This comes on the heels of revelations that Rep. Schock accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of free interior decorating services (he had his DC office styled like a set from Downton Abbey - lol). From Blue Nation Review:
(Peoria, IL)
Now there’s this: the month before the 2012 elections, Congressman Schock sold his house to a major Republican donor who was also one of his campaign supporters for a price that appears to far exceed the market value at the time. Memories of disgraced former GOP Congressman Duke Cunningham (CA) came flooding back into my head as I worked through the documents.
Here's the background:
Ali Bahaj – then a Vice President at Caterpillar – and his wife Gloria have donated more than $45,000 over the last decade to the Caterpillar PAC and various Republican officeholders – including Congressman Schock. In fact, Federal Election Commission records show that Mr. and Mrs. Bahaj each made the maximum allowable donation to Aaron Schock’s campaign in 2008. These were legal donations and they aren’t the first or last time a Member of Congress received donations from constituents.
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Congressman Schock on October 16, 2012 sold his home to the Bahajs for $925,000. That’s more than three times the tax assessed value of the property. Zillow estimates that the house was worth approximately $695,000 that month.
I searched the County of Peoria’s Supervisor of Assessments for Schock’s former home, found a few “comps” (aka similarly-sized homes in his gated community), and found this: the Bahaj’s paid far more than other buyers of similar homes near Schock’s. In fact, nearly identical homes nearby to Schock’s sold for $580,000 (8/31/2011)
http://bluenationreview.com/...
This is almost exactly the same scam that brought down Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) back in 2005-2006. The FBI launched an investigation into Cunningham's shady real estate deal, which uncovered many other inappropriate graft schemes. Cunningham pled guilty and went to jail for 8 years.
We now have Schock's home sale (one month before elections, no less!), his free-of-charge office decorating, and also, apparently, many instances of free luxury travel and accomodations provided to the representative. I'd say it's high time the FBI started a file on this guy.
Update 1:
(h/t Shockwave)
The article in Blue Nation Review also details blatant quid pro quo in the Schock home sale. The buyer was a Vice President at Caterpillar, and Schock has apparently become a rabid booster of the company - including going on Fox News to defend Caterpillar's $2 billion Swiss tax dodge. He also publicly blamed recent Caterpillar layoffs on President Obama.
Big ups to Jimmy Williams (frequent MSNBC contributor), who broke this story on BNR.
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