Category: Politics
LA’s Elliott Broidy to be served justice for the rich
LA financier Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty to paying $1 million in bribes to get New York State’s giant pension funds to invest in his Markstone Fund, is going to get off with a slap on the wrist.
The New York Daily News reported that prosecutors are expected to ask that Broidy’s sentence be reduced to a misdemeanor and no jail time because he’s been such a good such a yeled tov (good boy).
Broidy had been facing four years in prison but he cooperated with investigators and helped put former Comptroller Alan Hevesi in jail.
Sentencing has been delayed to Sept 28 to give the corpulent cretin enough time to pay the $18 million in restitution he owes the state.
Update: During this whole affair, Broidy has retained all his posts on boards and trusteeships, although it’s unclear how he can be trusted with anything. He’s on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He’s also on the Board of Advisors for the USC Marshall School of Business’ Center for Investment Studies; the Simon Weisenthal Center’s Board of Trustees.
Docs Reveal Secret $1B Saudi Property Empire
This story in Britain’s Independent newspaper caught my eye:
A secret $1bn US property empire amassed by members of the Saudi royal family is the subject of a bitter legal dispute that threatens to reveal the extent of the family’s American business interests.
These properties are owned by HRH Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Fahd, the youngest and favorite son of King Fahd and his relative, Sheik Khalid N Al Assaf. The prince, a minister of state without portfolio, is known for his extravagance and international playboy image. The prince reportedly owns $2 billion USD worth of palaces and the world?s largest collection of super yachts. He also once had a romantic relationship with model/actress Yasmine Bleeth of Baywatch.
I tracked down the court document.
Turns out the Prince has owned several buildings in California including the Starz Entertainment building in Burbank; Two Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills; and 220 Post Street in San Francisco.
Here’s a list of the property holdings:
Other properties formerly owned by the Prince and the Sheikh are:
The properties are managed by
- Dr. Abdulrahman Otaishan, a senior financial advisor to the Prince
- Dr. Andreas Limburg
- Pierre Rolin and his company Strategic Real Estate Advisors Limited, which was placed into administration in 2010 after losing a single client.
Brent Wilkes Is Unjailable
This week, a federal judge ordered Cunningham briber Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes to go to jail, but once again Wilkes remains a free man while he appeals his case.
At this point, it’s a pretty safe bet that Randy “Duke” Cunningham, sentenced to more than eight years in prison, will be released from prison later this year to begin his new life in a cabin in the Ozarks before Wilkes really has to make sure he never, ever drops the soap in the prison shower.
Judge Larry Burns sentenced Wilkes to 12 years in prison back in February 2008. He served a few months and then the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals freed him on bail so he go off and play poker and steal from his employee pension funds to pay his living expenses.
Enough is enough, prosecutors said. But for those who now how to manipulate it, the justice system serves to delay and mitigate punishment rather than deal it out.
So it’s become a sad, familiar pattern for Brent-o:
He gamed the system as a defense contractor sucking on the taxpayer’s teat and flying around in private jets with the help of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a congressman he corrupted with hookers, lavish vacations, and Hawaii scuba trips.
Today, a team of court-appointed (read: taxpayer funded) team of attorneys are delaying his day of reckoning, essentially buying Wilkes freedom with money lifted from the pockets of his victims.
It’s really just another form of welfare, but Wilkes is the worst kind of welfare bitch: a man who espoused a Republican ideology that sneered at big government and “socialism” and wrapped itself red, white and blue fantasies of a country that no longer exists, if it ever did, where the playing field was level, the rules were fair and hard work and determination won the day.
US: Brent Wilkes Is Still a Douchebag
In my last post on Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes, I noted that he has been playing poker and farting around while his team of court-appointed attorneys fights to keep him from serving a 12-year sentence for plying Duke with hookers, lavish trips to Hawaii in exchange for defense contracts.
In court papers filed ahead of a hearing granted by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutors say Wilkes has been doing more than that: Wilkes has been committing crimes by stealing more than $100,000 from the pension fund of his now defunct company to pay his living expenses.
Since Wilkes’s release from custody on January 5, 2009, Wilkes has engaged in additional fraudulent conduct: just as he once raided his children’s college funds to obtain operating cash, he has unabashedly raided the Wilkes’s Corporation’s employee benefit plan to obtain spending money for himself – while failing to reimburse the public for his taxpayer-funded attorneys.
Update: After a day-long hearing, Judge Larry Burns decided that Wilkes has to go to jail on Friday unless the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals saves his ass again. (U-T San Diego)
Brent Wilkes, enough is enough
Brent "The Enigma" Wilkes
Defense contractor Brent “the Enigma” Wilkes was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham with hookers, lavish vacations and the like, but his court-appointed lawyers have done a phenomenal job of keeping the guy out of prison so he can play poker and fart around.
He’s due for a hearing in a few days and the government calls his bluff in this footnote to a motion:
The government tips its hat to defense counsel who have adopted clever stratagems designed to prolong Wilkes’ day of reckoning almost five years since his 2007 conviction. Nevertheless, this latest attempt to prolong and confuse what should be a rather simple conclusion to this lengthy end-game should not be countenanced by this Court. Enough is enough.