Sean Hannity Responds to Report on His Real Estate Empire: 'I Am Being Attacked'

[DonViejo]

by Caleb Ecarma | 11:42 am, April 23rd, 2018

Sean Hannity responded to The Guardian‘s report on his massive real estate empire by suggesting the media is unfairly “attacking” him for putting money into “communities that badly need such investment.”

The UK-based outlet reported yesterday that a shell company tied to Hannity spent $90 million buying 870 homes in the U.S. — many of which were foreclosed properties. Conflict of interest questions were raised due to the real estate venture’s ties to the Department of Housing and Urban Development — since they receive financial support from the National Housing Act loan program — and the fact that HUD Secretary Ben Carson appeared on Hannity’s show in a fawning interview.

Read Hannity’s full statement on his real estate investment below:

“It is ironic that I am being attacked for investing my personal money in communities that badly need such investment and in which, I am sure, those attacking me have not invested their money. The fact is, these are investments that I do not individually select, control, or know the details about; except that obviously I believe in putting my money to work in communities that otherwise struggle to receive such support.

I have never discussed with anybody at HUD the original loans that were obtained in the Obama years, nor the subsequent refinance of such loans, as they are a private matter. I had no role in, or responsibility for, any HUD involvement in any of these investments. I can say that every rigorous process and strict standard of improvement requirements were followed; all were met, fulfilled and inspected.

The LLC’s are REAL companies that spend real investment money on real properties.”

more
https://www.mediaite.com/online/sean-hannity-responds-to-report-on-his-real-estate-empire-i-am-being-attacked/

[CatMor]

1. Oh, he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart....

What a joke he is. He's as much of a con man as his best buddy trump.

[TheBlackAdder]

32. I didn't know he was so benevolent, we should build a shrine to him.

[CatMor]

35. Yes, he would like us to kneel down and pray to him.

[underpants]

2. $10 worth of advice from Cohen? You get what you pay for.

Yeah Sean you were just trying to help out the communities.

[Little Star]

3. What a whiny little shit!

[True Dough]

4. How long until this lie falls apart?

A day? A week?

Because it surely will...

[TheBlackAdder]

33. He probably jacked up the rent on those low-income units he purchased, kicking a bunch to the curb.

[Initech]

5. Aww, poor little snowflake! Need to go back to your safe space?

[Eyeball_Kid]

8. Dont upset his little fee-fees or

he’ll tell The Big Spanky, and then you’ll be in a bigly world of hurt. Spanky will call for you to be jailed. Your crime? You furrowed Spanky’s brow. That’s a felony in Spankyland.

[Initech]

10. Welcome to 2018 America!

White supremacy is the new normal. The laws of separation of church and state gone. We have a president who had an affair and got spanked by porn stars. And the religious right does not care. There's no crime because they threw out the laws of ethics. There's no government because the agencies critical to the US's survival are on the chopping block. Everything up is down and down is up.

[Corgigal]

24. I was looking for our DU violinist

and here you be. Thank You...

[Hortensis]

6. Please, let there be multiple felonies in this.

[genxlib]

7. By itself

The investment companies are not necessarily a problem. The question to me is what kind of business it is.

If they are vultures that take advantage of people in their time of need, then they suck. If they are buying distressed properties and fixing them up, it actually can be a benefit to a community.

Of course, I assume Hannity falls into the former category.

TO me, the most offensive thing about the whole affair is that Hannity has made that kind of money being a mean spirited gasbag.

One other thing that is striking is that this is a massive undertaking. Having the money to buy that many properties is the easy part. The purchasing, borrowing, insurance, maintenance, refurbishment, landscaping, property taxes, leases, payments, etc. would take a small army of people. Hell, I could not be bothered to keep up with one rental property. It is a little shocking to me that something of this magnitude could be kept secret.

[Docreed2003]

28. Yep...I can almost guarantee Sean wasn't concerned with the details in your last paragraph

It seems, at least from the Guardian report, that his major concern was for making a profit during a time of economic crisis for most, which was an economic opportunity for him because of wealth.

[NewJeffCT]

31. He's been doing it for 10 years now

according to the article - so, he started buying them up when market was tanking in 2007-2009. I'm guessing it originally started with him buying HUD and Foreclosure properties for below market prices and sitting on them in hopes that the market turned around in a few years - when you make $36 million a year, you can afford to $5 to $10 million/year on speculative investments.

It's not anything illegal - the issue is that he talked about real estate and the economy on his show and never brought up that he was a huge investor in real estate. Just like Glenn Beck used to promote buying gold on the show while also having advertisers that stood to profit bigly on gold.

[KelleyKramer]

37. You can hire a property management agent

That would take care of most of that. There is a fee of course, but it's very common, especially for rentals

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

9. Suurrree Sean... riiiiggghht.

[gratuitous]

11. And that's why he had to keep this private

Because you know what a self-effacing guy Sean Hannity is. Doesn't like to parade his charitable activities in public. He's a giver.

[Mike Nelson]

12. HaHa...

...poor Sean. He's always been so nice - attacking must be so new to him.

[bullwinkle428]

13. ZOMG...he's now trying to portray himself as the Great White Savior???

I guess that's how all slumlords think in order to be able to sleep at night.

[safeinOhio]

16. Or, Great White

Slum Lord.

[Pope George Ringo II]

14. Maybe he's got a point

After all, nobody has been involved in more baseless attacks than Sean Hannity. If anybody can convincingly lay out the mechanics of fabricating a smear job on a political opponent without regard for the consequences, it's the guy who's made a career out of it for decades.

Then again, maybe he's guilty.

[matt819]

15. Hes a slum lord (nt)

[IluvPitties]

18. Dear Sean, time's up.

You are a corrupt SOB that has been hurting our country for too long. It's about time your true self is exposed.

[lunatica]

19. My god! The unfairness of attacking such a community activist!

The irony is bulging everywhere lately. Any minute it’s gonna explode all over the place!

Hannity is a community activist!

[FakeNoose]

20. Maybe it's time to BOYCOTT Hannity's sponsors

Does anybody have a list of his sponsors handy?

[DFW]

21. Not "attacked." EXPOSED.

If he senses that in his case there is no difference, well, maybe there is a message in there somewhere.

[democratisphere]

22. Hannity is a true drumpfian disciple.

It is always someone elses' fault.

[Turbineguy]

23. Nice discussion on CNBC this morning.

Take away: conflict of interest.

[Grammy23]

25. So Sean, how does it feel when the shoe is on the other foot???

[beachbum bob]

26. hannity is being EXPOSED...its not an attack but the fact he is now revealed

as one who takes from the taxpayers

[Yavin4]

27. I'm shocked and surprise by Hannity's response on this.

Not one word blaming Hillary.

[bluestarone]

30. hahaha yep not one word

YET!!! but I'm sure he or somebody will!!!!

[louis-t]

29. I lived through the Real Estate nightmare of the last 10 years.

I saw investors with cash beating out people who were trying to buy a house to live in. I saw one guy buying up 700 houses at a county tax lien foreclosure sale when hundreds of buyers came from multiple states to try to buy investments. He then put most of them back on the market without lifting a finger to clean or repair them (they were all in horrible shape and full of garbage), flooding the market in two cities, causing prices to drop even more than they already had. He offered Realtors a pittance to sell them for him and insisted that the buyers had to pay all transfer taxes and title costs. I guess he figured if he could make $1,000 on each one, he would make profit. The result was that most of these houses stayed on the market for years, attracting rodents and causing neighbors stress as cities began receiving complaints about the smell, vandalism, etc. Most Realtors refused to show them. City governments began changing ordinances in direct response.

I would be very surprised if this LLC actually put any money into improving these properties. Usually, they put the minimum needed and rent them out.

[kentuck]

34. What a snowflake!

[TheSmarterDog]

36. The first impression I get is that Hannity is acting like a classic fanboy for Trump.