Official Backed Plans Of Business Connections

"I don't have any conflicts," Beerman said. "If someone calls me for a mortgage, they call me out of the blue. . . . I can't stop somebody from calling me. They are not calling me because, 'Oh my gosh, he voted for it.' They call me because they got a referral, or they know me, or whatever."

Business Ventures

When Beerman was on the Board of Supervisors in the late 1990s, he went to Peter J. Knop and described a cell tower venture.

"It's a great investment. What do you think?" Knop recalled Beerman asking.

Knop said he invested, one of three times he has put his money into businesses brought to him by Beerman. Two -- the cell tower venture and the trucking company -- occurred while Beerman was a public official, records and interviews show.

Knop said he also invested in a medical imaging business at Beerman's invitation.

"He puts together venture capital deals, and we participate in those deals," Knop said. "When he does a good deal, he gets a fee."

In the case of the Evergreen trucking company, the deal was a winner: The company's revenue and profits have grown substantially since 2004, according to company Chairman Sean Kish.

Knop is best known in Loudoun for his construction waste dump, an imposing mountain of rock, dirt and other material. Although it dominates the landscape on his property, known as Ticonderoga Farms, Knop has nevertheless crafted other ambitious plans for the land, including his vision of a "world cultural center" with an agricultural tourist attraction. The plans were later downsized to a corporate retreat and picnic pavilions.

His vision, however, did not include a plan by Greenvest to build hundreds of homes next door. Knop opposed the project, hoping to keep a buffer of undeveloped land next to his property.

Beerman, who was on the Planning Commission and later voted in favor of the project, stepped in and attempted to mediate in 2004, records show. In 2005, Beerman came out to the Knop property for two meetings, one of which included a Greenvest representative, according to an account by a Ticonderoga employee filed in court.

"We had floated various ideas because we know that he's close to people in Greenvest," Knop said in an interview. Knop is in business with his son, Peter R.Q. Knop.

Knop and his son considered a solution that would have paid Beerman handsomely: Greenvest would sell the Knops some of the property, and the county would allow Greenvest to build the same number of houses on less land, according to e-mails.