When Josh Duggar was arrested on child pornography charges back in April, the news came as a complete shock to fans of his famous family.
The development didn't come as a surprise to Josh, of course, who knew that the arrest was looming ever since his place of business was raided by federal agents in November of the previous year.
Ever since he had charges filed against him, Josh has been keeping a low profile, living with his court-assigned guardians and emerging only for pretrial hearings.
In the weeks leading up to the arrest, however, he was busy making shady moves, seemingly in an attempt to get one over on Uncle Sam.
For most of the past 15 years, reality television was the Duggar family's primary source of income, followed closely by real estate.
So when Jim Bob and company are attempting to hide some assets or move some money around without using cash, they often use land and houses.
As we reported yesterday, a lot of this has been going on in recent weeks.
Just last month, Joseph Duggar sold his house to his in-laws for $10,000.
This is the same house he bought from Jim Bob a few years earlier for $5,000.
The Duggars know that deals like this would raise eyebrows if they were ever audited, but they also know how to remain just within the boundaries of legality so that even if the government knows the deals are suspicious, those suspicions likely won't result in any arrests.
The point is, when the Duggars start making unorthodox real estate transactions, pay attention, because it usually means something is up.
Anyway, the latest shady land deal to come to light involves Josh and Anna Duggar, and it seems to have something to do with Josh's arrest.
According to a new report from The Sun, Anna purchased .272 acres of land under Ravenglass North, a business LLC in her name, on April 22, less than one week before Josh's arrest.
Property records indicate that the land includes a 1,216 square-foot mobile home built in 1987.
Adding to the shadiness is the fact that Anna appears to have paid just one dollar for the property.
Anna is married to a Duggar, of course, which means she's not permitted to work or possess any money of her own.
So when her LLC purchases a large tract of land -- something that happens surprisingly often -- it's understood that either Jim Bob or Josh is using her as a pawn in some sort of elaborate scheme.
It's unclear what the goal is with this latest deal, but fans suspect that this is part of an attempt on Josh's part to hide assets from the federal government and thus, protect them from seizure.
It doesn't look as though Anna plans to move into the mobile home with her six children (she's currently pregnant with her seventh).
But she -- or whoever is making the decisions for her LLC -- might be planning to sink large sums of money into improving the property so that it can be sold in a pinch.
If and when Josh is found guilty, he'll likely be forced to pay some sort of restitution, and any cash he has in his account would be subject to seizure.
But taking land away from a mother and her seven children is generally not a good look so Anna's .272 acres are probably safe.
They're getting good at this Mafia stuff, those Duggars.