B DeBrun wrote:

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Guess who is really happy the financial shyte storm has hit DC?

Chuckles himself:

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/20...06/nyregion/06rangel.html

I'm astonished the NY Times is reporting on this.

TRICKY CHARLIE'S CARIB 'HIDEAWAY'

SHADY FILINGS ON BEACH-VILLA RENTAL INCOME

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By ISABEL VINCENT in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and SUSAN EDELMAN in New York

For 20 years, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel has owned a beachfront villa in a sun-drenched Dominican Republic resort, yet has only sporadically declared income on the property in federal filings.

Rangel Beach Villa Photo Gallery

While the villa was rented to paying guests for the past two years, for instance, Rangel reported no income from it in 2006 and 2007, The Post has learned. As a congressman, failure to fully list all income and investments can result in civil penalties or criminal charges.

The powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman, a Democrat, owns "casita" No. 412 on the Caribbean Sea at the Punta Cana Hotel, on the lush eastern tip of the country, where he is affectionately known as "el senador."

His three-bedroom, three-bath villa, which can accommodate three couples, is rented for between $500 in the low season to $1,100 a night in the busiest tourist season and is one of the resort's most popular, managers and staff say.

"You are requesting the best casita on the beach," a reservations manager told a Post reporter posing as a customer.

"We are always booked solid on that one between December 15 and April 15. It is always the first one to go," he said.

The 78-year-old Rangel's stone-covered cottage - which boasts flat-screen TVs and a panoramic ocean view - was open to hotel guests in the past two years, General Manager Carolina Jones told The Post.