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First we heard about the secret land deal that gave Harry Reid an astonishing 175% return on the dollar in a shady “undocumented” business deal with a partner that has been linked to organized crime.

Then Captain Ed over at Captain’s Quarters filled us in on the fact that Harry Reid’s son Rory is the Clark County Commissioner and may be the person who is responsible for overseeing zoning matters on the questionable parcel of land.

It appears that Democrat Senator Harry Reid has certainly been busy involving himself in real estate deals; which in and of itself isn’t a crime. Unless of course you used your influence in political circles to make those deals happen as well as inflate the value of the property through certain zoning changes that inflated your profit margin. Not to mention the fact that your buried the path that would highlight these activities.

But that is all technical; right?

I have another question. I want to know what happens to all the profits Senator Reid made on this undocumented business deal. This is relevant if it turns out that the income was made through illegal means.

The reason I ask this question is because I happened to come across this 6/08/2005 updated article in ReviewJournal.com that details a transaction from Harry Reid concerning 4.73 acres of land on Park Lane in Clark County; the same country that Senator Reid’s son oversees as mentioned above. This appears to be the same piece of land that was involved in the AP report or is just coincidentally located on the same street with the same shell company and the same partner.

You will note that Senator Reid also gave the same wall of silence to Review Journal when asked about the sale.

Reid, 65, reported assets between $2.1 million and $5.5 million. His wealth includes land and mining claims in Searchlight, his hometown. His largest listed asset is 160 acres of land in Bullhead City, Ariz., valued at $500,000 to $1 million.

Reid’s portfolio contains municipal and school bond investments of $520,000 to $1.2 million. He has put money into offerings from Clark County and Henderson as well as jurisdictions in Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Utah, Alaska, Tennessee and Michigan.

Reid reported that he sold a piece of property and a 47 percent interest in an adjoining piece of land in January 2004 for a price that he reported as between $1 million and $5 million.

Clark County records indicate that Reid was involved in a sale completed in January 2004 of 4.73 acres on Patrick Lane just west of Fort Apache Road, south of Spring Valley. Records show the buyer was Patrick Lane LLC, whose manager was listed as Jay Brown, an attorney and longtime Reid friend and associate.

Records available Friday did not indicate sales prices. Reid declined through a spokeswoman to detail the transaction or verify the county information.

Reid’s profits from the transaction were reinvested in a Wells Fargo money market fund and in bond offerings, his aide confirmed from his financial report.

Reid also bought stock in companies that included Best Buy, Emerson Electric, Anheuser Busch, Apache Corp., an oil and gas developer, and Boston Scientific, which manufactures medical devices.

During 2004, Reid sold stock in companies that included mortgage lender Freddie Mac, Intel Corp., Kohls Corp. and hospital operator HCA Inc.
Reid delivered a dozen speeches, at $2,000 apiece, in 2004. He donated the $24,000 to charity as required by Senate rules.

He declined through a spokeswoman to identify the beneficiaries.

So the money was reinvested in a money market account. How perfectly legit; unless of course the money invested was not legally obtained.
The mainstream media had this to say about the whole sorted thing “ ”.

Others:

AJ Strata: In 2002 Reid Lambasted Land Swap Conflict Of Interests
Flopping Aces: The Reid Influence
Michelle Malkin: Pounding Dirty Harry Reid

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