CHICAGO — A showy red cape drew more bids than framed autographs of Michael Jackson or Bruce Lee as a government auction of more than a dozen items forfeited by prison-bound former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. got underway Tuesday.
The online auction, which will accept bids over two weeks, is the U.S. Marshals Service way of trying to recoup part of the $750,000 in campaign funds the Chicago Democrat and his wife, Sandra, illegally spent – often to satisfy penchants for attention-grabbing clothes and pop-culture keepsakes.
Three hours after the auction began, the red cashmere cape with fur trim had already drawn 34 bids, tripling the initial asking price to $905; court documents say Jackson purchased it for $1,500 from an Edwards Lowell Furs store. A Bruce Lee autograph had just four bids, the highest of which was $350.
Calculating existing bids for all 13 items as of Wednesday, the feds looked to rake in more than $5,000 from the Jackson auction. Dozens of other frivolities he spent his donors' money on, including two stuffed elk heads and a football signed by U.S. presidents, aren't part of this auction.
The Jackson items up for auction aren't the oddest the Marshals Service has sold off to help pay felons' fines or court-mandated restitution. The underwear of convicted Wall Street fraudster Bernie Madoff was once auctioned by the same Texas-based company contracted to sell the Jackson belongings.
The notoriety surrounding a criminal case can sometimes boost the value of objects that – ironically in the Jacksons' case – become celebrity memorabilia in their own right, explained Jason Rzepniewski, an auctioneer at the Texas company, Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers Inc.
Buyers have until Sept. 26 to bid at for any of the Jacksons' former possessions that tug at their heart strings. Among the other options is a guitar signed by both Eddie Van Halen and Michael Jackson, who scribbled, "Let Love Fall Like Rain," next to his signature. www.txauction.com
Jesse Jackson Jr., the 48-year-old son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a one-time golden boy of Democratic politics, is now effectively broke thanks to his legal troubles, his lawyers have said.
He also faces prison time.
Within the next several months, Jackson must leave his two school-aged kids and enter a federal facility to begin serving a 2 1/2-year term for to scheming to spend campaign funds on himself and his wife. The same federal judge who sentenced Jackson last month also imposed a yearlong sentence on his wife.
It continues to amaze me how these people will vote for these corrupt politicians over and over and over solely based on race. Do they ever stop to think that these corrupt politicians (like democrats) use them for votes with NO intention of ever actually helping them in life?
ReplyDeleteBy keeping voters oppressed they can control the voters - meanwhile these politicians are living lavish lifestyles and stealing from donors and taxpayers -- and they get RE-ELECTED?? ie Marion Barry, Kwayme Kilpatrick, William Jefferson, Charlie Rangel, John Conyers, Ray Nagin... the list goes on...
Two and one half years, out in in one, is a joke!
Seems like a very light sentence for STEALING 3/4 of a million dollars .
Just my humble opinion
Hey Big Boy,
ReplyDeleteLike Father... Like son... Birds of a Feather , too bad for Jr. the government isn't as forgiving as the church his father went to before he robbed them blind, Thieves should go straight to Hell .
I say we auction him off ( to the highest prison bid ) of course.
Why doesn't Jesse Sr. or Al Sharpton pony up the money and buy the stuff? Go to Charlie Rangel for a loan, he probably forgot to pay his taxes again.
2-½ years for lying numerous times to investigators in a criminal investigation, false accusations of racism, false claims of depression and bi-polar disorder?
Who sentenced this guy and why does this so called judge still have a job? It's a slap in the face to anybody reading this. What type of purnishment is 2 years in jail for 3/4's of a million dollars. A slap on the wrist for that kinda corruption ..serious??
I have a problem with people who abuse trust...any kind of trust. They are the lowest human predators. They do it because they can. It's a cowardly crime.
ReplyDeleteThey got off so lightly. I don't understand. Where's the justice?
PIC
They make thier own justice ... it has always been that way ... it's call .... not how much you know ... but who you know .
ReplyDeletePIC