From Rags to Riches, the Harry Reid Story
Ever wonder how the flacks and hacks make their millions while in Congress?
Here’s how:
“In 2004, the senator made $700,000 off a land deal that was, to say the least, unorthodox. It started in 1998 when he bought a parcel of land with attorney Jay Brown, a close friend whose name has surfaced multiple times in organized-crime investigations and whom one retired FBI agent described as “always a person of interest.” Three years after the purchase, Reid transferred his portion of the property to Patrick Lane LLC, a holding company Brown controlled. But Reid kept putting the property on his financial disclosures, and when the company sold it in 2004, he profited from the deal — a deal on land that he didn’t technically own and that had nearly tripled in value in six years.
When his 2010 challenger Sharron Angle asked him in a debate how he had become so wealthy, he said, “I did a very good job investing.” Did he ever. On December 20, 2005, he invested $50,000 to $100,000 in the Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector Fund (IYE), which closed that day at $29.15. The companies whose shares it held included ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips. When he made a partial sale of his shares on August 19, 2008, during congressional recess, IYE closed at $41.82. Just a month later, on September 17, Reid was working to bring to the floor a bill that the Joint Committee on Taxation said would cost oil companies — including those in the fund — billions of dollars in taxes and regulatory fees. The bill passed a few days later, and by October 10, IYE’s shares had fallen by 42 percent, to $24.41, for a host of reasons. Savvy investing indeed.””
Shady characters, slick moves and insider trading on legislation… Beats working for a living.
14 Comments
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How do our high elected officials always become millionaires? Simple:
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Insider trading, rigging the laws, timing, influence, positioning, creative accounting, and much more. A politically connected and positioned person has the time, motive and opportunity to accomplish all of this. It’s all in the contacts, the drinks at the club, favors to the influential, the wink and a nod. The: I’ll help you if . . .? It’s the same old smarmy story.
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Kid gets a law degree, goes into politics, knows a few friends who know some people, yada, yada, and soon big money is coming his way. Call it contributions? I’m sure HarryReid doesn’t see anything wrong in his actions. Hey, he makes the laws.
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According to the phone call I received, he got rich by being a tax cheat and a felon. He has not denied to those allegations.
So Hairy Reed is one of those contemptible “millionaires and billionaires” who needs to pay his fair share… got it.? Perhaps the divisive class envy card the prez has been playing needs to be turned against him…?
Sounds like ?bama and Rezko.
If checking we must, we should look at everybody, including Paul Ryan’s interests in the energy industry.
Oh please, ?Ryan ias squeaky clean besides he isn’t rich.
It would seem that Sammy would rather worry about the mote, rather than the plank placed before him…
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If solving the problem is the issue, the one and only way to end this discussion is to remove as much power from Washington, DC as possible. Case closed. Sure, state governments will and DO have politicians at all levels that will swing deals, but those guys won’t be able to hide from constituants or blame it on other states. I’m sick of hearing “Congress is a mess” but our guy is great.
Ryan may be squeaky clean, and still report an ADI for 2011 of $323,416. Not bad.
Your point is?
Lynn, the point is that since Ryan is not rich according to you, $320K plus qualifies for not-rich? Poor? Middle class? Just getting by?
How about the point of the post?
I say: every politician, Repub, Dem or Ind,? who makes gets to Congress gets rich(er). Is that the point? Or is the post about separating Congressmen by party?
The point of the post is about Harry Reid getting rich by insider trading, which would be illegal if done by anyone else, not in Congress. It is case specific, but we can draw the conclusion that members of Congress from both parties may do this as well.