More Woes for Stevens
Seems that the deal-making Ted Stevens wasn't active only in Alaska, but in Florida as well. According to new court documents filed by federal prosecutors yesterday, the six-term Republican allegedly failed to report a $31,000 interest-free loan he took out from an unnamed friend to buy a South Florida condo in 2001.
According to prosecutors (pdf), Stevens was required to put $36,000 down on the unbuilt Gold Coast unit -- 10 percent of the $360,000 purchase price -- but only dropped $5,000 himself. The remaining $31,000 was picked up by the friend.
But it appears the Stevens family never intended to live there, and a few months later, the property was sold for $515,000 (nice!). A few weeks afterwards, Stevens wrote two separate checks to the friend -- one for $15,000 and another for $16,000. (The first was sent on Sept. 12, 2001, according to prosecutors, leaving some wonder as to why he wasn't busy with other diversions that day.) Trouble was, the government says:
Although Stevens knowingly carried debt on a $31,000 interest-free loan from his personal friend for more than 10 months during 2001, Stevens did not list such a liability on his 2001 disclosure form.
But hell, maybe the constitutional separation of powers allows that as well.
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