Castle Grande - Robert W. Palmer

Robert W. Palmer

Robert W. Palmer was the land appraiser for one of the Castle Grande loans, he later admitted to conspiring with Jim McDougal and others with Madison Guaranty savings association. The conspiracy was to inflate the estimates used for the loans. Kenneth Starr's investigators found that Palmer inflated estimates used to support loans made to Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas.

Mr. Palmer did many appraisals for loans for Madison Guaranty. The larger appraisals was for a $1.05 million loan to Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas and an associate to buy a water and sewer system for the Castle Grande project. Later appraisals showed the system to be worth about 1/2 of that loan. Later when the loan went into default it was one of the largest losses to Madison, which collapsed in 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of $68 million.

Palmer pleaded guilty on December 6, 1994 to Federal charges of conspiracy, charges related to Whitewater. He was sentenced on June 16, 1995 to 3 years probation with the first year home detention and was fined $5,000 fine. He was later pardoned by Bill Clinton in a controversial manner.

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