Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido managed to sell his house to a defense contractor for $1,675,000 in November 2003.

The defense contractor then put it back on the market almost immediately for roughly the same price. But the Del Mar house languished unsold and vacant for 261 days before selling for $975,000. At the same time, the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor's efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon.

So when literally everyone in San Diego was making money on their house appreciation, Cunninghams buyers managed to lose $700,000.

From the San Diego Union Tribune yesterday:
Meanwhile, Cunningham used the proceeds of the $1,675,000 sale to buy a $2.55 million house in Rancho Santa Fe. And Wade, who had been suffering through a flat period in winning Pentagon contracts, was on a tear – reeling in tens of millions of dollars in defense and intelligence-related contracts.

In an interview Wednesday, Cunningham conceded that the circumstances surrounding the transaction could raise "fair" questions, but he insisted that the real estate deal was legitimate and independent of his efforts to help Wade win contracts.

"My whole life I've lived aboveboard," Cunningham said. "I've never even smoked a marijuana cigarette. I don't cheat. If a contractor buys me lunch and we meet a second time, I buy the lunch. My whole life has been aboveboard and so this doesn't worry me."
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I've heard the "defense contractors" work is classified, so we don't know what the $700K bought them. Also, it appears the house was never listed in the MLS listing and the transaction was done with cash to avoid a document/loan trail. Some defense.

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