No. of Recommendations: 6
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas loves telling people about driving through the American heartland and spending time with the regular folks he meets along the way in R.V. parks and Walmart parking lots.
Of course not everyone can afford the $267,230 motor coach he told friends he had scrimped and saved to buy.
But evidently Thomas couldn't afford it, either.
Anthony Welters, a close friend who made his fortune in the health care industry, underwrote the loan.
He would not say how much he had lent Justice Thomas, how much the justice had repaid and whether any of the debt had been forgiven or otherwise discharged. He declined to provide The Times with a copy of a loan agreement ' or even say if one existed. Nor would he share the basic terms of the loan, such as what, if any, interest rate had been charged or whether Justice Thomas had adhered to an agreed-upon repayment schedule. And when asked to elaborate on what he had meant when he said the loan had been 'satisfied,' he did not respond.
"'Satisfied' doesn't necessarily mean someone paid the loan back," said Michael Hamersley, a tax lawyer and expert who has testified before Congress. "'Satisfied' could also mean the lender formally forgave the debt, or otherwise just stopped pursuing repayment."Hey, ethics and rules are for the little people, dontchaknow.
nytimes.com - Clarence thomas rv anthony welters 