This week, Governor Rick Perry has found himself mired in a growing scandal over his sneaky land deals that have netted him over a million dollars while in public office. Here's more on this nasty scandal:
The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Perry's investment was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering.
And guess who he got the latest dirty deal from? Alan Moffatt, an alleged reputed international arms dealer who helped run arms to Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide. This is the kind of guy that Perry looks to for help in maintaining his fancy lifestyle.
Alan Moffat, owner of an airplane service named Peak Aviation, is best known for accusations that his company delivered illegal arms to Rwanda. Here's more behind the invisible man:
Documents and interviews portray Moffatt as an international businessman active in aviation, whose company once faced accusations of arms deliveries in connection with a brutal civil war. He also has ties to controversial Third World leaders, The Dallas Morning News found.In 2006, for example, he and Jaffe traveled to Gambia, a small Muslim country on the western coast of Africa. Jaffe owned an executive Boeing 727 and found a potential buyer in President Yahya Jammeh, who once vowed to "cut off the head" of any homosexual in his country.
The jet was also transported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was shown to another potential buyer, President Joseph Kabila. The president is a former commander of child soldiers, called kadogos, and was trained at the People's Liberation Army National Defense University in China, according to published reports. Jaffe and Moffatt also made stops in Nigeria, Rwanda and United Arab Emirates, Moffatt said in an interview.
So, how did Rick Perry come to sell his land in the ultra-tony Horseshoe Bay for a cool $1.15 million to an alleged international arms dealer, Alan Moffatt? Rick Perry first bought the land in affluent Horseshoe Bay Resort from his boyhood friend, Republican State Senator Fraser, for $310,762, since they were planning to live close by each other in retirement. It turns out that the land was horribly undervalued by nearly $140,000, and had a market value closer to $450,000.
After holding the land for six years, Rick Perry was ready to sell. However, it was stuck on the listing for about four months with no takers with a price of $1.2 million. Perry ended up taking the property off the real estate listing. And then along comes Alan Moffatt, the ill-reputed business partner of Douglas Jaffe who owns and runs the Horseshoe Bay resort, ready and willing to take this pesky land off Perry's hands.
Of course, there are conflicting stories among Perry's associates as to exactly how the sale happened. It's reported that Perry offered a sale price of $1.2 million to Moffatt through Ron Mitchell, another one of Jaffe's business partners at Horseshoe Bay and Resort, and one of Perry's campaign contributors. And Moffatt did a counter-offer of $1.15 million, considerably more than the latest appraisal of the land's value at $800,000. That was an offer Rick Perry couldn't refuse, and that dirty deal was made.
So Perry ended up with a profit of $839,238, which is $489,238 more than he would have made if he sold it at fair market value.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg on the dirty deals scandal, and it isn't the first time that Rick Perry's made a dirty deal to enrich himself. Oh, yes, there's much more on this story when you click on the link below.
FOR MORE ON RICK PERRY'S DIRTY DEALS SCANDAL, CHECK US OUT AT WWW.RICKSDIRTYDEALS.COM
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written by Noelle Bell, Director of New Media at Back To Basics PAC