The $150,000 letter

State Rep. Thomas Wright used a promise from a state employee to secure a $150,000 loan.

In a May 2007 hearing, investigators with the State Board of Elections said the letter was not true and was used improperly to buy a historic building in downtown Wilmington.

Wright bought the building from a Wilmington family for $150,000 in 2002 through the Community's Health Foundation, which he helped found.

He told Wayne Lofton, who was representing his parents, that the building would be used to house the foundation and a museum for the 1898 race riots.

Lofton said he was hesitant about the deal until Wright produced the attached letter from Torlen Wade, acting director of the Office of Research, Demonstrations and Rural Health Development.

The letter states that the office would commit $150,000 in state funding by June 30, 2002.

No money was ever given, and a bank foreclosed on building.