"It's class warfare and my class is winning." Warren Buffett

The value of any commodity, ... to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Book 1, chapter V.)

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works....(Barack Obama)


Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Freebery Loaned the Judge Money?

Say what?

U.S. District Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr. received a $600,000 loan from former New Castle County official Sherry L. Freebery and was making $4,000 monthly payments to Freebery in 2001, according to testimony today in Freebery’s
mortgage fraud trial. (link)

Perhaps I am out of the loop on this story, but how did Freebery, a New Castle County Employee, come across $600,000 to loan Judge Farnan, a US District Judge? Presumably this money didn’t come from Lisa Dean Moseley, the du Pont heiress, because Freeberry had already bought the properties in Hockessin and Dewey Beach.

Other questions are:

  • Why did Farnan need the money?

  • What were the terms of the loan?

  • Why did he get the money from an individual and Freebery in particular and not through a lending agency?

  • Did Joseph J. Farnan III, Judge Farnan’s son, have a conflict of interest when he served as Freebery’s attorney at closing?

What is fascinating about the incestuous entanglements of power is the assumption that their nakedness isn’t obvious to all, especially in a small state like Delaware

Posted by Delaware Watch at Tuesday, January 10, 2006