Catastrophe - Dick Morris [80]
Given that Dodd says he talks to Downe every day, it’s hard to believe that Downe wouldn’t have mentioned the area to him. Rennie has also discovered other connections Downe may have had with the property: even as Dodd was just contemplating purchasing the property, another associate of Downe was trying to get county approval for renovations there:
In 1993, Irish planning officials were slow in approving renovations to the property Dodd wanted to purchase. A Galway businessman, John W. M. Moore, tried to hurry them up, writing a letter reminding the bureaucrat in charge that Dodd “was an excellent friend of Galway’s” as it tried to replace hundreds of jobs lost when Digital, the computer company, closed a facility.
Moore, by remarkable coincidence, was involved in Crystal Brands of Ireland, a crystal exporting company that also employed Downe, who is identified as a “network manager” on a Dun and Bradstreet document.304
What a small world!
In 2002, one year after Downe was pardoned by Clinton, Dodd and his second wife, Jackie M. Clegg, purchased Kessinger’s share of the property so that they would own the Innishnee property outright. Despite the rise in the value of Irish properties at that time, Kessinger made only $20,000 more than his original sale price in 1995.
The Innishnee purchase had appreciated by only 18 percent during the time Kessinger was part owner—a surprisingly poor investment, especially for such an experienced real estate businessman. “According to the Irish Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government,” the Hartford Courant reports, “the price of existing homes throughout Ireland increased about 150 percent during those years.”305
Kevin Rennie compares the price Dodd paid to buy Kessinger out with other properties in the area:
Two years after the [housing] bubble exploded, homes smaller than Dodd’s and on smaller pieces of property than his are on the market for several times the maximum $250,000 Dodd has declared his is worth each year on his Senate disclosure forms since 2002.
Waterfront properties on the “Irish Riviera” don’t often come on the market. In today’s dire real estate market, a 750-square-foot, two-bedroom townhouse in nearby Roundstone is for sale for $750,000. A 900-square foot, three-bedroom semi-detached house, boasting of a view of Innishnee, the island where Dodd’s house stands high above Bertaghboy Bay, is offered for $700,000.306
So Dodd seems to have bought out Kessinger’s share at considerably below market price. He defended his purchase by showing the Hartford Courant an appraisal made a year before the sale went through that valued it at $190,000. At a time when smaller houses on lesser pieces of property were selling for three times the amount that Dodd paid, it’s hard to find a rational explanation for the appraisal Dodd’s property received; we’ll leave it to your imagination.
Dodd told the Courant that it was incorrect to assume that prices all over Ireland had risen. He speculated that Innishnee properties hadn’t gone up because the bridge had been in bad repair for years and couldn’t handle heavy loads.307 Say what? Hey Chris, don’t you remember that the bridge was fully replaced in 2001, the year before your appraisal? Dodd even seems to be puzzled at the ongoing interest in his ownership of the Irish property. HINT TO CHRIS: Maybe it has something to do with the price you paid (or didn’t pay)?
Without even seeing the outside of the house, anyone looking at the Dodd property today would would laugh at the idea that it’s worth no more than $250,000, as Dodd reports on his financial disclosure statement. Besides the beautiful setting and immense piece of land surrounded by water, the house is charming and the land is well kept. Stone walls in perfect condition surround the property; discreet signs indicate the name of the security company. A locked red iron gate