Renzi Had Secret Tie to Land Deal, Sources Say

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rumors about a federal probe into Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) and a land deal he pushed for have been in the air for the last several days. The AP nailed down the first piece of the story tonight. We may be able to add a bit more.

In the past few days we’ve chased this story ourselves, and have talked to a number of the players involved. (None would confirm the existence of a federal probe, although several referred our questions to the FBI.)

All the facts aren’t on the table yet, but here’s what we know: Two separate investment groups had land swaps in Arizona that needed federal approval, something for which a lawmaker like Renzi would be instrumental in obtaining. (Swaps are deals where private investors trade tracts of land the government wants — for conservation purposes, perhaps — for government-owned tracts which can be sold or developed.)

Both groups say Renzi told them to buy an unrelated parcel of land as a part of their deal, which was owned by James Sandlin, a political backer and onetime business partner of Renzi’s.

Both groups have since come to believe that Renzi had an inappropriate financial connection to that proposed land sale — possibly a financial stake — which he did not disclose when he pitched them on it.

Troy Corder is a spokesman for Arizona-based Resolution Copper, a party to one investment group who had lobbied Renzi to support its land swap. In early 2005, “Congressman Renzi asked the company to look at the Sandlin[-owned] property and include it in our land exchange,” Corder told me today.

“During the course of our due diligence, we discovered that congressman Renzi and Sandlin had a business relationship, which made us uncomfortable. We decided not to pursue the property.” Renzi, he said, supported their land swap anyway.

Guy Inzalaco is a consultant for a second investment group who wanted Renzi’s help with a land deal. “We had discussions with [Renzi’s] staff as well as with the congressman,” he told me. “We understood that the congressman and staff were supportive of [our] land exchange, and that it was important to have [Sandlin’s] piece included in the land exchange.”

“If we would have known the congressman had a financial interest in the land, we would not have proceeded with this,” Inzalaco told me. Instead, his group purchased the Sandlin property for $4.5 million in October 2005, unaware that Renzi had any personal tie to the deal.

Despite the purchase, Renzi did not pursue helping their land swap go through.

Renzi’s office declined to respond to repeated requests for comment we have made since Friday. When I reached Jim Sandlin at his home in Texas and asked him what he knew about a federal investigation into a land deal involving him and Renzi, he replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He has not returned phone calls since that conversation.

Latest Muckraker
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: