Rangel Failed to Report Profit on Condo Sale
House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) appears to have made a $70,000 profit from the 2006 sale of a Florida condominium he had purchased two years earlier, but he never reported the profits on his Congressional financial disclosure forms as House rules require.
On his financial disclosure form for calendar year 2004, Rangel reported that he bought a condo in the Miami Beach area town of Sunny Isles, Fla., for between $100,000 and $250,000. He listed the value of the condo that year at between $50,000 and $100,000.
But according to Florida land records and local real estate listings, Rangel and his wife purchased the condo for $335,000.
On his 2006 disclosure form, Rangel reported selling the property for between $250,000 and $500,000, but the following year he amended that report, setting the sales price between $100,000 and $250,000.
Florida land records place the actual July 2006 sale price at $405,000, meaning that the Rangels made a $70,000 profit on the deal, which was never reported on Rangels financial disclosure forms.
Roll Call sent Rangels attorney, Lanny Davis, a detailed list of questions on Friday about errors in the Congressmans financial disclosure forms. Davis and Rangel issued statements Sunday evening in which Rangel essentially admitted that there were likely numerous errors in his forms. While over the years, I delegated to my staff the completion of my annual House financial disclosure statements, I had the ultimate responsibility, Rangel said. I owed my colleagues and the public adherence to a higher standard of care.
Rangel said he would hire a forensic accountant to review all of his disclosure forms going back 20 years, and to provide a report to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which Rangel said he will then make public.
Davis said Rangels decision shows that he has nothing to hide, and does not believe he has done anything intentionally wrong.