More sleaze about Charlie Rangel's vacation home

Wow, the New York Times really has sunk their teeth into Charlie Rangel. First they publicized his breaking New York City's rent control laws. Then they reported that he didn't pay taxes on his Dominican Republic vacation home. Today they report how he conveniently was able to get his mortgage transformed into an interest-free loan.

Representative Charles B. Rangel paid no interest for more than a decade on a mortgage extended to him to buy a villa at a beachfront resort in the Dominican Republic, according to Mr. Rangel’s lawyer and records from the resort.

The loan was given to him by the resort development company, in which Theodore Kheel, a prominent New York labor lawyer, was a principal investor. Mr. Kheel, who has given tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Rangel’s campaigns over the past decade, had encouraged the congressman to be one of the initial investors in the project.

The loan, which was extended to Mr. Rangel in 1988, was originally to be paid back over seven years at a rate of 10.5 percent. But within two years, interest on the loan was waived for Mr. Rangel and six other early investors because the resort was generating less income than projected, according to a statement released on Friday by Jose Oliva, director of the resort.

The loan remained interest-free and Mr. Rangel eventually paid it off in 2003.

Gee, wouldn't it be nice if every time you got a loan for an investment and then that investment didn't pay off, your lender kindly decided that you didn't have to pay any interest on that loan? I'm sure all your bankers do that for you, right?

(H/T Bill Jempty at Wizbang)