Rep. Renzi indicted over Arizona land deals

Posted by Brandon English
Friday, February 22, 2008 at 11:32 AM

Rep. Renzi indicted over Arizona land deals [The Arizona Republic]:

U.S. Rep Rick Renzi was indicted this morning on charges of extortion, wire fraud and money laundering related to a land deal in Arizona.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix, which is prosecuting the case, will announce the indictment in a 9:30 a.m. news conference.

Authorities unsealed a 26-page federal indictment Friday accusing Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Renzi's former partners $4.5 million.

Reached at his home in Virginia Thursday night, Renzi said he knew nothing about the indictment and referred all questions to his lawyer. The 49-year-old Republican, businessman and father of 12 has long denied any wrongdoing.

Renzi, who was first elected to Congress in 2002, has been under federal investigation for more than a year over an alleged land swap deal that benefited a key campaign contributor.

Rumors of indictments in the case have long followed the Republican lawmaker; but this week those rumors intensified on Capitol Hill and in Arizona, with sources saying the case could take a major turn.

Despite the lack of indictments, the case has created a public-relations disaster for Renzi and has critically damaged his political career.

Last April, the FBI raided Renzi's family business, an insurance company in Sonoita, serving search warrants and seizing documents. Following the raid, Renzi gave up his seats on the House's Natural Resources, Financial Services and Intelligence committees and saw his Capitol Hill stature shrink.

In August, Renzi announced that he would not seek a fourth term as representative of Arizona's 1st Congressional District.

Questions surrounding Renzi's dealings stem from his 2002 campaign, when he financed his campaign using money from a business associate named James Sandlin and from ManTech Corp., a Fort Huachuca company in which Renzi's father served as an executive.

Renzi's father, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Eugene Carmen Renzi (retired), died on Feb. 9. His funeral was Thursday night.

Among Renzi's first acts as a congressman was sponsorship of legislation to erase Fort Huachuca's obligation to preserve the San Pedro, a river that is not in his district.

Renzi's father had been commandant at Fort Huachuca before he became an executive with ManTech, which had $450 million in contracts at the fort, with an option for $1.1 billion more. Its employees poured more money into Renzi's 2002 campaign than any other business, federal records show.

In 2004, Renzi began to push a land swap between the federal government and private property owners.

One of the parcels on Renzi's agenda was a 480-acre alfalfa field near the San Pedro River, owned by Sandlin.

Resolution Copper wanted to buy private land and trade it to the government for U.S. Forest Service acreage near Superior, where huge ore deposits had been discovered. Investigators are looking into whether Renzi told the company there would be no land swap unless Resolution bought the Sandlin tract.

Renzi has repeatedly said that he welcomes any federal investigation and hopes that it will bring the truth to light. [emphasis mine]

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