The U.S. Attorney won’t release documents in the Nevada organized crime/Mafia case against the state’s Homeowners Association industry, despite the fact that a judge on the Nevada Supreme Court tipped off a lawyer friend that the FBI was going to stage a series of raids on people connected with the HOA scam.
That lawyer shredded wheelbarrows full of documents before the FBI could get to them.
There is so much corruption in the world of Homeowners Associations. How can federal officials prove that they’re not just as corrupt as the 43 people they sent to prison? They can release the damned documents to the Las Vegas Review Journal! These are public records!
Under the FOIA, the U.S. Attorney MUST release them. Claiming their records might reveal romantic relationships among public figures IS NOT A LEGAL REASON TO WITHHOLD THEM!
Hiding those records is an absolute sign of corruption in the U.S. Attorney’s office! The taxpayers own those records, not the crooked lawyers who work for the taxpayers. Every day those records remain secret is another day of growing public suspicion of a filthy, corrupt process, corrupt law enforcement and corrupt federal officials.
And this one, my friends, is being committed by a Federal Judge and a US Attorney. The hundred million dollar HOA scam that led to 43 federal convictions in Las Vegas is over. But the judge has ordered all the records from that scam and prosecution to be sealed.
As a reporter I spent a lifetime getting official records unsealed. When things are sealed, there are usually some dirty secrets in those records that make public officials not want to be accountable to the public they serve. This particular sealing of records is incredibly suspicious because of all the public officials who were involved. In the beginning of this investigation there were plenty of hints that one or more Nevada judges was involved. There was also suspicion about a ‘high up’ national political figure who had his fingers in the pie.
As long as these records remain sealed, there will be suspicions that U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. is intentionally covering up something in his own ranks or his fellow judges. Too many people were hurt by this scam. Too many people lost their life savings and their homes. They absolutely deserve to know every detail of this investigation just to see how far the stench of corruption traveled. Nevada has a long history of being run by the mob. The voters deserve to know the truth. ALL of the truth.
Once again, kudos for the Las Vegas Review Journal. While the rest of the news media across America decided this story was too complicated to cover, reporter Jeff German published every possible detail. He deserves the Pulitzer!
Since 2007 newspapers and TV stations around the country have been collapsing. Newspapers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News and many others have simply gone out of business. But I’m learning that the Las Vegas Review-Journal is thinking about growing and creating a new investigative team. As far as I’m concerned that’s incredibly good news.
Without the investigative reporting of staff member Jeff German this country would know nothing about the massive Las Vegas HOA scandal that sent more than three dozen people, including lawyers, cops and public officials to prison.
It seems like all the weird stuff happens in Vegas.
People in the Spring Valley Homeowners Association are outraged after someone sent out letters, supposedly from the HOA’s law firm asking owners not to rent or sell their homes to Blacks, Orientals, Jews.
Obviously, such a letter wasn’t sent out by an HOA. It’s just an idiot sending out a hate letter meant to provoke.
On the other hand, that’s nearly identical to the verbiage in tens of millions of real estate deeds in HOAs all across America. It’s nearly impossible to get that old language taken out of property records. Our history haunts us, doesn’t it?
Barry Levinson, a disbarred attorney who was one of the top figures in the massive Las Vegas HOA scam, has died while in federal custody. Now his lawyer is planning to sue the prison system for medical negligence.
The federal HOA investigation was the first of its kind in the country. Forty-two people were convicted, but most were given very light sentences. Officially, about 20 million dollars was stolen from residents in Las Vegas HOAs. But because of the collapse in value of all Las Vegas real estate the impact of the HOA scam rises well above 100 million in losses.
