Control of the Caern Lands[]
The majority of the bawn was originally owned by a Garou, Aspen Demilune. She disappeared without a will around 1994, and the land was eventually confiscated and auctioned off in 1996.
The local garou and their immediate kin scraped together about $15 million--nowhere near enough to buy the entire bawn, so they sought outside assistance. A few more millions were made available through a Silver Fang sept in Virginia (courtesy of Brittany Sterling, a Fang with strong contacts to that sept) to raise the grand total to $20 million. This was still woefully little money.
Robert deRath, a CoG with strong contacts with the UN and whose father was a Swiss banker, was able to use his numerous financial contacts to raise $465 million as a tax shelter of sorts via an empty shell holding company: Precision Products, Inc.
The auction for the caern and its nearby lands was fierce and bidding went very high--as the primary competing bidder was a known vampire (Adele Sandrego) with incredibly deep pockets (and likely backing).
In order to keep the caern itself from being acquired by vampiric interests, the Garou, kin, and their venture capitalist backers paid a very high premium for their acreage--Adele saw to that--draining their coffers and preventing them from obtaining nearly as much land as they had hoped to acquire.