Saturday, January 12, 2013

There Are At Least 12 Very Nervous People In Las Vegas

From the LVRJ: Federal prosecutors are preparing to seek a long-awaited indictment as early as next week in their final push to charge conspirators in a massive scheme to take over Las Vegas Valley homeowners associations.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has previously reported that as many as a dozen defendants could be named in the corruption indictment being sought by attorneys with the Justice Department's Fraud Section in Washington D.C.
Prosecutors this week informed defense lawyers representing the targets that they will be charged and are arranging for them to surrender to the FBI after an indictment is returned.
So far, 28 defendants have pleaded guilty in the high-profile investigation, which has been running for more than five years. All but one of the defendants are cooperating with prosecutors.
The investigation became public in September 2008 when FBI agents and Las Vegas police conducted a valleywide raid to gather evidence of the scheme.
For the past several months, prosecutors have been presenting evidence against the remaining targets to a Las Vegas federal grand jury.
The biggest target yet to be charged is Leon Benzer, 45, the former construction company boss who prosecutors allege pulled the strings in the multimillion-dollar takeover scheme. A total of 11 homeowners associations, including Vistana in southwest Las Vegas and Park Avenue on the south end of the Strip, have been identified as victims.
Prosecutors have alleged more than $8 million was funneled through secret bank accounts to fund the scheme, which allowed the conspirators to land lucrative legal, construction and community management contracts from the homeowners associations.  http://www.lvrj.com/news/nearly-a-dozen-indictments-expected-next-week-in-hoa-scheme-186543441.html
In Las Vegas, we have had many scandals, but this seems to one of the most wide spread scandals in a very long time.
And the scandals have hurt many people, especially those in the middle and upper middle class people.
Hopefully, those about to be charged, if found guilty, I hope they throw the book at them.

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