Viewers beware: another Flip This House star has been exposed as a con.
Back in 2007, the AP ran a story on one of A&E's "expert" house flippers on the reality series, Flip This House, Atlanta businessman Sam Leccima. Not only was Leccima accused of fleecing investors but of also pulling an elaborate scam on viewers.
Sam LeccimaThe popular A&E reality series Flip This House shows developers buying properties, fixer-uppers and foreclosures, renovating the property then turning it around for a profit.
Tackling one of the most exciting aspects of today's high-stakes real estate market - the transformation of an eyesore into a profit-making beauty - A&E's hour-long "docu-soap" follows the travails of three real-estate developers in the hot housing markets of New Haven, San Antonio and Atlanta, where each boasts a team of characters that buys homes, renovates them, then flips them for a profit. It sounds simple, but sparks fly and tempers are high before the fixer-uppers sell to happy buyers. Source - A&ELeccima starred in the 2006 season of Flip This House where he claimed he was a successful real estate investor who just happened to have had his Georgia Real Estate License revoked in 2005. A Georgia panel ruled Leccima ""does not bear a good reputation for honesty, trustworthiness, integrity, and competence."
WAGA TV in Atlanta investigated Leccima's claims of "flipping" houses and found "mismatched wood floors and patched unpainted walls." But it was the elaborate hoax staged by Leccima, where he had friends and family pose as "buyers" and posted "sold" signs on unsold homes.
Leccima claims he never "owned" the homes and that A&E knew what Leccima was up to. A&E yanked Leccima's show off the air and removed any mention of Leccima from its website.
Armando Montelongo Jr.Today a grand jury in Austin, Texas indicted yet another "house-flipper" from the A&E series.
According to the San Antonio Express News, Armando Montelongo Jr. was indicted on "theft of services" charges for failing to pay appraisal fees. Montelongo could face up to two years in jail for the felony charges.
Montelongo has also been sued by the local school district for over $5,000 in delinquent back taxes. Montelongo's brother David, who starred on the show with Armando and their two wives, is being sued for "breach of contract and fraud" by a California investor.
Armando has capitalized upon his house-flipping success, putting out a series of how-too videos, Flip and Grow Rich and a new business listed on the web, Montelongo House Buyers.
During our two-year debut on “Flip This House”, we appreciated sharing our expertise with viewers and recognized the value of working with family. This time in our lives has now propelled us to even greater opportunities through the commencement of Montelongo Partnerships*, our new company. We believe that true success embodies sharing knowledge with others, modeling virtuous work ethics, and engaging in partnerships that equally benefit each party involved. As a trusted name and face in the real estate industry, we continue to hold higher standards of excellence and integrity in every endeavor. Source - Montelongo House Buyers
This is a case of "viewer beware" as back in 2007 A&E spokesperson Dan Silberman issued a statement from the network:
"A&E Television Networks is not a party to any of the transactions shown in Flip This House and has not received any formal complaints about the properties or sales."
Silberman also made the statement, that in effect, what happens on A&E, stays on A&E, as the network "doesn't investigate claims made by people on the show, opting to take them at their own word."
So in other words, if you're "flipping a house" on A&E, "anything goes" and a "sucker's born every minute." In this case, it's the viewers getting suckered as house flippers can claim they bought a property, fake renovations, then claim they "sold" it for.... whatever they want to claim and the viewer is none the wiser.
Everybody knows, on A&E, anything goes!
By LBG
Image - Sam Leccima
Image - Montelongo
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
United States Attorney
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 4, 2007
CONTACT:
U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
YUSILL SCRIBNER,
REBEKAH CARMICHAEL
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
(212) 637-2600
MANHATTAN U.S. ATTORNEY INDICTS NORMAN HSU FOR MASSIVE FRAUD SCHEME
Hsu Also Charged With Using Straw Donors to Make Illegal Federal
Campaign Contributions Over A Three-Year Period
MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today the unsealing of a fifteen-count Indictment against NORMAN HSU, 56, for perpetrating a massive scheme that defrauded investors across the United States. HSU also was charged with violating federal campaign finance laws by making contributions to various political candidates in the names of others.
According to the Indictment unsealed earlier today in Manhattan federal court:
At all times relevant to the charges, HSU operated and was the Managing Director of two companies, Components Ltd. and Next Components Ltd. (the “Companies”), which purported to provide investment programs that extended short-term financing to businesses. HSU recruited victims by guaranteeing them high rates of return on short-term investments. After receiving money from investors, HSU, for a time, repaid both the victims’ interest and principal as promised. Believing HSU to be trustworthy and the Companies to be legitimate and potentially profitable, victims often agreed to roll over their invested funds into new investments with HSU, invest more money with HSU, and recruit friends to invest with HSU. In reality, however, the Companies were merely vehicles for HSU’s scheme, in which money owed as returns to older investors was paid with money received
from newer investors. From 2000 through August 2007, HSU convinced his victims to invest at least $60 million in his fraudulent scheme. In the end, after making some payments
intended to perpetuate the scheme, HSU swindled his victims out of at least $20 million.
In an effort to raise his public profile and thereby convince more victims to invest in his fraudulent scheme, HSU pressured many of his victims to individually contribute thousands of dollars to various candidates for President of the United States, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives whom HSU supported. HSU allegedly made direct and implied threats to these victims, leading them to believe that their failure to make the required political contributions would adversely impact their ongoing investment
relationships with HSU.
In addition, HSU violated the Federal Election Campaign Act by making contributions to various political campaigns in the names of others. Specifically, in 2005, 2006, and 2007, HSU asked other individuals to make contributions, totaling more than $25,000 for each calendar year, to designated federal candidates. HSU then directly reimbursed the individuals for the political contributions they had made on his behalf.
HSU is charged in the Indictment with six counts of mail fraud, six counts of wire fraud, and three counts of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act. If convicted, HSU faces maximum penalties of 20 years in prison on each of the mail and wire fraud charges, and 5 years on each of the federal campaign finance charges. HSU also faces a maximum fine of twice the gross gain or loss resulting from his financial fraud crimes, and an additional maximum fine of $250,000 for the campaign finance crimes.
In addition, the Indictment contains an allegation seeking the forfeiture of all property that constitutes the proceeds traceable to the commission of HSU’s mail and wire fraud offenses, including at least $20 million -- obtained as a result of those offenses.
Mr. GARCIA praised the work of the FBI in the investigation of this case, and added that the investigation is continuing.
If you believe you were a victim of these crimes, including a victim entitled to restitution, and you wish to provide information to law enforcement and/or receive notice of future developments in the case or additional information, please contact Wendy Olsen-Clancy, the Victim Witness Coordinator at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, at (866)874-8900, or Wendy.Olsen@usdoj.gov. For additional information, go to: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/victimwitness.html on the Internet.
HSU is in custody in California on unrelated charges and is expected to be produced in New York in the coming weeks. The case has been assigned to United States District Judge VICTOR MARRERO.
This prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys KATHERINE A. LEMIRE, ALEXANDER J. WILLSCHER, and RUA M. KELLY are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
She says frivolous, he says felonies...
A key case against Bill and Hillary Clinton has been winding its way through the California courts. A businessman, Peter Franklin Paul, has learned the hard way the price some pay to play in "Clinton's World."
California's Supreme Court has been asked to hear a claim Sen. Hillary Clinton wrongly invoked First Amendment protections to remove herself as a defendant from a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in which she and her husband are accused of defrauding the largest donor to her 2000 Senate campaign.The California Supremes upheld a lower-court decision to deny the Clinton's motion to dismiss the case. The well known pattern of the Clinton's strategy in dealing with these types of cases, dragging the lawsuits through the courts, the claimants through the mud, years of litigation, claims of "vast Republican conspiracies." Hillary claimed she should be dismissed as a defendant because she is a "public figure" who by law is immune from "frivolous" lawsuits.
Business mogul Peter Franklin Paul – who claims former President Bill Clinton destroyed his entertainment company to get out of a $17 million agreement – is petitioning the state high court to rehear a recent appeals court ruling upholding a decision to remove the New York Democrat from the case.
In this case the cry of Republican shenanigans does not apply. Paul was the largest donor to Hillary's 2000 Senate campaign.
The lawsuit claims that the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination had knowledge of her husband's intent to defraud Paul and that she committed felonies by soliciting illegal campaign funds from him.Bill and Hill allegedly intentionally defrauded Paul, not only a Democrat but Hillary's largest backer in her 2000 Senate race. Someone from the West Coast clique of Clinton sycophants. Talk about biting the hand that fed you.
Makes one wonder if Paul has given thought to switching his party affiliation. Large donations may be a thing of the past for Paul as his lawsuit claims the Clinton's actions destroyed Paul's entertainment company.
He Said, She Said
The California Court of Appeal upheld Sen. Clinton's removal as a defendant in the case based on the state's anti-SLAPP law, which was designed to protect public figures, in the exercise of their First Amendment rights, from frivolous lawsuits. But Paul contends the Democratic senator is abusing the anti-SLAPP law as an alternate way to be removed from the case after the state Supreme Court determined it should proceed.A law, written by public figures designed to protect public figures using the 1st Amendment for protection from "frivolous" lawsuits.
What's even more interesting about this particular law?
As long as one is a politician and to some being a politician is a lifelong calling then one can try to play the "Get Out Of A Lawsuit" Chance Card just like Hillary did. They can claim that any lawsuit is frivolous and thus as a public figure, they are immune from prosecution.
To Hillary, this lawsuit is frivolous, to Paul this lawsuit is his shot at justice and matter of a few felonies alleging Bill and Hill defrauded Paul to the tune of 17 million dollars.
It's not as if Paul is suing the Clintons claiming Lincoln's mattress was too lumpy in the now defunct Clinton White House No-Tell Motel.
Source - hillaryproject.com
Image [Adena.com]
For more on this story check Right Voices: UPDATE:SCANDALS SCANDALS EVERYWHERE……. Will Peter Paul Be Hillary’s Paula Jones?
By LBG
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
