Staten Island CA land deal scandal

California Assemblyman Bill Maze is leading the charge to request that the U.S. Attorney’s office investigate a shady 9,200 acre land deal at Staten Island. The California state auditor found serious problems with the deal. The state auditors most recent report dated February 21, 2008 blasted the state agency that awards this type of grant is published at http://www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2008-406.pdf, following an investigation and previous report in 2007. The audit found problems with the appraisal that shifted the bill to taxpayers and created unreasonable profit for The Nature Conservancy.

Maze is also concerned as to why California taxpayers should pay the bloated price. "It is unclear to me why The Nature Conservancy, which has over $4 billion in assets and made over $1 billion in revenue last year worldwide, needed grants by the taxpayers of California to purchase the island”. The state legislature is learning the hard way and perhaps too late, that The Nature Conservancy is powerfully efficient at manipulating state-sponsored programs for its own benefit. See more at http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080301/A_NEWS/803010324/-1/A_NEWS03

Unfortunately, such sly maneuvers are standard tactics for The Nature Conservancy, as other municipal governments across the U.S. and around the world have learned the hard way for decades.