Godfrey Crony Files a Lawsuit

Gadi Leshem gets a little help from his friends

By Curmudgeon

Very interesting piece in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning by Ms. Moulton.

Here are the opening graphs:

OGDEN - A piece of land that hugs the Ogden River in the heart of the city's redevelopment area has triggered something of a bidding war.

And a lawsuit.

A limited partnership involving Gadi Leshem, a California businessman who has been investing heavily in downtown Ogden real estate the past two years, filed suit May 30 against Raymond and Mary Jensen.

The 2nd District Court lawsuit claims the Jensens refused to follow through on the $310,000 sale of a parcel that is nearly an acre in size.

But Raymond Jensen says that is not true. On Friday, he countersued.
Leshem's representatives, he says, did not close on the property April 30, as provided by the contract.

"I had already closed but they never showed," Jensen said. "They broke their contract."

So Jensen agreed to sell the property at 1803 Grant Ave. to another buyer for even more money.

That sale was held up when Leshem's partnership filed a claim of interest on the Jensens' title recorded with Weber County, a move the Jensens are fighting.

The property is in a prime spot in the 60-acre redevelopment area known as the Ogden River Project, where the city hopes to attract new boutiques, town houses and restaurants.

And from a bit further down in the story:

Raymond Jensen says Leshem first showed interest in his property - and trumped a slightly lower offer - in February, the same day Jensen told Ogden's community development manager, Bill Wright, that he planned to sell the parcel to a Park City developer that night.

"I told the city," Jensen said, "and the next thing I knew, my [real estate] agent had an offer from Leshem."

Wright said Monday that his recollection is fuzzy, but he does not remember telling Leshem that Jensen was poised to sell his property.

Two points possibly worth mulling:

(a) If Mr. Jensen's account is correct, it could be inferred that the Godfrey administration, or at least officials within it, see their role as notifying Administration cronies when a parcel they are interested in is about to be sold to someone else so they can cover the high bid to date. Now, this might not be an ethical problem if they provided the same service to non-cronies about properties their cronies have bid on so the non-cronies could top the current high offer if they wanted to. But in the Bootjack affair, a higher offer for city land by a non-Godfrey crony seems to have been passed over in order to sell city land to a Godfrey crony at a lower price. Imagine that.

(b) If Mr. Jensen's account is accurate [and I realize the matter is being contested in court and his account is disputed], but if his account is accurate, we can only conclude that Mr. Jensen actually tried to sell land that he knew a Godfrey crony wanted to a non-Godfrey approved buyer? What was he thinking? Didn't he get the memo?

Life --- and business --- in Matthew Godfrey's Ogden.