Dominion Eminens
Latin has a phrase for everything. Eminent Domain provides that the State can take private property for public use, think roads and bridges. In theory the State can not take the private property and deliver it to another set of private interests or, simply, theft, in exchange for economic rents and bribes irresistible to the political class.
The former leader of a Native state is being prosecuted for the legerdemain of taking $200 million worth of farmland (2004) for the State delivered to private developers for $20 million. The State had a three-step monte for the paperwork: get the land from the farmers, relieve the farmers from their title, release the untitled land to developers, who in turn retailed the wholesale acquisition. The domain, eminent or otherwise, did not result in public works but at least one golf course and promises to build residences.
The Native Supreme Court has directed the investigators to chase down every last "pie" and more than a few of those "pies" flowed through an outfit lead by an aspiring young developer who sought in at least one instance to deposit a small portion of the arbitrage in bungalows that only the born right could afford. The investigators have attached at least one of the redirected cash flows and are now focused on the developers' spouse because, it appears, that both left the jurisdiction in 2018.
The farmers are grateful that the promised residences remain castles in agreements to deliver and the soil is unsullied by actual development making their path to status quo ante a shuffle to the courthouse steps. The story is but a small piece in the puzzle of unraveling the deeds of the political elite that had governed the Natives for over 54 of its 74 years of independence.
These tales are not uncommon in the infancy of republics distributing public assets to private parties though at the pace of Native judicial proceedings could provide centuries of entertainment in getting right the wrongs of the cradle.
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