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politico
By BEN SCHRECKINGER
01/28/2020

EXCLUSIVE-—Lobbyist bought tropical land from Biden’s brother
Extended Jim Biden a private mortgage

Scott Green, a lobbyist with close ties to Joe Biden, purchased Virgin Islands property from James Biden and then extended him a private mortgage.

pic-—Joe Biden, his brother James Biden and lobbyist Scott Green. | POLITICO Illustration/Getty Images; AP; Alain Brin

In 2005, Joe Biden’s brother bought an acre of land with excellent ocean views on a remote island in the Caribbean for $150,000. He divided it into three parcels, and the next year a lobbyist close to the Delaware senator bought one of the parcels for what had been the cost of the entire property. Later, the lobbyist gave Biden’s brother a mortgage loan on the remaining parcels.

The Virgin Islands land deal, reported here for the first time, furthers a pattern in which members of the Biden family have engaged in financial dealings with people with an interest in influencing the former vice president.

In this case, a Biden staffer left the Senate in the early ’90s to become a lobbyist. Both before and after the land transaction, his clients benefited from Biden’s support and appropriations requests. A firm the lobbyist co-founded — which features a testimonial from Biden praising his “emotional investment” in his work on its website — specializes in federal contracts for niche law enforcement and national security programs for which Biden long advocated.

After the land deal, Joe Biden vacationed elsewhere on the tiny island, which once protected a nearby submarine base before it became a tropical getaway, on at least three occasions.

pic-—Honeymoon Beach-—Water Island. | Alain Brin/POLITICO

The property itself has remained vacant and undeveloped. It is not clear why the lobbyist, Scott Green, purchased the parcel from Biden’s brother James, or why James Biden later went to the lobbyist for a loan, rather than to a bank. An easement James Biden obtained granting road access to the land before selling it to Green may have made the land more valuable, but it is unclear whether the dramatically higher price Green paid for his parcel reflected its true value. The terms of the loan were not disclosed in property records.

It is also not clear whether Joe Biden was aware of the transactions. Following the land purchase, Green continued to lobby on issues over which Biden wielded influence and to meet with Biden’s staff. Green’s firm also continued to land government contracts related to federal programs for which Biden advocated.

Representatives of the Biden campaign declined repeated requests over weeks to comment. Shortly before publication, spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement: “Joe Biden was wrong. Politico does have a sense of humor. Because this story is an absolute joke.”

Green did not respond to several requests for comment. A lawyer for James Biden, George Mesires, acknowledged receiving questions, but did not respond to them.

James Biden, six years Joe’s junior, served as finance chairman on his older brother’s first Senate campaign in 1972. He went on to pursue an entrepreneurial career that regularly intersected with Joe’s public duties. He once sought to launch a Washington lobbying firm, but the venture was cut short when his would-be partners were convicted of attempting to bribe a judge in an unrelated matter. He has previously been accused by former business contacts of seeking to exploit the former vice president’s clout for financial gain in court proceedings inNew York,Kentucky, andFlorida, though he has denied such claims.

Water Island is a 500-acre spit of land in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Department of Defense purchased the island from a Danish company during World War II, using it to protect a submarine base on nearby St. Thomas. Since then, it has become an under-the-radar tropical getaway dotted with several-dozen homes, where the largest beachfront estates can fetch north of a million dollars.

pic-—Island scenes-—Scenes of tropical Water Bay. Honeymoon Bay (top) and the Water Island Ferry. | Alain Brin/POLITICO

In May 2005, James Biden and his wife, Sara, purchased a one-acre plot of land in the middle of the island, according to property records. Tax records describe the view from the property as “excellent.” The price: $150,000.

Then, the couple got an easement to access the land and divided it into three parcels. The easement, granted by the Virgin Islands territorial government, gave them the right to use an existing driveway to the property that cut across government land. A year later, in May 2006, the Bidens sold the northernmost parcel, just over a third of an acre, to Green and his wife, Julie, according to property records.

The price, again, was $150,000. In effect, James and Sara Biden had gotten their money back while keeping most of the land — recouping their investment in just 12 months.

Land value can fluctuate, making it difficult to assess whether such a dramatic increase in land price was reasonable. An easement can make land more valuable, depending on how costly the easement was and how difficult it was to obtain.

The paperwork costs for this type of easement would be minimal, according to Raf Muilenburg, managing partner at Morrisette & Muilenburg, a law firm based in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Muilenburg estimated that the cost of planning and surveying a driveway easement would be under $1,000. Filing fees would be in the hundreds of dollars, and that the easement could also entail a small amount of legal work, he said.

Typically, the recipient of an easement also pays the party granting the easement for the rights they are getting on that party’s land. If James and Sara Biden paid the Virgin Islands territorial government for the driveway rights, it was not reflected in property records.

A tax bill from 2006 lists the assessed value of Green’s parcel at $87,000, but tax records indicate the bill was rescinded. Subsequent tax bills list the assessed value of Green’s plot at just $38,000 — a quarter of the $150,000 purchase price — until 2013, when it jumped to $83,700. Typically, land sells for more than its assessed value.

A person answering the phone at John Foster Real Estate, a local realtor, identified Chuck Gidley as the agent listed on the original 2005 transaction.

Gidley declined to comment.