Rags-To-Riches-To Foreclosure

Maybe the first step in his downfall was perhaps his decision to build a 20,000 square feet home at a cost of $23 million. A home that was considered so ostentatious that it was featured on MTV’s Teen Cribs. Or maybe his decision at 51 years old to become the next music mogul by launching a record label and a clothing line, which is a bit strange and not reflective of a man that ran one of the nation’s most successful African-American owned I.T. companies. Growing up the middle child of five children in Prince George’s county, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Rodney P Hunt says he made his first million by the age of 17. After realizing that even with both parents having multiple jobs, the family was still struggling to survive. He decided to cut grass in the summers to help out. His services quickly rose in demand and he found himself needing to hire his friends to help him meet that demand. Hunt’s mother made him set his money aside, rather than add it to the household. “My mother made me save every single dime, except what I had to put into the business as far as expenses. By the end of the third summer, I can remember the bank statement: one million, sixteen dollars, and eleven cents. It was the most incredible thing.” (Liebenberg, 2005, p.4) Rodney P. Hunt co-founded RS Information Systems, Inc. (RSIS) in 1992, one of the nation’s most successful African-American owned government contracting firms. The company started out by landing a $5,000 contract with the General Services Administration. Shortly after its launch, the company began winning computer networking contracts throughout the federal government and military, eventually becoming a mainstay of the INC. 500 list, which as we all know measures a company’s revenue growth. In 2005 during the company’s peak, RSIS had over 1,700 employees and generated an annual revenue of over $363 million.
In 2005, RSIS partnered with a local company by the name of 1 Source Consulting to win a $1 billion Energy Department I.T. support contract. “I’d like to be the Robert Johnson of government I.T.” (Liebenberg, 2005, p.4) Hunt told Minority Business Entrepreneur, referring to the billionaire media mogul who co-founded Black Entertainment Television. “I’d like to be the first African-American owned firm to do a billion dollar worth of services with the federal government.” (Liebenberg, 2005, p.4)
Hunt decided to sell RSIS in 2007 to a California based aerospace engineering company named Wyle. After selling the company Northern Virginia Magazine estimated Hunt’s net worth at over $265 million. But before he sold his company he set out to build a monument to his achievements and to his success. It took three years to complete the building of his dream home worth an estimated $23.1 million, with sweeping views, his-and-her gyms, a movie theater, an indoor basketball arena, an outdoor kitchen, two pools, two-lane bowling alley, 10 fireplaces and a 15-car underground garage. And since selling RSIS, it seems Hunt’s life has not been the same.
His dream home is now facing foreclosure for the second time and Bank of America says he is in default on a $9.4 million loan. According to court and land records, he also owes more than $10 million on unpaid loans and bad business investments; creditors have filed a series of lawsuits to claim his assets. There are also claims that RSIS was not able to secure its share of a $25 million line of credit that was necessary to finalize the $1 billion deal with the Energy Department and that 1 Source Consulting had to scramble to make up the difference.
It seems that Hunt also had the tendency to exaggerate the scope of his successes according to former associates and also after further examination of his resume. He has long claimed dual Bachelor of Science degrees from Cornell and George Washington Universities. But registrars at both say that although he did attend both schools, he never obtained a degree from either. He has also boasted of a failed attempt to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team. But the team spokesperson has denied that has ever happened. He claimed he played minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals for several years, but according to John Vuch, the Cardinals farm director. “We don’t have any record of anyone by that name playing for us,” he said. (DuLac, 2012, p2)
In the MTV’s Teen Cribs episode that aired in early 2010, his son boasted about a chair that President Barack Obama sat in during a fundraiser that was hosted at the house. But a spokesperson for the president said she could not find any record that Hunt had hosted a fundraiser for him. There have been definite signs of trouble over the past few years for Hunt. He was arrested in 2006 in Virginia for possession of marijuana, but the charges were dropped. In 2009 he was arrested in Houston for possession of cocaine and ecstasy, according to court records and those charges were also dismissed. Rodney P. Hunt has not been seen publicly in months nor has it seem as though anyone has been able to reach him for comment. I hope he was smart enough to put some of his earnings away for a rainy day. Because it seems like there is a storm brewing right now. In a Cornell University speech, Hunt once said: “In building wealth, one of the things I learned……. is that you never know what’s going to happen in this business world.” (DuLac, 2012, p4)

References
Liebenberg, C. (2005, January/February), A new game plan, Minority Business Entrepreneur, 22 (1). Retrieved from http://www.lefttowrite.com/pdfs/Hunt.pdf
Du Lac, J. F. & Shin, A. (2012, September 15). A $23 million mansion heads to foreclosure as an entrepreneur's fortune vanishes. Washington Post, p. 00. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-23-million-mansion-heads-to-foreclosure-as-an-entrepreneurs-fortune-vanishes/2012/09/15/9f397744-fe93-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story_3.html
Jason (2012, September 18). The downfall of Rodney P. Hunt. Retrieved from http://paperchase365.com/the-downfall-of-rodney-p-hunt