The LLC was headed up by the mob lawyer.
So he was the one who theoretically received the gift from Reid.
And also, tax liability is different depending on whether you own property outright or through an LLC.
And there is also the idea that if the land had NOT gone up in value, then the absence of documentation of Dirty Harry being a partner in the LLC, he would then not bear any of the liability (such as a loss in value of the land) - and if the land did go up in value then the sub rosa agreement with the mob lawyer was that Dirty Harry would get the big windfall (in other words, the profit was actually a GIFT to a policiticion that the IRS and the senate could not track).
On top of all that, the local newspaper has noted:
"The question is the timing of the land deal itself and its relationship, if any, to the release of other federal land for private development. In theory, such a purchase could be considered something akin to trading with insider knowledge. Reid's influential friends and political allies are often close to those federal land releases."
Without Dirty Harry's name on the deed or the LLC papers, who would know that he pulled levers by using his office to add value to his own land, not the land of some mundane LLC in which Dirty Harry had no apparent financial interest.
That's the only part of your post I disagree with. But maybe you know more about this stuff than I do. My CPA created an LLC for me several years ago, so I have some rudimentary familiarity with the LLC structure, and the relationship between the individuals and the LLC. From that understanding, I concluded that the gifting is going from the mob lawyer to Reid. But I could be wrong, and you might have superior knowledge of these matters.
If the IRS gets involved in this, I think they might question the lack of documentation joining Reid to the LLC.
I should have been more clear. I was not being sacastic when I suggested you might have more knowledge about these matters than I do. I was saying it seriously.