Comments (15)

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on February 14, 2007 12:19 PM:

In his 2003 personal financial disclosure statement, Lewis reported making between $250k and $500k on the sale of 5850 Alder Ave. in Sacramento in October 2003. I couldn't find any record indicating that Lewis ever bought or sold property at 5850 Alder Ave.

I did find a record of Marvin L. Oates, Trustee for the Marvin L. Oates Trust, selling 5850 Alder Ave to Roxie Real Estate Investments LLC for $1.895 million on October 19, 2003.

Marvin "Buzz" Oates is a very wealthy California developer and a member of the ultra right wing Council For National Policy. Oates was #288 on Forbes 2002 400 list of rich Americans. In 2002, Oates was hit with a $7 million judgment in a civil suit in which he was charged with defrauding fellow investors.

Given the flap over Harry Reid's real estate deal, I am surprised no one has insisted that Rep. Lewis provide the details of his real estate deal.

Jose Padilla wrote on February 14, 2007 12:47 PM:

Do you know how long the Marvin L. Oates Trust owned it? If it had owned the property for, say, five years or more a 20% to 40% profit would not be out of line, given California real estate prices. Of course, we don't know the size of Lewis's investment.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on February 14, 2007 1:19 PM:

JP, In June 2002, Lewis rolled over proceeds from a December 2001 sale of a DC condo into a 78% interest in 5850 Alder Ave. I can't access Lewis's 2002 personal financial statement at OpenSecrets.org at the moment but I remember that the Marvin L. Oates Trust held the mortgage.

I don't know when the Oates Trust bought 5850 Alder Ave but, according to Lexis-Nexis, the Trust sold it in October 2003 which is when Lewis reported selling his 78% interest. Lewis also reported that he did not receive the proceeds from the sale until March 2004.

The transaction may be perfectly legitimate but the transaction itself is as clear as mud.

mbbsdphil wrote on February 14, 2007 4:53 PM:

Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders comes to mind. Where do you hide one murder in particular? Among a lot of others. How do you hide firing one particular prosecutor who's getting too close to the Golden Calf? By firing a lot of others, and by making, oh, say, the one in Little Rock seem more egregious than the one in San Diego. The only dirty trick Mr. Rove disdains is the one he hasn't thought of yet. Follow the money.

chabuka wrote on February 15, 2007 4:06 PM:

Aww..Bush to the rescue...and "Speedy" Gonzales..firng all those "federal prosecutors" who are prosecuting these powerful GOP members...(you thought it was just coincidental?) can you imagine what will happen to the GOP if all this comes out....? (lets just say they will be out of favor, power for decades) Kind of makes bouncing checks, stealing postage and a B.J., seem trivial..

Anonymous wrote on February 15, 2007 6:04 PM:

Roxie Real Estate Investments has the following information registered with the California Secretary of State:

LP/LLC
ROXIE REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS, LLC
Number: 200305610014 Date Filed: 2/24/2003 Status: active
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Address
451 KETTERING
ONTARIO, CA 91761
Agent for Service of Process
JIM TOMKINSON
451 KETTERING
ONTARIO, CA 91761

There is also a Roxie Real Estate Investments II, same process person but different address:

ROXIE REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS II, LLC
Number: 200335310017 Date Filed: 12/18/2003 Status: active
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Address
4001 GREYSTONE DRIVE
ONTARIO, CA 91761
Agent for Service of Process
JIM TOMKINSON
4001 GREYSTONE DRIVE
OANTARIO, CA 91761

4001 Greystone tracks back to be a location of Construction Metals International (CMI):
http://www.constructionmetals.com/Locations.html

CMI is a metal products manufacturer (to Home Depot and Lowes, among others), based in Ontario, CA. Jim Tomkinson was CEO of CMI until it was bought in 2003 by Gibraltar Steel, of Buffalo, NY.

Tomkinson stayed with Gibraltar during the transition. Unclear if he's still there. The real estate in 2003 deals happened when his company was being purchased.

The FEC does not record any donations from a "Jim Thompson" to Lewis or anyone. Thompson must've made a good deal of money on the sale of CMI, so the "real estate investments" are not illogical.

Only question would be was the sale price fair and did he know Lewis?

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on February 15, 2007 10:04 PM:

Thank you for the info, anon. I don't think the question of the fairness of the sale price is the only one.

We don't know who owned 5840 Alder Ave in June 2002 when Jerry Lewis bought a 78% ownership of the property. We don't know who owned the other 22%.

If Lewis was partners with the Marvin L. Oates Trust, you'd want to know what the property was appraised for in June 2002.

You'd also want to know how much cash Lewis put up. The Oates Trust held a mortgage for Lewis on 5850 Alder Ave. according to Lewis's financial disclosure.

I don't see how the Oates Turst could hold a mortgage on the percentage of 5850 Alder Ave it owned.

When I searched Lexis-Nexis, I found CMI located at 5850 Alder Ave. but I don't know if CMI was a tenant when Lewis owned a percentage of the property. Lewis did declare rental income from the property in 2002 and 2003.

If Lewis owned 78% of 5840 Alder Ave and was partners with the Oates Trust, his share of the proceeds from the sale would have been $1.478 million before paying the mortgage. The mortgage was between $250k and $500k so net proceeds would have been more than what Lewis reported.

But we just don't have enough information to come to any conclusion about Lewis's purchase and subsequent sale of 5850 Alder Ave.

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