Business

Ex-Con Wants to Take Over Empty Jail

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American Police Force logo
American Police Force logo

The American Police Force, that mysterious security company that plans to take over an empty jail in Hardin, Montana, is looking shadier than ever.

Montana’s attorney general has launched an investigation into a California company’s plan to take over the city of Hardin’s $27 million jail, following revelations that the company’s lead figure is a convicted felon with a history of fraud.

Michael Hilton, who formed Santa Ana, Calif.-based American Police Force in March, came to Hardin last month promising to fill the city’s never-used jail and build an adjacent military and law enforcement training center.

Since yesterday, details have been emerging about the background of the man behind APF — a California-based grifter, who has said he’s a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Montenegro, and uses the name Michael Hilton.

Over the years, Hilton has served jail time for fraud, and had a string of arrests and other run-ins with the law. Based on reports from the AP, the Billings Gazette, and Prison Legal News, here’s a quick rundown:

• 1988: Hilton arrested in Santa Ana, Calif. for writing bad checks.

• April 1990: Hilton is again arrested in Santa Ana for writing bad checks and for grand theft.

• 1992: A civil judgment of $83,000 is entered against Hilton and Ilia Dokovich.

• March 1993: Hilton pleads guilty in Orange County court to 14 felonies, including 10 counts of grand theft. One charge involves a $20,000 real estate scam, in which Hilton persuaded an associate to give him a deed on property in Long Beach, Calif., saying it was to be used as collateral on a loan, then sold the property to someone else. According to the AP, he spends six years in prison in California.

• 1999: A small claims judgment is entered against Hilton for $3,979.

• 2000: the same plaintiff obtans another small claims judgment against Hilton in Los Angeles County, this one for $1,852.

• March 2000: Hilton is accused of fraud, larceny, and breach of contract, in connection to a venture in which Hilton and others recruited the plaintiff to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to create collectible Super Bowl commemorative coins. According to the complaint, Hilton and the others said the money would be used for the design and manufacture of the coins and for a license to produce them from the National Football League — but the NFL never issued a license. Hilton is ultimately ordered to pay the plaintiff $200,000.

• Around the same period: Hilton also faces two similar fraud suits: In one, he’s accused of posing as a fine arts dealer to deceive a Utah couple into giving him a $100,000 silver statue. In the other, he is said to have teamed with a doctor to recruit investors for a southern California assisted-living facility that was never built.

• November 2002: Hilton files for bankruptcy, in order to avoid eviction by his landlord.

• March 2003: Hilton is arrested for DUI in Huntington Beach.

• February 2004: Hilton files for bankruptcy once more, again to avoid eviction.

• January 2006: A $5,052 judgment lien is entered against Hilton in Orange County, CA.

A Lexis search conducted by Prison Legal News turned up the following aliases used by Hilton: Miodrag Dokovich, Miodrag Djokich, Miodrag Djokovich, Michael Hamilton, Anthony M. Hilton, Michael A. Hilton, Michael Milton and Hristian Djokich, plus related variants.

Construction

I’m Building a Barn, Part 2

front-barn
October 2, 2009

I’m building a 1,176 square foot barn for a client for whom I built their home several years ago. Than last year I built a workshop for them

The progress since last week, when only the foundation was poured and the decomposed granite floor went in, is that all of the exterior walls have been framed. In addition, the trusses were delivered and are standing. Half the siding is in place and the windows have been delivered. Progress has been good and we are on schedule. Here are a couple of pictures of our progress.

inside-barn

Note that the trusses are “scissored” to give more volume to the barn and less chance of a horse hitting it’s head if it rears up.  The walls are ten foot high. Two of the interior stable walls are framed.

Do you have barn, workshop or home to build? We design and build to your specifications. Give us a call today at 530-263-1091.

Education, Real Estate

Madoff’s Gone But Ponzi Schemes Continue to Flourish

ponzi-snake
Picture from Rebecca Harshbarger

I write a lot of blogs on Ponzi schemes because I know several local people who have been bitten by such a scheme.  I guess it’s kind of easy for some people to fall for a Ponzi scheme so here are some guidelines to watch out for so you don’t become a victim.

What gives Ponzi schemes such appeal to investors? Alabama Securities Commissioner Joe Borg ticks off several draws.

“For the 40- to 50-year-old crowd, there’s the fear that the Social Security umbrella won’t be there,” he says. To make enough to retire, they figure they have to turbocharge their investments — and that plays right into the hands of the Ponzi scammer. “Fear is one hell of a motivator.”

For retirees, the problem is low interest rates. The average one-year bank CD yields just 0.95%, Bankrate.com says. A $100,000 CD gives you just $142 a month in interest.

Retirees find they can’t live off the interest from their savings, and that they have to dip into their principal. “They can’t make any money, and they think they’re going to outlive their savings,” Borg says.

Ponzi scammers can use other methods to get people to invest. Madoff used affinity: He scammed the wealthy. He also used religion: Many of his investors were Jewish.

In the South, many Ponzi scammers use their church affiliations, Borg says. “When you have God on your side, what can go wrong?”

What’s particularly insidious about Ponzi schemes is that many people, particularly the elderly, have a hard time admitting they made a mistake, even when the whole scam starts to unravel.

“There’s this fear that if the kids find out, it’s going to indicate I can’t handle my own affairs,” Borg says. Sometimes, older investors would rather lose the money than lose their independence.

The recent burst of Ponzi schemes has federal and state authorities on alert.

“There’s a significant increase in Ponzi scheme cases this year,” says Scott Friestad, associate director of the SEC’s division of enforcement. “From our perspective, size isn’t important. We’re aggressively pursuing Ponzi schemes regardless of size, because the sad truth is that for those caught up in them, they’re losing most if not all of their money.”

The free-lunch warning sign

How can you keep yourself away from Ponzis? Start by investigating anyone who offers an investment scheme that seems too good to be true. (Be particularly wary of those who offer free lunches while they make their pitches.) The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s website, finra.org, has a broker check section so investors can type in a broker’s name or firm and see any complaints that have been lodged.

But don’t stop there. FINRA’s database reported no such problems with Bluestein. It did, however, report problems with the brokerage firms he worked for.

Other steps:

•Check the broker’s record with your state securities administrator. You can find how to contact your state securities administrator at www.nasaa.org. Ask for all materials from the Central Registration Depository (CRD) about your prospective stockbroker. For investment advisers, ask for all materials from the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD).

•Check investment advisory firms with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. “There’s an online complaint center,” Friestad says. “I’m confident that someone will follow up quickly.”

What victims should do

If you think you’ve been scammed, contact your state securities administrator as soon as possible. They can shut down a scammer quickly: And the sooner they act, the greater chance you have of recouping some of your money. But it’s best to avoid a scam entirely.

It’s easier said than done. Con artists will say anything to part you from your money. And they know exactly what to say: “They’re safe, they’re guaranteed, they’ll make up for everything you didn’t save for the past 30 years,” Borg says. But in the end, the Ponzi always collapses and its investors wind up with nothing.

This article was published for educational purposes.

Source USA Today

Entertainment

The Nevada County Regulators – Local Rock & Roll Band

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The Nevada County Regulators
The Nevada County Regulators

One of my favorite bands in Nevada County is the Nevada County Regulators.  Why they picked that name I don’t know.  A little history of where the name “Regulators” came from is in the late 1800’s some areas of the west was pretty wild. So quite often, posses of cowboys or ranch owners would band together to get them outlaws. They would be call themselves regulators to regulate the lawlessness of the times. Of course sometimes it was hard to tell the regulators from the outlaws.

An example of this is in February 1878, in Lincoln County, New Mexico, a band of Regulators were formed out of numerous small ranch owners in the Lincoln area. Many of those who became best known as “Regulators” had a long history with one another previously in the Lincoln County War.

Ironically, Henry McCarty aka Billy the Kid would become the best known, most likely due to the notoriety of his name and due to the fact that everything the Regulators did, they blamed it on Billy the Kid. The Lincoln County War brought Billy to the front, but several of the other Regulators were actually the driving force behind the events, and had a history of killing alongside one another prior to the war.

However, I can assure you that over the years that I have known the band, I have never seen them shoot anyone. According to their bio, the Nevada County Regulators got together in the summer of 2005. Since then, they have been playing at our local hot spots, such as Coopers, Peterson’s Corner, Dos Banditos, the Crazy Horse, the Holbrooke Hotel and many other places. They have also played at the Nevada County Fair almost every year since they started up here.

They play great rock and roll and can play most anything from the 50’s to the 90’s, depending upon the occasion. A portion of their play list is at upbeat tunes.

The band consists of Ian Garfinkel – Guitar and vocals, Steve Sheppard – Bass and vocals, Tom Agar – Drums and vocals, and Kevin McElligott – Percussion and vocals.

If you love to listen to real live rock ‘n’ roll, like some variety or love to dance – then check out one of their upcoming shows or book the Nevada County Regulators for your own party. For their schedule go their website The Nevada County Regulators

Business

Bernard Madoff, King of Ponzi

This chart shows how a pyramid scheme (also known as a Ponzi scheme) is impossible to substain.
This chart shows how a pyramid scheme (also known as a Ponzi scheme) is impossible to substain.

Bernard Madoff, the king of Ponzi, sits in jail for the next 150 years, or at least until he dies, whichever comes first. In the meantime, Irving Picard, the court appointed trustee, also known as the liquidator, is searching for the billions of dollars that disappeared.

Where did the money go?  Madoff sent out statements to his “investors” that the fund was worth 64.8 billion dollars. According to Mr. Picard’s chief counsel David Sheehan, the statement was total lies.  The statement of 64.8 billion dollars was an illusion to keep investors investing.

According to CBS 60 Minutes:

“Asked how much real money went into the whole scheme, Sheehan told Safer, “I’d say about $36 billion. And about 18 of it went out before the collapse. And 18 of it is just missing. And that $18 billion is what we’re trying to get back.”

So for the past nine months, Picard and his team have been on a global treasure hunt. The first step: liquidating Madoff’s boats, his art, even his season tickets to the New York Mets, plus Bernie’s various homes, all sold or about to be sold with a U.S. Marshal as real estate pitchman.

“They didn’t exactly hide their wealth, did they?” Safer asked.

“They did have the house in Palm Beach. They had a place in Montauk. They had to have, you know, an apartment here on Park Avenue in the city – all of which are the accoutrements of great wealth. But it wasn’t an extraordinary lifestyle,” Sheehan said.

According to the government, those homes, boats, art and more are worth over $50 million.

That’s just a drop in an oversized bucket, nothing close to what investors lost. So Picard and his team continue to follow the money.

They started at Madoff’s New York offices, now an impressive landscape of emptiness.

And close by, perhaps a work of art that sums up the entire story: “It was called the ‘Soft Screw.’ And it was about four, I guess four to six feet high. And it was sitting right here,” Picard explained, describing a screw-like sculpture that used to be displayed in Madoff’s office.

And sitting on top of the world was Madoff himself. “He was much like the Wizard of Oz, just hiding behind this wall. And no one could quite penetrate it but they sort of really liked the results,” Sheehan said”

It looks like the “soft screw” turned out to be a total reaming.

Construction

Now I’m Building a Barn, Part 1

In addition to my real estate company, I also have a construction company, O’Dell Construction. I have been building in Nevada County and surrounding areas since 1971.  This has been a slow year, but I have two projects, one which I just finished for a former client. Right now, I am building a barn for another former client.

The perimeter foundation is formed, ready for concrete to be poured.
The perimeter foundation is formed, ready for concrete to be poured.

I built a 3,850 square  home for this particular client in 2002. Than I built  a 1200 square foot wood working shop for them in early 2008. Now I’m building a barn for them since they have decided to have horses.

You can see in these pictures some of the latest progress.  The barn has a perimeter foundation, with decomposed granite for a floor instead of concrete. The decomposed granite will be much easier on the horses legs than a concrete floor.  We placed a perforated pipe under the granite to  drain liquids away from underneath the granite floor.  The walls will be ten feet high and have vaulted trusses set on top of the walls. There will also be a twelve foot covered area for the horses to stand under just outside the barn.

Concrete is poured, forms ready to be stripped
Concrete is poured, forms ready to be stripped

The barn is twenty eight feet wide and forty two feet long.  Some of the requirements that are a little different than a home or work shop is that the wiring has to be in conduit and the light fixtures have to be explosion proof because of any potential dust setting off a fire.

Foundation and finish grading complete. Decomposed granite in place.
Foundation and finish grading complete. Decomposed granite in place.

This picture was taken September 24, 2009. The owner’s home is in the background.

Lakes in nevada county

Scotts Flat Lake Level Drops

Scotts-Flat-Lake-fall-2009

September 28, 2009

As you can see from the picture I took from my deck last Saturday morning, Scotts Flat Lake is down to its usual fall levels. On May of this year, the water level was at around elevation 3,070. Nevada Irrigation District chart shows that it contained 500,000 acre feet of water. (An acre foot is one foot of water spread over one acre or 43,560 cubic feet of water) NID estimates that the water level is now at 3,046 feet with about 300,000 acre feet of water.

Looking north at Cascade Shores Campgrounds & boat moorings
Looking north at Cascade Shores Campgrounds & boat moorings

Most if not all of the boats which were moored on the north side of the lake are gone.  Scotts Flat Lake is known for sailing  and most of the boats that were moored in the lake were fairly large sail boats. You can get the rates for mooring on the lake during the boating season by calling NID at (530) 273-6185. If you are interested, I suggest you call now, since most of the moorings are grabbed up early, way before the boating season starts. By the way, my house is in Cascade Shores at an elevation of 3,700 feet.

Real Estate

LA Firefigher, Real Estate Broker Faces Jail Time

man in jail cell

It seems that people are always trying to make money by illegal means. If they would put as much effort into doing something legally as the schemes they come up with, they would in all probability make more money. At least they wouldn’t end up in jail.

A case in point is the scheme by a Los Angeles City fire firefighter and part time real estate broker who was arrested on September 23 of this year. In a press release by the Deputy DA of Los Angeles, Brent Lamont Mathews is charged with six counts of forgery, thee counts of attempt to file a false or forged instrument and two counts of grand theft.

Of course to falsify deeds and documents, you need a notary. It was handy of Mathews to have a girlfriend who is a notary. So along with Mathews, his girlfriend Joi Rochelle Smith faces the same criminal charges.

Prosecutors allege that Mathews put himself on the title of a Hacienda Heights property without the true owner’s knowledge or consent through a series of forgeries and false filings. Mathews allegedly went on to defraud two investors in 2008 whom he solicited as partners to flip the house. The victims collectively lost $146,000, which the defendant purportedly borrowed by issuing trust deeds on the property and thereafter filing false reconveyances of those trust deeds.

Smith allegedly notarized key documents, enabling the illegal transactions.

Mathews sold the property for $699,000 and netted $203,969, prosecutors said. None of the proceeds from that sale were used to satisfy the trust deeds or to benefit the true owner of the property.

Detectives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Commercial Crimes Bureau, investigated the matter.

The recommended bail for Mathews and Smith is $846,000. If convicted as charged, the defendants face a maximum state prison term of 11 years and four months.

So isn’t that neat, you put your name on someone else’s property, get some trusting souls to invest in a house that isn’t yours, sell it and net over $200,000. Let’s see divide $200,000 by eleven years in jail, you make about $18,000 a year, minus of course attorney’s fees, income tax and other associated expenses. Of course you have free room and board during your jail time.

Real Estate

Foreclosure Rate Drops in California

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Foreclosure sign

The latest figures from ForeclosureRadar show that the number of distressed filings in California, one of the worst hit states in the country, fell in August.

Notices of default in California, which is the first step in the foreclosure process, dropped from July to 36,396 filings, a monthly dip of 19.1% and a 14.2% decrease from August of last year.

In a report the firm says that the government’s Home Affordable Modification Programme which provides cap incentives to servicers for the modification of loans in default or on the verge of default, appears to be having a positive impact.

ad-2-short-sale

But Sean O’Toole, founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar, said that the programme could be hiding the true picture.

‘In effect the HAMP postpones a large amount of filings,’ he said. If it fails, the market would need further government intervention or there would be a wave of new foreclosures, he warned.
But overall the outlook for recovery is still muted.

According to the latest analysis from Moody’s it will be at least another 10 years before residential property prices return to the peak levels of 2006.

Source Property Wire