Nevada State laws are being twisted and used to allow illegal foreclosures by Homeowners associations. Women and Minorities are the main targets. Victims are tossed into the streets with 5 day notices. The victim is left to pay the mortgage payment. In the meantime, potential investors are able to walk inside the county recorder’s office and record his or her name as the true owners. The investor buys the property, sometimes for as little as 10% of its true value.
It shows the growing impact of HOA fees on different types of neighborhoods. In recent years, more and more people have been moving away from private family homes into life in a condo. The decrease of available land, the mandate by many large businesses that employees should live closer to the city core, and the relatively lower cost of condo living are among the reasons for the demographic shift.
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.
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.
There’s an excellent column in the Las Vegas Review Journal about one of the sleazy cops who took part in the massive HOA corruption scandal. It’s linked below.
Also linked is an FBI press release on its long-running HOA investigation. Supposedly, this was a ten million dollar swindle, but now the FBI is using the figure $58 million. The real losses are many times that amount because the Leon Benzer HOA swindle helped collapse the Las Vegas housing market and an untold number of people lost their homes and life savings. Someday, some smart investigator will start calling it the billion dollar swindle, which it clearly was.
