Rumors are that the mastermind of the 60 million dollar Las Vegas HOA scam has reported for his federal prison sentence. I’ve long predicted that Leon Benzer would never, ever report to federal prison. He knows how to get in and out of Mexico. He once owned a tequila company there. With a 15 1/2 year prison sentence would he not be tempted to cross the border?
I’m still not giving up my suspicion that Benzer will retire to a Mexican beach. He’ll only serve half his prison time, anyway, so maybe he actually will show up. And the white collar criminals I’ve known have absolutely loved their time in prison. They’re worshiped as heroes behind bars. Of course, Benzer knows that. But we’ll see.
And yes, I’ll admit it if my prediction was wrong.
I’ve been in the news business for 40 years and I’ve seen so many goofy things happen. Nothing surprises me anymore.
Yes, police investigators need to ask for lighter prison sentences for informants. But they have an overwhelming obligation to protect the public. That’s their primary job. When the number two player in a 60 million dollar scam victimizing Las Vegas homeowners agrees to cooperate with investigators, does that mean he gets off scott-free? Apparently in Las Vegas that’s exactly what it means. Ralph Priola could have been sentenced to 22 years. But federal prosecutors say he deserves no prison time. NONE!
Remember, Priola didn’t voluntarily cooperate with the cops. He was forced. This was a man caught throwing around 20,000 dollar bribes. This was a man as fundamentally corrupt as his boss, Leon Benzer, the mastermind of this massive scam. No jail time? Come on, guys, this was one of the two crooks who crashed the Las Vegas housing market. Prosecutors say he should only pay about 12 million dollars in restitution. But that’ll never happen. That will never, ever happen.
Jeff German, reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, deserves a Pulitzer for the work he’s done on the HOA scandal. It would be a major crime if he didn’t win ALL the journalism awards.
A financial firm has just filed with the SEC to buy and sell stock in a company that forecloses on HOA liens and foreclosures. You can now invest and make a profit on the misery of your neighbors. Definitely read the prospectus. And be ashamed for a country that allows this to take place.
Pagedale, Missouri appears to have learned the “tricks of the trade” from HOAs by turning homeowners into cash cows.
Most city codes do not allow for cars up on jacks in driveways or front yards. They frown on RVs, travel trailers, and eighteen wheelers parked in driveways. And peeling paint or a falling fence will no doubt be met with a violation warning letter. But the City of Pagedale has a line of homeowners waiting to pay fines for a BBQ grill in the front yard, a free-standing basketball goal on the driveway, or the wrong color of blinds in the windows. If the windows are missing screens it makes for another reason to fine the homeowners. Even an 84 year old woman has been ordered to change her window treatments or be fined.
I’m wondering if a former HOA board member has been elected to the Pagedale City Council? This behavior sounds all too familiar!
The Institute for Justice has gotten word of this excessive fining against the Pagedale homeowners. After investigating the homeowner’s claims they stepped in with a lawsuit against the city. It’s unfortunate this group doesn’t come to the rescue of the HOA homeowners, too.
Be sure to take note of the homeowner who has taken out loans to pay her fees at close to a 100% interest rate. I think somebody also needs to investigate this lender as well!
A threat to all users of the World Wide Web is growing and it could catch all of us by surprise. The European Parliament is considering a change in copyright law that could impact hundreds of millions of websites. The same copyright changes have been suggested in the U.S. as well.
It’s called ‘ancillary copyright.’ Boiled down to basics, it means that websites violate international copyright law if they provide hyperlinks to other websites. In other words, if I give you a link to a publication that exposes a horrible HOA story somewhere I violate that publication’s copyright. The reasoning is horrible.
Many people who read NeighborsAtWar.com each night provide links to my website to their respective email lists. My readership always goes up on those days, so I don’t object to anyone linking to an interesting post on this blog. In face, I encourage everyone to do so. I will NEVER claim that you violated my copyright even if I say something embarrassingly stupid, which I sometimes do. But a growing number of national and international organizations are demanding that the act of providing hyperlinks be criminalized.
The reasoning is nuts. The ultimate result will be that hundreds of millions of websites will simply have to shut down. It’s a huge muzzle on free speech and free access to information. News aggregators like Drudge, Breitbart, and Huffington Post will simply have to quit doing business. Our lives and our free access to information have been remarkably improved since the invention of the World Wide Web and hyperlinks. But free access to information threatens many in the establishment.
Our anti-HOA movement is growing exponentially because we’re all able to share stories about the huge scam known as the Homeowners Association Movement. Fight this suppression of Free Speech whenever and wherever it occurs.
