Report: Easleys got big discount on NC property

RALEIGH — A Raleigh newspaper is reporting that former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley and his wife accepted a $137,000 discount on a waterfront lot in 2005.

Closing documents made public by The News & Observer on Friday show the Easleys got a 25 percent “seller discount” for the property on Bogue Sound in Carteret County. The deed registered with the county doesn’t include the discount, recording the price as $549,880.

Easley spokesman Ace Smith told the newspaper that Easley received the same offer as everyone else and it would be “ridiculous” to suggest the discount was a gift. Several men involved in the subdivision project were Easley allies and campaign donors.

Federal authorities are investigating the Easleys in a wide-ranging probe.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)