One of President Obama’s half-brothers is selling two notes that he received from his famous sibling and selling them for $15,000 each.
The two notes are both written on White House letterhead and feature the same message though they are addressed to two different groups of people.
‘Thanks for your prayers and support,’ the letters read, signing off with his initials ‘B.O.’
The letters were sent by the President shortly after his Kenyan relatives flew from Africa to Washington D.C. in January 2009 to attend his inauguration.
The New York Post reports that Barack’s brother Malik Abongo Obama, who has the same father as the President, was approached by Gary Zimet, an American collector, who wanted to see if he had any letters available for auction.
Mr Zimet runs Momentsintime.com and sent a letter to Malik, not knowing if he would ever hear back.
For sale: Now two letters that Malik owns are for sale at $15,000 each. The President wrote them to his relatives and extended family after they traveled to Washington for his first inauguration in early 2009
‘I was astonished when I did. I sent a letter to a post office box in Kenya,’ Mr Zimet told The Post.
‘I asked him if he had any letters from his brother. I didn’t expect to hear from him ever, but he wrote back and said, “I have two letters.”’
One of the letters is addressed to the people of K’Obama, which includes the greater Obama family, and the other to K’Olego, who Malik describes as being members of their clan.
Mr Zimet told MailOnline that he posted the letters for sale online early Wednesday morning so he has not heard from any potential buyers yet, but he expects the letters to be a quick sale.
‘I’m sure the next few days will determine the depth of interest,’ he said, pointing to ‘the scarcity of handwritten letters of Obama’ as the main attraction.
He has previously sold 13 other letters written by the President while in office, and currently has one up for sale where Obama writes to a woman about his health care plan, so-called ‘Obamacare’.
Malik previously told The Mail on Sunday that he and his famous younger half-brother see each other much more than previously thought.
‘I see my brother privately at least once a year, when I go to visit him in the White House and say hello. It’s like visiting a working national monument, such as the Smithsonian or Buckingham Palace,’ he said in March.
‘I last saw him on November 19 last year, shortly after the US election. I went to the White House and offered him my congratulations.
‘We are close but don’t live in each other’s pockets. I don’t have to be at every big party. I’ve not seen Michelle in a while. I saw her and the children at the last inauguration, but it was very busy, so we didn’t have time to talk. I can’t say that I have a relationship with my nieces.’
Malik has his share of scandals that may explain why Barack keeps his distance, including claims made by some of his 12 ex-wives that he abused them, or his close connections to now-dead Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who he met half a dozen times.
Adding to that, Malik established a foundation around the time that his brother was first running for president- named the Barack H. Obama Foundation.
The Post reports that there were concerns over whether or not it was truly a non-profit as it claimed to be, but it recently was revealed that Lois Lerner, the now-suspended IRS official, approved the foundation’s status as a tax-exempt organization less than a month after the papers were submitted.
This efficiency may become an issue since it was approved far quicker than many conservative-leaning groups who were reportedly targeted by the IRS for audits due to their allegiances to the Tea Party and the GOP.
