Jonathan "Jody" Nelson auction

I thought some folks here, especially the Texas members might find this page interesting.

http://www.rbauction.com/auction_locations_pages/location_lubbock_tx_2006200.jsp?auction_id=2006200

A little background:

Jonathan "Donnie" or "Jody" Nelson was the CFO for Patterson-UTI Energy. One of the largest oil exploration companies in the country.

He embezzled over 70 million dollars in a couple of years and this auction of his assets is worth an estimated 30 million. There are hundreds of cars, helicopters, airplanes, yachts, farm equipment, hell....just about everything you could possibly buy with 70 million dollars to burn through.

The amount of stuff here is staggering. I took a tour today through the two airplane hangars FULL of very expensive and very cool stuff. There were over 30 plasma TV's, most still in the boxes. There is a 2003 - BMW Alpina Z8 Roadster with only 469 miles. There are 2...yes 2.....Fountain Lightning 42 FT Boats.

The man knew quality and he must have had a hell of a ride while it lasted.

The scary part is this deal is that his salary from Patterson-UTI was said to be almost 10 million a year. He was making 10 mil a year honestly (or as honestly as one in the oils business can nowadays) but it wasn't nearly enough.

This auction does not count any of his real estate holdings. His Lubbock home is unfinished and it was sold for 8 million. He also owned a private airport and vacation homes all over the world.

I wish I could go to the auction, but only registered bidders are allowed in and the buy in is either a $2000.00 deposit for one hangar, or a $10,000 deposit for the high cost hangar. (planes, high end cars, farm equipment, etc.)

If you have some spare time, you might browse the list of stuff. It is amazing.

 

Hey Dave!

His house is on 14th Street, about a block west of Quaker in the Rush section.

He bought two houses and knocked them both down to build his behemoth.

He actually bought three. He and his wife lived in one while they built the new one. The "little" one he lived in sold for 1.8 million.

One of the guys I work with is the son of one of the sub-contractors.

He told me that the house is 12,000 square feet and that it has a full sized half-court basketball court in the basement. Supposedly the basement ceiling is 22 feet high and with a push of a button, the walls move to form a racket ball court. He said that the home entertainment set up was over 2 million. They had an explosion while painting one of the rooms on the second story, and the damage estimate was over 100K. This thing is huge. It looks like the Greek Parthenon from the street.

I don't know if you knew he built a huge baseball complex in Wolforth. It included a 18000 seat stadium for a minor league baseball team and he convinced Texas Tech to play all their home games there. I am not sure what became of all of that. Nelson had some other investors involved in that deal so I don't know if it was seized with everything else.

While I was out at the auction, I ran into the "Big Kuhuna" for our dealership platform. He was setting up a credit line for $300,000. It looks like our platform is going after a bunch of the cars. He told me there was one car that had 8 miles on the odometer. Apparently Nelson bought the car at a dealership in Dallas, drove the car to the airport, and left it. He never picked it up again. LOL!!

This guy was fricken nuts.