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Former property manager pleads guilty in HOA investigation
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Former construction company boss Leon Benzer was identified in federal court Friday for the first time as one of the main players behind the conspiracy to take control of homeowners associations around the valley.
Mary Ann Watts, 64, a former condominium property manager, named Benzer while pleading guilty in the high-profile federal investigation into fraud and corruption at the associations.
Watts, 64, who managed Vistana in southwest Las Vegas, entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
She is the seventh defendant to plead guilty in the far-reaching probe, which has targeted lawyers, judges and former police officers.
U.S. District Judge James Mahan set a Jan. 20 sentencing.
Watts admitted in court to playing a role in the massive scheme to stack homeowners association boards with members who pushed for construction defect lawsuits against builders. A dozen homeowners associations have been dragged into the investigation.
Watts told Mahan that Benzer and one of her fellow defendants, former Vistana board member Edward Lugo, gave her "seed money" to start her own property management company to further the takeover conspiracy.
Lugo pleaded guilty on Thursday, but Benzer has not been charged.
Benzer, once a high-powered partner in the Courthouse Cafe at the Regional Justice Center, is the former owner of Silver Lining Construction, a company that did construction defect work for homeowners associations. Silver Lining's offices were among those searched in a September 2008 FBI-Las Vegas police raid.
Vistana lawyers alleged in civil litigation in 2008 that Benzer and his company had systematically placed employees, friends and close associates on the condominium development's board to "obtain construction work from the association through misconduct and fraud."
In her 14-page plea agreement, Watts did not name Benzer, but she admitted that she agreed in August 2006 to form a property management company, which would be controlled by her co-conspirators. The goal was to manage the Vistana homeowners association and others and steer business to the co-conspirators.
Prosecutors have chosen not to identify Benzer in court documents filed in the investigation. The documents, however, allege that a construction company owner who specializes in construction defect work was a key co-conspirator.
Benzer's defense lawyer, Dan Albregts, declined comment after Watts' plea on Friday. So did Watts and her attorney Michael Kimbrell.
Watts admitted in her plea agreement that she also helped rig a homeowners association election at Vistana in November 2006 "by ceding her role as community manager and providing the election ballots to a co-conspirator attorney acting as a special election master," the agreement said. The attorney was not identified.
Watts acknowledged that she concealed her relationship with her co-conspirators from homeowners and helped her co-conspirators manipulate association agendas and votes.
Her plea is the latest in a long line of deals expected in the case. Lawyers from the Justice Department's fraud section in Washington, D.C., plan to file as many as two dozen plea deals. Watts and the other defendants who have pleaded guilty have agreed to testify for prosecutors in their push to indict the higher-level players.
With the help of friendly homeowners association board members, legal work and repair contracts were funneled to lawyers and companies associated with the scheme at the expense of the homeowners, who were deprived of honest voting on their boards, court documents have alleged.
The board members were straw purchasers elected by the co-conspirators through dirty campaigning that included conducting phony polling, hiring private investigators to dig up dirt on candidates and rigging the balloting, the documents alleged.
On Thursday, Lugo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
Lugo, 47, who lives in the Los Angeles area, admitted in his plea agreement that he became a "straw purchaser" to get elected to the Park Avenue homeowners association board.
He admitted helping rig association elections and managing a "bill pay program" for his co-conspirators that funded other straw buyers around the Las Vegas Valley.
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dgruber - I agree with the jail time and financial penalties. However, your wish of ulcers, heart conditions etc. is completely out of line, take the high road my friend.
How many more of these plea deals do we have to endure? When are we going to start putting these guys on trial? When are we going to get some real arrests and some REAL PENALTIES. These crooks belong behind bars. They deserve to have their lives destroyed they way they heartlessly destroyed the lives of their neighbors. They deserve stress, ulcers, heart conditions, migraines, financial devastation, loss of reputation and jail time. They deserve to lose their homes to foreclosure and be in debt for the rest of their lives. And they deserve to spend many, many years in jail. What these people did to us is outrageous. They herded us up and milked us like cows. Now it's their turn to know what it feels like to have somebody else in control of your property, your money, your time, your health and your life. I hope these crooks feel every single bit of the suffering they dished out to their victims. I hope it comes back to them times three. That's what they deserve. That's what I hope they get.
A TEMPLATE my friends, which I believe is applicable to ALL the Courthouse schemes, the MEDICAL MAFIA, HOA MAFIA, LAND BARRONS, GUARDIANSHIP & PROBATE...Thank you M.S.! "When I proposed the HOA bill in ---, I also proposed a construction defect bill. The contract lobbyists for the trial lawyers contacted me and requested I not bring the bills forward, further stating the trial lawyers are going to vilify and crucify you. I am stubborn and believe in fair play and in America enough that I brought it forward anyhow. They did proceed to vilify and crucify me.This is organized crime; these people will stop at nothing because there are billions of dollars involved. Exhibit C says Nancy Quon made $100 million, but she is small potatoes; there are bigger ones. They have embarrassed this State and this Legislature. We now have a probe with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office involved...When I introduced the first bill and they were vilifying me, I received threats. It went so far that people were calling my home in Las Vegas—unbelievable—threatening to murder my wife and son. That is pretty tough, but it does not matter. They want to do this to me; that is fine, that is business when you are a Legislator...These guys do not even trust each other. It is like their own mobs;..."
"...their own law firms are organized crime. They cut the city up, they cut the State up; it is organized crime. It is very organized and very sophisticated... Every year we pass something on HOAs, but we are sticking our finger in the dike every time. Every time we leave here, the attorneys look at NRS 116; they give a new opinion for their boards, they change our meaning and create a loophole so they can operate the way they do...People may say, oh, this is not really happening. You know the Nancy Quon story, which is just one of many. She did an elaborate scheme but has worked for every CD attorney in the State, which is where she got her training. She was not smart enough to keep her stories straight and her act together. But she enlisted retired police officers and all kinds of people to help her carry out this organized crime scheme of hers... I have laid the groundwork..." YES you have! Thank GOD for you! I am so sorry they have threatened you and yours. We ALL have been threatened - repeatedly. Please DOJ Main, know that the legislation has been manipulated FOREVER, so that the VARIOUS courthouse schemes could operate seamlessly. The public could be targeted and never escape, all signed and sealed with a nice, little court order. Dig, dig, dig. I've even got extra shovels.” Thank you M.S.!
Seven guilty pleas, thus far. A total of approximately $1 Million to be paid in restitution by the crooks.
A laughable $30,000 is to be paid to "the HOA's" by Debra Genato.
The other $970,000 is to be PAID TO THE BANKS for their "losses" when they foreclosed on the Condo Mortgages held by the crooks...and not a penny of that roughly $1 Million to the REAL victims, the Condo Associations/Owners!!!! Do you see something wrong with this picture?
The guy Lugo was the key figure in mailing phony ballots to Rig Elections. Three consecutive elections were rigged at Vistana, resulting in the loss of more than $7 Million from the Vistana account. But, so far, at best Vistana will get a pro-rated portion of Genato's $30,000...maybe $10,000 of the $7 Million stolen. Lugo pays $445,000 to a bank, and not a penny to Vistana whose elections he was key to rigging!!! What the prosecutors are doing in the Plea deals is a crime in itself. By the time the various HOAs successfully win a CIVIL lawsuit judgment against these crooks in civil court, the crooks will be bankrupt, penniless....the HOA's won't get a penny. Insanity!!
Watts was also at chateau versailles before platinum, knievel was there possibly even under the current defects attorneys, wonder why that was not mentioned, or is there another shocker for versailles, there recent cam fired is already with another management company, the dirt just gets passed around with a wink from one management company to another
Lets see who the REAL STARS of this scam are.
Could any prior State Legislators be involved?
Be nice to see the FBI have them in cuffs walking into jail!
@robespierre - obviously ths didn't read the article. @ths - "policing and enforcing"? really? so you don't have to scroll all the way to the 3rd paragraph: "She is the seventh defendant to plead guilty in the far-reaching probe, which has targeted lawyers, judges and former police officers." so @ths, if lawyers, judges and police officers are involved how exactly is "policing and enforcing" supposed to work?
"People that steel, cheat and work around the system for personal gain will always be caught. It is about policing and enforcement through prosecuting and not about more un needed laws."
You honestly believe this? You're scary.
Yes