SO the appraisel was probably lower than selling price; sounds
EXACTLY like the Kennedy deal. Two wrongs don't make a right, however.
I'm not familiar with the Kennedy deal (though I presume it's very shady).
With the Cunningham deal, there was an offer made on the house by someone who wanted Cunningham's help securing defense contracts. That contractor put in a bid $700,000 above the market value for the house (I don't know exactly how high that was above the asking price, but it was well above the asking price). That's 42% over market, not some tiny "let's seal the deal today" bit over market.
And Cunningham insisted that he didn't see anything wrong with the deal.
He's a scumbag, who sold out the troops for some antiques.