Robert W. Palmer

Who is Robert W. Palmer?

Robert W. Palmer is a former Madison Guaranty land appraiser and pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges related to Whitewater. He was later pardoned by Bill Clinton in a controversial manner.

As a land appraiser he admitted to conspiring with Jim McDougal and others with Madison Guaranty savings association. The case was part of the Whitewater property, which Bill Clinton and Jim McDougal originally purchased in 1978. The conspiracy was to inflate the estimates used for the loans. Kenneth Starr's investigators were also told that Palmer inflated estimates used to support loans made to Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas. The false land appraisals made Madison Guaranty's books look better than they were. Mr. Palmer did about 90 percent of the appraisals for Madison and that about 90 percent of those were inflated. Madison records showed one appraisal was for a $1.05 million loan to Tucker and an associate to buy a water and sewer system for real estate development known as Castle Grande. Later appraisals found the system to be worth about 1/2 of the loan, when the loan went into default it was one of the largest losses for Madison.