Richard Nixon’s Net Worth – His Post Presidential “Personal Financial Information”

We have never before seen such a document relating to a president’s personal finances reach the market

Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency in August 1974 under a cloud of scandal, after an extensive impeachment-related inquiry that left him with few allies. Following his resignation, the Nixons flew to their home La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California. He had very little money relatively speaking – at one point in early 1975 he had only $500 in the bank – and nothing to do. In August 1975, he met with British talk-show host and producer David Frost, who paid him $600,000 for extensive, revealing interviews that were the talk of the time. The interviews helped improve Nixon’s financial position, as did the sale of his Key Biscayne property. On August 10, 1979, the Nixons purchased a 12‐room condominium occupying the seventh floor at 817 Fifth Avenue in New York City, after being rejected by two Manhattan co-ops. After eighteen months in the New York City townhouse, Nixon and his wife moved in 1981 to Saddle River, New Jersey.

In 1983, Nixon looked to move back to New York and applied to a co-op board to live at 760 Park Avenue, where the vice president of the board was Arturo Peralta-Ramos. But condo boards are known for being selective, and the board was not excited about his moving there. As the Washington Post reported, “Former President Richard Nixon was set to buy a $1.8 million apartment on Park Avenue today, but a last-minute court order temporarily blocked the deal. Jacob M. Kaplan, a 92-year-old philanthropist and business tycoon who lives in the building, brought suit to stop a telephone conference call that would have completed the sale. Nixon, Kaplan reminded fellow tenants in a letter, was ‘the first president in American history to resign. Except for the pardon subsequently granted to him by his successor, president Gerald Ford, he would have faced criminal proceedings.'”

The board eventually accepted his application but it was a poisoned acceptance. While protesting that they had only objected to the presence of Secret Service men, the board informed the former President that many of the other residents of the building would not ride in the elevator with them. The Nixons were deeply offended, and did not after all move in.

This is his original financial declaration, prepared and submitted as part of his condo application, stating his post-presidential assets. We have never before seen such a document relating to a president’s personal finances reach the market.

Document signed, marked “confidential, “Personal financial information for Richard Nixon as of October 1, 1983,” to be submitted for the consideration of the co-op, listing Nixon’s assets as of that date, which totaled $4,277,000, of which $27,000 was in cash, $3,000,000 in “stocks and securities,” and $1.25 million in real estate.

Included are: A typed letter signed, October 31, 1983, from Nixon aide named Nick to Peralta-Ramos, asking him to poll the board of the co-op to gauge opposition to Nixon’s application; and typed letter signed, to a member of the board, January 30, 1984, signed for Nixon by a secretary, referencing the financial statement, and enclosing a copy of a a document relating to “secret service protection” and promising that such service would not disturb the other residents.