As we’ve discussed many times in the past, shady real estate deals are just a part of the daily routine in the Duggar family.
They’re not as crucial to the Duggar way of life as, say, misogyny, or dress codes, or courtship rules, but they still come with the territory of being one of Jim Bob’s offspring.
The wheeling and dealing has been even more frequent than usual in the months since Josh Duggar was arrested on child pornography charges.
As we reported back in over the summer, Jim Bob bought a plot of land through an LLC that’s technically owned by Anna.
We say “technically” because Anna — like all Duggar women — is not allowed to work outside of the home, and thus, has no money of her own.
Normally, she would have some earnings from her time as a reality star, but that money has been pilfered by the men in her life.
More on that later.
So the LLC is nominally Anna’s, but the money used to buy the land is almost certainly Jim Bob’s.
The theory among fans is that in exchange for enabling her father-in-law to hide this new asset from the feds, Anna will receive half the proceeds when Jim Bob develops the land and sells it for a profit.
This allows Jim Bob and Michelle to provide for Anna’s seven children without violating their “no hand-outs” policy.
Based on the terms of that deal, you would think that Jim Bob is in expansion mode, but according to a new report from UK tabloid The Sun, the patriarch recently sold off a chunk of his cherished estate.
The outlet claims that on January 28, one of Jim Bob’s neighbors purchased 5.80 acres of one of his 20-acre parcels for $46,400.
The move is surprising, as usually, such “property line adjustments” go in the other direction, with Jim Bob expanding into his neighbors’ turf.
But these are desperate times in the Duggar empire.
According to The Sun, the Duggars will lose $850,000 a year as a result of TLC’s decision to cancel Counting On.
“The family was roughly paid $80k for each chunk of filming, and some seasons were longer than others, but they were picking up on average $850k a season,” a source tells the tabloid.
“I think a lot of people will be shocked to learn they were earning that much, and it all went to Jim Bob who invested some of it for the family, and handed the rest out.
Obviously, “chunk” is not a legal term, but it sounds like TLC kept the family’s contract as short-term as possible in order to avoid over-paying them.
Even at the height of their popularity, the Duggars never had anywhere near the clout of, say, the Kardashians, so they were never able to use the threat of going to another network as leverage during bargaining.
In all likelihood, producers would film for a few weeks, see how many episodes they were able to cobble together out of the footage they had, and TLC would order very few episodes at a time in order to gague the public’s interest.
Producers would then return to Arkansas if more footage was needed, resulting in another 80 grand payday for Jim Bob.
As for the claims that Jim Bob stole millions by pocketing money that was meant for his kids, sadly, those have been verified by several folks involved in the situation, most notably, Jill Duggar’s husband, Derick Dillard.
“But there were often arguments about payments, who deserved what and whether people were being paid correctly for their time on air, that was a major issue over the years,” the insider continues.
“Some family members are glad TLC pulled the plug so they can go off on their own and manage their own money, but Jim Bob is undoubtedly pissed because it was a huge income.”
Well, maybe Jim Bob is finally getting his comeuppance.
It might be long overdue and happening much more slowly than we would like, but better late than never, right!
Perhaps 2022 won’t be so bad, after all!
Source: HollyWood Gossip
