Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman says he had no idea that the city’s Asia expert helped a Chinese business woman after she paid an above-market rate for the mayor’s former home.
Coleman tells The Columbus Dispatch that the 2010 sale of his home and efforts to help the businesswoman set up shop in Columbus had nothing to do with each other.
The home sold for $520,000, well above the sale price of comparable homes in the area.
Documents cited by the Dispatch reportedly show the city employee went beyond his work duties during work hours to help the woman.
Federal investigators are looking into the home sale.
Coleman has also denied any involvement in questionable donations from a red light camera company to local Democrats.
