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Someone bought 52,000 acres in the Bay Area. No one knows who they are
- randycupertino 3y agoThe Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is reviewing the purchases of land by Flannery Associates, a limited liability company registered in Delaware whose owners are publicly unknown.1 The company, who paid about $800 million for land purchased since 2018, is accusing a group of California landowners of conspiring to inflate the price of their land by hundreds of millions of dollars.2 Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that government officials remained unaware of the owners’ identities.3 An investigation by the U.S. Air Force is ongoing. 1 https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/someone-bought-52000-acres-in-the-bay-area-18296921.php https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/someone-bought-52000-... 2 https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/some-california-landowners-fight-while-other-settle-510-mln-antitrust-lawsuit-2023-08-07/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/some-california-lan... 3 https://www.wsj.com/articles/investors-bought-nearly-1-billion-in-land-near-a-california-air-force-base-officials-want-to-know-who-exactly-they-are-fd868e38 https://www.wsj.com/articles/investors-bought-nearly-1-billi...
- throwaway888abc 3y agoIs not this why US invented shell companies ? It's feature not bug ?
- kjs3 3y agoI find it hard to believe we 'invented' shell corporations, even if they weren't called that. Esp considering how many jurisdictions catering to shell corporations and their ilk are British aligned.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThe history of corporations are available from many different sources, from many perspectives, a lot of it accessible for free online. If you find it hard to believe, you can look into it and draw your own conclusions.
- kjs3 3y agoI'm somewhat aware of how corporation work. I was poking a bit of fun at someone thought the US exclusively came up with the concept of a shell corp. Clearly, I didn't take into account there would be a condescending and tone deaf user who didn't have a more constructive or insightful response than "duh, just google it, newb".
- MichaelZuo 3y agoIf your only somewhat aware, then it shouldn't be that hard to believe there may be something your missing in regards to the history of corporations?
- tamimio 3y ago>A lawyer who represents the Flannery group told the Journal that 97% of the investors are American, with British and Irish investors making up the other 3%, but that information has not been independently verified
- the_lonely_road 3y agoProbably something boring like a new theme park but its fun to come up with more elaborate conspiracy thinking.
- appplication 3y agoIt’s likely, but they would have of be idiots to think that buying up massive tracts of land saddled up to an active Air Force base would not raise alarms.
- pengaru 3y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36816387 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36816387
- labrador 3y agoWhy wouldn't the Air Force be secretly buying it to expand their base if secrecy gets them a better price?
- appplication 3y agoWhen the federal govt wants something it pays what it considers a fair price. There isn’t a lot of negotiating, and it wouldn’t buy through an LLC.
- labrador 3y agoSounds like a group of investors are making a bet the Air Force will want to expand in the build up to conflict with China
- simfree 3y agoExpanding Air Force bases on the West Coast nets us little in a conflict with China. Building bigger bases in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and similar adjacent countries is a much better way to posture ourselves for any future scuffles with China.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- throw03172019 3y agoThe buyers bought way about market price for some properties.