Will I get penalized for owning tier-2 sites linking to money site?

I want to create about 3-4 blogs that I will own (all different domains) to link to my money site. The blogs will all be a similar subject as the money site, but I will not be interlinking the blogs to each other. Eventually I want to optimize the blogs to make them appear to be authority sites linking to my money site.

Since I'm not interlinking the sites, will I get penalized if I do this? If so, what will I need to do to not worry about getting penalized for this?

Can I just host these all on my server with different C-class IPs and different nameservers and then turn on whois privacy for the domains?

As long as the backinks are relevant, and not spammy.... I don't see how it could hurt you much.

Google can tell if your the owner of those tier 2 sites in a micro second. I always either use whois guard or *ask a friend if you can use their identity* - if its just for seo then they should not have an issue.