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'Mystery company' buys $800M worth of land near Travis AFB, raising concerns about national security

Foreign LLC continues to acquire land in California critical to energy and national defense.

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (KGO) – The United States Air Force is investigating a company that’s purchased $800 million of land near Travis Air Force Base, one of the most critical military bases in the U.S. But after eight months of investigation, government officials have been unable to identify who’s behind it nor rule out any threat to national security.

Flannery LLC was founded 4 and 1/2 years ago and was registered to a Washington DC-based law firm.

There is no information about the actual ownership of this LLC. The previous Reddit thread from 4 years ago has some interesting tidbits of information that you may be interested in reading in addition to the new article.

reddit.com/…/a_mysterious_corporation_has_quietly…

What’s additionally interesting is that the land that they acquired around Travis Air Force Base will be bayfront property with future sea level increases of between 3 to 5 ft. NOAA has predicted the sea level increase will blow by that with a 7.2 ft average global sea level rise by 2100.

So either we have a secretive Chinese back shell company acquiring critical infrastructure and land for spying on American military assets, or a very optimistic wealthy investor with way too much money and is getting creative in what kind of investment schemes they park their money in.

Bookmeat ,

deleted_by_author

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    Tyfud ,

    Well, you see, money.

    Wats0ns ,

    Why is this in “world” ? This is some US specific news

    redtea ,

    Not if Cuba bought the land to blast out “Havana Laugh Tracks: Top 100 Havana Syndrome Beats”.

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    All news is specific to its own region.

    Should we not have any worldnews at all?

    Wats0ns ,

    Yes, but this isn’t worldnews

    dogslayeggs ,

    A) If another country is sponsoring the buying of property surrounding a military base of another country, that is world news in my mind.

    B) If you are just complaining about this being US specific, then what news would in your mind be “world” news? Would news about India count, or is that India specific?

    Butters ,
    @Butters@lemmywinks.com avatar

    Even with 7.2 ft of sea level rise, is that really going to make something as far inland as Travis AFB beachfront property? I assume it’s elevation is greater than 8 ft.

    PersnickityPenguin OP , (edited )

    It’s not actually. It’s practically at sea level right now, the whole area is protected by dikes. The whole Sacramento Delta is basically at sea level.

    ech , (edited )

    Oooh, time to bring up a weird CA history thing I know - Sacramento and most of central CA is in what’s essentially a giant flood basin, and it’s flooded before! In 1862, there was a massive deluge in the state that more or less turned the center of CA into another Great Lake of the US. It also happened even worse in 1605 apparently, so everyone’s mostly wondering at what point will it happen again. Or maybe the sea will just swoop in and claim the great bowl of CA for itself.

    Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever ,

    Yeah, this is sheer and utter bullshit motivated by “special interests” who want to buy the land for themselves at pennies on the dollar.

    Security wise? Not to go too deep into the details, but the general rule of thumb is that: if people who aren’t cleared can see it, it is not classified. Part of that has to do with the point of classification. Most of it is just policy. If you are going to carry the alien’s head between bunkers at Area 51: either do it behind a fence or, better yet, put it in a zippered baggy first.

    And same here. The amount of intel that can be gleamed by watching a military base pales in comparison to what you can get just by monitoring social media. Hell, there are outright groups who just watch planes take off (because it is cool) who provide more intel than building a house next door ever would.

    This is why military bases tend to be rather large and one of the reasons they are often small cities unto themselves. Because it provides the kind of buffer that means you can put up a big ass fence so that nobody can see Snake Plisskin, Johnny L, and Henry Deacon getting on a high tech drill plane.

    PersnickityPenguin OP , (edited )

    I used to work near the Davis-Montham Air Force Base down in Tucson. Worked with a couple of guys who were Air Force maintenance tax during the weekends and they worked with me during the weekdays. I used to drive right through the boneyard on my way to work.

    Anyways, they used to black out the Air Base on a regular basis when they were landing various top secret or black project aircraft. These included drones as well as maybe stealth aircraft. So, even though this was visible from the highway they were still operating secretive aircraft into and out of that base.

    My favorite aircraft that they landed that I saw while driving by one day was watching an x-47 Pegasus land. That was a surreal experience and I only figured out what aircraft it was a few months ago! I saw one of those land back in 2002.

    As far as intelligence being gathered, their number of interesting drone encounters that have been published on the war zone over the last 10 years, including one instance at an airbase and the Phoenix nuclear power reactor where drones outran helicopters that were sent to investigate. Some shady stuff going on.

    Edit - also, they spent about a billion dollars on the land around the Travis Air Force Base. That’s a lot of money!

    FlyingSquid ,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    an x-47 Pegasus

    For those curious like me, it was an unmanned attack plane that never saw service but looks cool.

    https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ea0eb303-d30f-449b-a2b0-c920f99cb4b3.png

    Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever ,

    A billion dollars on what will apparently become bayfront property in one of the most expensive places in the country in the near future. That is still a steal

    And yeah, you can still see some really cool stuff even when the airport is “secure”. I live near an air force base and have a good buddy who makes sure to tell me when I should not visit her because they won’t let me on the base. And I totally have never camped out with some snacks and binoculars to try to see some fun stuff.

    But, again, that is fine. With very few exceptions, the data you can gleam from seeing the drone or jet or helicopter or whatever is not all that useful. Maybe you can determine that the canopy’s glass is at a weird angle and derive something about stealth technology from that. But that is also the kind of stuff you get just from spy satellites or even literature review. The real secrets are still the internals that aren’t being messed with on the side of the road (unless things have gone horribly wrong).

    And that applies to all kinds of intel. Maybe you know that Jack Ryan is a financial analyst with a specialization in middle eastern terrorism (or whatever season 1 was. All I can remember is the weird cucking scene with the drone operator). If you see him suddenly go into the office on a saturday evening… you know something is up and you can probably guess where. Same if you see him jogging between buildings on a military base with a black zippered bag full of documents. But knowing “something is up in whatever country we are shitting on this week” isn’t actually that useful and can just as easily be gleamed by knowing:

    1. Jack Ryan has a degree in financial forensics (or whatever) and speaks Farsi (or whatever)
    2. Jack Ryan lives near DC and may even have the CIA or a known cover on his linkedin. Or, better yet, he went from being an academic rockstar to having NOTHING on his linkedin
    3. Jack Ryan bought a new canoe last week

    That tells you what his specialization is, that he works for the CIA or another TLA, and that he is secure enough in his job security that he is splurging. Which lets you know “the us government cares about what is going on in this region of the world”. All without building an apartment complex so that you can drink a six pack while you look through binoculars.

    wanderingmagus ,

    Just because someone who isn’t cleared can see it, doesn’t mean it’s not classified, and doesn’t mean it’s declassified. They really emphasized that after the minecraft server leak.

    marmo7ade ,

    Yeah, this is sheer and utter bullshit motivated by “special interests” who want to buy the land for themselves at pennies on the dollar.

    The buyer is paying 2x the market rate for this land.

    Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever ,

    Mentioned below but:

    2 billion for what is rapidly going to become bayfront property in one of the most expensive places in the country? That is still a steal. It is just that the evil unknown company beat them to the punch.

    SCB ,

    They’re 10 miles from the bay, so unless this is a really long term investment, I don’t think that’s it.

    LexiconDexicon ,

    What if it’s a wealthy Native American just buying their land back? Probably not, but it would be peak irony

    Chetzemoka ,

    Oh, so NOW the feds have a problem with secret corporate ownership.

    Maybe let's do something to limit the onshore tax havens in Delaware, Wyoming, Nevada....

    Xanthobilly ,

    When you own a piece of land, the feds own you, when you own all the land, you own the feds.

    Can_you_change_your_username ,

    Quick somebody find a way to link this to China so we can get the GOP to start yelling about limiting foreign investment in US real estate. With a little luck we might can wrangle this into something that will lower the cost of housing.

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    There’s a good chance that China was a one harassing US Navy warships a few years ago.

    thedrive.com/…/drone-swarms-that-harassed-navy-sh…

    Not definitive however.

    afraid_of_zombies ,

    Have we tried building more housing? I know radical idea.

    Can_you_change_your_username ,

    Yeah, it keeps getting bought up and turned into airbnbs.

    KaiReeve ,

    This is the real issue right here. It’s more than just Airbnb’s, though, it’s all ‘investment real estate’.

    The solution would be to exponentially increase taxes for those who own multiple properties, but property tax is typically handled on the county level, so this would be tricky. Also, the people who could implement such a tax all own multiple properties, so there’s a conflict of interest there.

    agitatedpotato ,

    If you allow land to be turned into an investment opportunity why would anyone whos got that kind of money put a regular house there and sell it when they could just make it a permanent investment at the cost of other people not being able to buy houses to live in.

    OminousOrange ,
    @OminousOrange@lemmy.ca avatar

    Canada is struggling with this at the moment. It’s a great idea on paper, but our development style is unsustainable and we simply can’t keep up with demand. Not to mention that build costs are up 50% since 2020.

    Affordable, efficient housing that is close to amenities is what is needed, but supplying that is quite unlikely given build costs and North America’s infatuation with the suburb.

    afraid_of_zombies ,

    Yeah none of that is true. We are nowhere near the limit of how fast we can build and build cost go up when mother fucking office workers are “working” remotely. My company caught one of our reps lying about doing a site walk. Also burbs are everywhere. Might as well call rice Japanese Grain while you are at it, but what do I know. Not like I was quite literally in Frankfurt Germany this month and saw them.

    SCB ,

    Lowering retail investment will not lower the cost of housing - quite the opposite.

    Duder167 ,

    I always hear the old lady from Beavis and butthead do America when I hear the name Travis

    MomoTimeToDie ,

    If you go shoot yourself, everyone’s browsing experience will improve

    clueless_stoner ,
    @clueless_stoner@lemmy.world avatar

    Or if you’re no longer with us.

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    Hey that’s not very nice

    LordOfTheChia ,

    Others have pointed out that the purchased land is predicted to remain farmable when other regions in California become too dry to farm.

    However, them suing landowners for not selling points to either extreme greed or a project that may necessitate having a contiguous portion of land.

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    Really? Most of this land looks like it is marginal land that is not very productive for anything. It’s very low lying, around 0 to 1 ft above sea level and much of that area is actually tidal flats protected by dikes from the bay.

    I’ve driven around the bay before, and there’s a lot of shitty land around it that’s basically not used for anything. I wouldn’t even want to own a house along that area because it will be underwater within 20 or 30 years anyways.

    chaogomu ,

    Travis isn't even the best base in California to spy on. Beale AFB is just up the road and has more interesting shit.

    skepticalifornia ,
    @skepticalifornia@lemmy.world avatar

    I live up the road from Beale and there is always weird shit going on there.

    markr ,

    So the only options are Bad China Bad! or somebody anticipating ocean front real estate in 80 years?

    See false dichotomies for Your Fallacy.

    Zron ,

    Ah yes. The mystery company buying land right next to Air Force bases and key electrical infrastructure should definitely just be ignored.

    Surely they could have no other motivation besides farming on their incredibly overpriced land that they purchased in extremely specific areas.

    laylawashere44 ,

    False Dichotomy again. The options aren’t to ignore or not ignore. OP is simply suggesting that there might be a much simpler less sinister reason.

    Zron ,

    And what’s the advantage to assuming this?

    markr ,

    Why does one require an advantage? An advantage over what?

    Uttering fallacies, if intentional, is an effort to persuade with deliberate disregard for the truth. Why would one do that?

    Zron ,

    Its basic logic.

    The US has political and economic competition in the globe, and, for some reason, allows those competitors to purchase land in the US.

    An unidentified entity is purchasing huge amounts of land for well above market price near important military and civilian infrastructure.

    Which is more practical, to assume an enemy is doing enemy things and attempting to spy on/sabotage you, or to assume everything is 100% innocent.

    I would much rather myself and my government assume the former until proven otherwise, as assuming the latter only has negative outcomes.

    markr ,

    You have zero evidence that China is involved. Your claim I responded to was that either it was China or a speculator buying beachfront property for 2100. That was a spectacularly ridiculous false dichotomy.

    As you would know If you read the link that explained exactly what Flannery LLC is up to: they are buying agricultural land all over California. There is no mystery here.

    Zron ,

    I would like you to quote or link me to the comment where I said such a thing.

    If you actually read my comments. I haven’t said much at all.

    Zron ,

    I would like you to quote or link me to the comment where I said such a thing.

    All I’ve said so far is we shouldn’t assume it’s not china, as we don’t know who it is and assuming everything is hunky dory is naive and dangerous.

    dogslayeggs ,

    Buying it up at well above market value. Why are they paying too much for land, and where does a company with no known owners/directors have $800 million?

    pseudorandom ,

    Lex Luthor make the purchase?

    dtrain ,

    Otisburg? Otisburg!?

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    I think it’s a very least, our government does need to do it’s due diligence to protect American from foreign interests.

    Years ago, the FBI used to investigate foreign actors acting against America’s interests. Although I am no flag waving ultra-nationalist, I do believe that our government needs to protect Americans and our businesses, military and our institutions.

    If they do not fulfill this basic need, then they are asleep at the wheel and like our failing cybersecurity, we are at a huge disadvantage against our enemies.

    Also, don’t forget that China was flying a surveillance balloon over the United States recently. And that was at least a second one that had flown previously over Hawaii several years ago. China is well known to operate a global surveillance program over many countries. This isn’t paranoia, I mean we do it too with our signals intelligence.

    reddig33 ,

    This has been posted multiple times and it has been pointed out each time that the company isn’t really a mystery.

    For example:

    reuters.com/…/california-landowners-are-sued-510-…

    LordOfTheChia ,

    The company isn’t a mystery, however the ownership, leadership, and investors of the company are unknown.

    Only the lawyers are known so far.

    dogslayeggs ,

    OK, so if the company isn’t a mystery, then who are their owners or directors? Where did they get $800 million?

    Mic_Check_One_Two ,

    If Travis AFB is truly that concerned about it, why haven’t they simply bought the land instead? It’s the military; We all know they have literal billions of dollars to waste. Instead of complaining about some mystery investor purchasing the land, why not purchase it yourselves and incorporate it into the AFB?

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    The military isn’t just allowed to buy up land willy nilly without oversight and direction from civilian officials. Do you remember when Clinton closed hundreds and thousands of military sites back in the '90s?

    So they don’t really get to decide on basic expansions solely within the military. And generally speaking, the military doesn’t spend unnecessary money to expand military bases and provide a buffer zone around land that isn’t used for bombing ranges and whatnot. Travis appears to be just a typical Air Force air base with a couple of runways.

    However, these articles point toward other very shady acts going on including the proposed 400 ft tall observation Tower to oversee the airbase. Why would a farming operation or a land investor want an observation tower to overlook an Air Force Base?

    stinky613 ,

    The 400ft tall silo was near Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and was known to be owned by a company from China

    None of that has any tie to the company that bought land near Travis AFB

    Land purchased by a Chinese company near one US AFB doesn’t logically imply that any purchased land near a US AFB is a Chinese spy operation

    Entropywins ,
    @Entropywins@kbin.social avatar

    Yeah I'd be a bit concerned of something around minot afb myself... used to be stationed there back in the early 2000's

    stinky613 ,

    Yeah a 400ft tall silo overlooking Minot AFB is concerning. It also has nothing to do with OPs article about Travis AFB

    China does enough shady shit that we don’t need baseless accusations being thrown around

    PersnickityPenguin OP ,

    I see, thank you for correcting me. It does look like these two entities purchasing land are separate, although it is not impossible for them to both be funded by China.

    overzeetop ,
    @overzeetop@lemmy.world avatar

    I suppose the best option would be to decide to expand the fan, condemn the land, and take it over using eminent domain for assessed value on the tax records.

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