State Street Again: Hunter got break on taxes for home

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Back in the winter of 1994, after reapportionment reshaped California's congressional districts, Rep. Duncan Hunter went shopping for a new home.

When Rep. Duncan Hunter set out to rebuild his home lost in the Cedar fire, it became clear the tax assessment had been wrong for years.
The seven-term Republican from Coronado headed east, to the foothills outside El Cajon, where he discovered what would become his quiet retreat from the vagaries of Beltway politics.

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According to county records, the Resolution Trust Corp. sold the 2.7 acres on Vista Viejas Road at public auction Dec. 15, 1993. State Street Bank and Trust paid $175,000 for the parcel and took title Jan. 4, 1994.

State Street Bank and Trust is a subsidiary of State Street Corp. of Boston, a global financial-services provider for institutional investors.

Even though State Street is listed in county records as the buyer, a spokeswoman said the company never formally owned the property. Rather, it was acting as a trustee for the Resolution Trust Corp., she said.

The Resolution Trust Corp., which closed in 1995 and handed operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., had rules prohibiting insider trading and conflicts of interest as it sold off thousands of seized properties.

The Code of Federal Regulations prevented contractors from buying real estate they were hired to liquidate. The law also excluded “related parties,” described as key federal employees and others, from the government sales.


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