US Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut may have lowballed the value of a vacation property he acquired in a sweetheart deal in Ireland.
According to the Democrat’s latest financial disclosures, obtained by The Post, Dodd claims his three-bedroom cottage on 10 acres with breathtaking views of the Atlantic is worth $638,000.
This figure falls far short of property values on Inishnee Island, where The Post discovered Dodd’s next-door neighbor was selling a much smaller property for $1.2 million.
Although Evelyn O’Neill’s cottage is slightly larger than Dodd’s, with one more bedroom, it sits on only one quarter-acre, she told The Post.
Matt O’Sullivan Auctioneers, a real-estate firm, is handling the sale of O’Neill’s property. Matt O’Sullivan said he appraised Dodd’s cottage at $638,000 two months ago but refused to answer any further questions.
“Dodd continues to mislead people about the value of his Irish property,” charged Tom Fitton, president of the conservative Judicial Watch, a Washington, DC-based ethics watchdog.
But a spokesman for Dodd said that the O’Neill cottage is the one that is overpriced.
“The value of the other property you reference is not comparable to the appraised value of the Dodds’ cottage. According to the listed real-estate agent, the other property’s estimated value is based solely on the owner’s asking price, not an appraisal,” Bryan DeAngelis said.
In April, Judicial Watch filed a complaint regarding the cottage with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, which is already investigating him for sweetheart mortgage loans he received.
Dodd purchased a one-third interest in the Irish property in 1994 with Kansas businessman William Kessinger for $160,000.
Kessinger was a business partner of disgraced Bear Stearns principal Edward Downe Jr., a longtime friend of Dodd. In 1993, Downe pleaded guilty to insider trading and securities fraud but was pardoned, at Dodd’s urging, by then-President Bill Clinton in 2001.
A year later, Dodd bought out Kessinger’s share in the cottage for a paltry $127,000.
From 2002 to 2007, Dodd reported that the cottage was worth between $100,001 to $250,000 on his annual Senate financial disclosure forms.
In 2002, O’Sullivan appraised Dodd’s cottage at about $190,000. Two months ago, O’Sullivan’s appraisal rose nearly $500,000.