Fox News host Sean Hannity took out $2.5 million in loans last year secured by his sprawling mansion on Long Island, New York, CNBC has learned.
Land records obtained by CNBC also show that the Hannity-controlled shell company that owned his home for years transferred its ownership to him when the loans were executed in 2017.
The $2.5 million in loans Hannity received from Quicken Loans represent a tiny fraction of the nearly $90 million his companies reportedly spent on acquiring hundreds of residential properties in seven states over the past decade.
The Guardian newspaper on Sunday reported that Hannity had acquired more than 870 properties through 20 shell companies. The companies' names, which share the initials SPMK, would not reveal to the casual observer that they are controlled by Hannity.
The shell company that had owned his Oyster Bay home also had SPMK as its name.
The Guardian reported that "dozens of the properties were bought at a discount in 2013," after banks foreclosed on their owners, who had defaulted on their mortgages.
Hannity's shell companies are registered at the same building Atlanta-area offices of the Henssler Financial wealth management firm, whose principal, Bill Lako, has appeared on Hannity's syndicated radio show.
One of Hannity's shell companies, SPMK II, is listed as one of the owners, along with Lako and Gene Henssler, of two financial entities affiliated with Henssler Financial.
Lako has not appeared on Fox News. According to a recent "full disclosure" about Lako by Hannity on his radio show, which is not owned by Fox, Hannity has used Henssler's firm "for my financial dealings" since Hannity was a radio show host in Atlanta in the early 1990s.
"I didn't have any money, so to speak" at the time, Hannity said on a recent broadcast featuring Lako. "In many ways, Bill, I'm still that kid that you guys took on as a charity case, to be blunt back, in Atlanta. You know never at that time taking people like me that had pretty much zero net worth."