Wait a minute, I read this, and other articles about it, and I fail to see the big scandal here. Perhaps someone should enlighten me. As it is, according to the Washington Post, the basics facts are as follows:
1.
Reid and his wife purchased the land in Clark County, on the outskirts of Las Vegas, in 1998 for $400,000. The acquisition was done in tandem with an adjacent property that was bought by Reid's friend of 35 years, Jay Brown, a former casino lawyer whose name has surfaced over the years in organized-crime investigations, according to the AP. Brown has never been charged with criminal wrongdoing, the AP added.
So, first off, Reid and his wife bought some land on the outskirts of Vegas in 98 for 400k. It was next to some property that Reid’s friend owned. This guy Jay Brown is a casino lawyer, and in the past his named has been associated with organized-crime investigations. What lawyer Casino Lawyer has not been at times associated with organized crime investigations? No scandal there.
2.
In 2001, Reid transferred his property into a partnership company that he co-owned with Brown. The transaction was done, according to a statement by Manley, to make it easier for the Reid family and the Brown family to try to rezone the undeveloped land so a shopping center could be built on it.
So, three years after buying the land, Reid transferred his property into a partnership company that was co-owned with Brown. This was done to make it easier to develop the property into a shopping center. I don’t see anything odd about that at all, it happens all the time. One guy buys some land on the outskirts of town, where he thinks that the town will grow into, and thus drive prices up. His buddy buys some land next to it, they form a partnership in order to combine the size of their property, thus make it more attractive to development, thus increase its value. No scandal there.
3.
The local zoning board, overruling a staff recommendation, granted the land's reclassification and Reid's share of the company was sold for $1.1 million to shopping-center developers in 2004, leaving him with a theoretical profit of $700,000.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101640.html
Ok, so 6 years after purchasing that land on the outskirts of Vegas, one of the fastest growing metros in the United States, amazingly, at the height of the real estate boom, the land is worth a lot more than what Reid and his partner originally paid for it. They then got the local zoning board to approve the sale, which happens all the time in every city in the United States, and then made a ton of money. No scandal there.
Now, it seems to me that the only impropriety here, unless I am missing something, is that Reid failed to inform the Senate Ethics Committee that he no longer directly owned the land, but instead it was in a partnership, of which he was a partner. So he informed the Senate Ethics Committee of the purchase, and the sale of the land, but not of transferring it into a partnership.
Honestly, unless I am missing something, I don’t see the big scandal here.
