Posted on 02/22/2008 8:55:20 AM PST by GraniteStateConservative
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal grand jury has indicted Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Renzi of Arizona on 35 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and official extortion, according to court papers unsealed on Friday.
The indictment stems from plan by Renzi and an associate to benefit from a land-exchange plan in order to receive Renzi's support for necessary federal legislation, court documents said.
"It was an object of the conspiracy for Renzi to enrich (his associate) and personally benefit himself," the indictment said.
It also accuses Renzi of embezzling premiums from clients of an insurance business to fund his congressional campaign.
Renzi was first elected in 2002.
U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa in Phoenix, where the indictment was handed down, has scheduled a news conference to details the charges.
Welcome to my world.
So my son says he's building a protective chicken wire cage around it.
I've stopped watching news channels altogether. It's FR, HGTV, TCM and cartoons for me.
notice the party affiliation is ID’d in the 1st sentence? If it were a Dem, you’d have ti search for it, if it was even there.
Weird story. I’m sure you’re probably glad it worked out the way it did. Was he a local politician prior to his Congressional run?
Well, at least he got his legislation pushed through first to give LaRaza Ten million a year of our tax dollars.
May 30, 2007 La Raza La Radicals. HR 1999, proposed in April by co-sponsors Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX) and Rick Renzi (R-AZ), would provide $10 million a year to ...
www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1999/blogs/3
No, his father was commander at Fort Huachuca and he lived there as a child. He went to college at Flagstaff but moved back from Virginia to run for Congress.
FTA: "Public records show that Mr. Sandlin and Mr. Renzi became business partners in 2001, when Mr. Sandlin bought shares of Fountain Realty & Development, one of Mr. Renzi's companies. In 2002 and 2003, Mr. Sandlin paid his partner between $1 million and $5 million for Mr. Renzi's stake in that business, according to House financial-disclosure records.
In 2004, a Federal Election Commission audit found that Mr. Renzi had received a total of $369,000 in illegal corporate funds from Fountain in the 2002 election cycle. It found that Fountain had shifted $131,000 of this through Mr. Renzi's personal accounts to the Renzi for Congress campaign account -- and that at least $70,000 of it was put back into Mr. Renzi's personal account."
Renzi never had one smidgen of intent to represent the people. He only bought a house in AZ to establish residency so he could run for Congress. I don't think he ever even lived in AZ.
I hope he gets what he deserves. (I won't say what I think that should be - I would be banned.)
See post 64. Renzi is just part of McCain’s amnesty plan.
I eas trying to figure out how this little land-swap scam worked. Sandlin is mentioned extensively in the indictment, but no other names. Googling, I came across Babbitt, again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102401715.html
Sandlin bought into Renzi’s real estate firm in 2001, then paid about $200,000 for half the business and, after he was elected to Congress, $1 million to $5 million for the rest.
Investigators want to know whether Renzi twice attempted to arrange deals for Sandlin, including once by proposing legislation, two sources with knowledge of the investigations said.
According to land developer Guy Inzalaco, Renzi was approached last year by an investment group that included Inzalaco and former Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat. The group sought legislation that would put environmentally sensitive watershed land under federal protection in exchange for opening other federal land to development.
Renzi said he would back the legislation if the Sandlin tract was included, Inzalaco said.
Woods said Renzi was trying to include a tract of land that environmentalists had been trying to preserve for years and did not know until later that his business partner owned it.
That fall, Renzi announced he would introduce the San Pedro River Land Exchange Act, a bill that would include the Sandlin property. Within days, Sandlin sold the tract to the Inzalaco-Babbitt group, turning a $3 million profit in three years. The land-swap legislation was never enacted.
Inzalaco said yesterday that he knew nothing of Sandlin’s connections to Renzi.
Apologies, here. I posted something without checking on the facts. Renzi did indeed live in AZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Renzi
I saw that post......La Raza. Everything's always about shamnesty with McShamnesty.........AND then there's this land deal with Sandlin....(about which Inzalaco says he's "ignorant")...yeah right.
I just checked Wikipedia and see he’d been criticized for introducing and voting for Bills that would benefit his father’s defense business. It also says his father passed away this month.
This land swap deal sounds an awful lot like the one that McCain worked for his friend, Carl Lindner, between Scottsdale and Carefree, the one that I posted the link for, yesterday.
From Arizona. I wonder how much will rub off on McCain.
Yeah... I was thinking the same thing. McCain has sponsored legislation for quite a few land swaps. And this new enviro-greenie push offers all sorts of new possibilitites to make worthless land pretty valuable:
Arizona to become 'Persian Gulf' of solar energy
I don't know.
Here is a McCain/Renzi deal:
http://www.house.gov/renzi/news/RenziReportNovember_2005.pdf
The Renzi Report
VOL. 3 ISSUE 9 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005
House Passes Northern Arizona Land Exchange and Verde River Basin Partnership Act
The House of Representatives last month passed the Northern Arizona Land Exchange and Verde River Basin Partnership Act (S.161) cosponsored by Congressman Rick Renzi (AZ -1) and Senator John McCain. This legislation facilitates a land exchange in northern Arizona of private land within the Yavapai Ranch for Forest Service land in the northern portion of the state and establishes a water resource planning and management partnership. Congressman Renzi sponsored the House version of the bill and Senators McCain and Kyl sponsored Senate version. President Bush signed the measure into law at the end of November.
“This bill will provide an important boost to not only northern Arizona’s economy, but also Flagstaff’s economy,” said Congressman Renzi. “The measure will provide the City of Flagstaff with the opportunity to acquire land to expand and improve Pulliam Airport. It will also enhance local resource conservation and improve forest land management in northern Arizona. It will preserve the pristine areas within Yavapai Ranch.
“This bill will also allow the City of Williams to acquire land for its well sites, water storage tanks and wastewater facility and drinking water treatment plants,” said Congressman Renzi. “Until recently, the City of Williams relied completely on surface water supplies to service the community, however, surface water reservoirs in Williams are well below their needed capacity.”
Well at least he’s not an RMSP guy... or should I say ,, darn! ;-)
BTTT
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