that Republicans are evil to accept the fact that their side is no better? Is it because then they'd have to admit that their hatred of Republicans is misplaced?
As I've said before (in this thread even) they're all corrupt to a greater or lesser extent. And anybody in a leadership position is most likely corrupt in a greater extent - how do you think they GOT into a leadership position? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
| |
|
|
General