I’ve never been a big fan of the ACLU. Oh, I’ve interviewed ACLU officials a number of times in my career. They’re rarely the ones who say, “No comment!” And some of their battles I’ve certainly supported. Sadly, there are too many cases which I firmly believe that the ACLU won’t touch.
It’s a completely different story where the Institute for Justice (IJ.org) is concerned. They, too, are a civil rights organization but they seem to be more focused on housing, minority rights, and seeking out the kinds of justice that would help all of us, not just small minority interests.
Guest blogger Deborah Goonan sends this link to us:
Institute for Justice has a number of other great videos at:
IJ.org
You could and should spend an entire afternoon watching their videos and studying their interests. And then, as I’m doing now, write them a check. They’re doing some excellent work.
Well, the guilty plea was made. Federal Judge Mahan accepted it. No sentence yet. Leon Benzer might be surprised to hear himself described as a mobster, but that’s exactly what he is. He conspired with lawyers, police officials, judicial officials, and state politicians to steal millions of dollars from Nevada Homeowners Associations. That’s called racketeering. You don’t need to be Italian to be a mobster. You just have to have a massive deficit of character.
Traditionally, white collar criminals get about 18 months in prison no matter how many millions they’ve stolen. Benzer has bankrupted an unknown number of Las Vegas homeowners. The damage he inflicted will impact generations of American families. In the end, he made himself a multi-millionaire at the expense of ordinary citizens. He conspired with mobsters and drug cartels in Mexico to hide his fortune. When he walks out of prison he’ll retire to waterfront property in some exotic locale and laugh at the stupidity of all the people he swindled.
Benzer will laugh at the impotent American legal system which couldn’t come close to touching the real scope of his swindle. He’ll snigger at FBI agents who spent years trying to uncover his scam. He’ll laugh at prosecutors and a judge who couldn’t give him life in prison. And he’ll look back fondly at his time in prison bragging to cellmates about how much fun he had doing this swindle. I know all of this because I’ve spent four decades investigating and exposing white collar criminals. Despite federal prison sentences they love what they do.
White collar criminals are addicted to their lifestyles. To the victims it’s devastating. To the mobsters it’s all a game.
Rumors are that HOA mobster Leon Benzer is going to plead guilty in federal court Friday morning! Benzer headed up the massive scheme to take over and corrupt Homeowners Associations in and around Las Vegas. Benzer got phony board members ‘elected’ in dozens of HOAs. Millions of dollars in construction defect mitigation insurance was then diverted away from homeowners and into the pockets of lawyers, police officials, prominent politicians, businessmen. A federal judge has told homeowners they’ll never get back those stolen millions. And Benzer will be the 37th member of the gang to skate past federal organized crime and racketeering charges with just a pat on his corrupt and flabby back.
This case has been weird from the very beginning. Four of the most ‘inconvenient’ suspects committed suicide. It was one of the largest public corruption cases in the history of the FBI. So it’s really rather sad to see the feds knuckle in to knuckleheads. By accepting Benzer’s guilty plea the feds will be throwing away one of the most valuable corruption intimidation cases they’ve ever conducted.
Yay that the the ‘feebies’ got Sammy ‘the Bull’ and the Teflon Don thrown in jail for life. But Nevada and Las Vegas, which are famous as a retirement community for the world’s Mafioso, will never get to know the whole story about how corrupt the American Homeowners Association movement really is. And that means the movement will not only stay corrupt, it will get more corrupt. Steal a hundred million bucks and get 18 months in jail? A lot of folks would say, “Hey, I’d like that job!”
I don’t have to exaggerate this one since it’s coming out in next month’s federal HOA racketeering trial in Las Vegas. No, there are positive links between money laundering in American Homeowners Associations through Mexican drug cartels. As absolutely incredible and impossible it sounds, everything’s fair game when it makes its way into sworn federal court testimony.
Sound weird? Impossible? Just remember that when crime gets organized, organized crime becomes endemic.
And remember that the national news networks are totally avoiding any in-depth reporting on this story. Shame on the national media.
I’ve give anything to be able to personally report on the upcoming federal HOA trial in Las Vegas. The whole nation should be abuzz with this story about racketeering and Homeowners Associations. But few people outside of Nevada have actually heard of it. The networks simply aren’t covering it.
But reporters and columnists for the Las Vegas Review Journal are doing a great job ferreting out the weasles. The column linked below shows some pretty fascinating ties between a well-known mob drug trafficker and the HOA business.
