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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Life has certain constants other than death and taxes. “Power corrupts” is one of them, and it’s worse than death and taxes as it impacts us every second of every day from prenatal to the disposition of our property and the welfare of our loved ones after we pass on. As a result, the powerful promote public ignorance with propaganda. FBI’s acquiescence allow corruption to flourish.
The FBI’s Role in LA Corruption
As we’ve stated, “The FBI could not find the Pacific Ocean while standing on the Santa Pier” or as Sunday morning TV pundits are reciting today, “The FBI is where evidence goes to die.” It does not matter whether one is GOP or DEM, the FBI’s role is the same – protect the powerful.
FBI’s Blindness Was Crucial to Los Angeles’ Ruin
Between 2005 and 2011, LA experienced Cesspool at 1601 N. Vine where then CD 13 councilmember Eric Garcetti committed real estate fraud on the City Council to funnel $1.4 Million to his buddy Steve Ullman. One form of fraud is to conceal material information in order to cheat anyone out of the money. It does not matter whether that money goes to the deceiver or to a third party of his choosing. Steve Ullman, whose family has been famous for its ownership of Los Angeles parking lots since the 1940's, wanted to sell his property at 1601 North Vine in Hollywood, but due to prior irregularities in his financial transactions with CRA/LA (Los Angeles’ corrupt Community Development Agency which the State killed off in 2012), the CRA was not to accept any additional Owner Appraisals to establish the value of Ullman’s properties. Rather, the CRA was to obtain and use its own independent appraisals. On May 23, 2006, the CRA obtained an appraisal for $4,070,000.00 and on May 25, 2006, Culver Studios, a shill for Ullman, obtained a developer appraisal for $5,450,000.00. (2010 CRA internal memo admits that Ullman was the property owner and not Culver Studios) Both appraisals went to Garcetti’s CD 13 Office and to CRA.
On May 24, 2006, at 9:14 a.m. the CRA appraisal was received by CRA’s Tom Beezy, project appraiser for 1601 N. Vine.
On August 4, 2006, CRA John Perfitt sent the developer May 25, 2006 $5.4M appraisal to CRA Tom Beezy, project appraiser for 1601 N. Vine.
If the FBI were not the place where evidence goes to die, we’d know why it took the developer’s $5.4M appraisal seventy (70) days to reach CRA’s Breezy. Subsequently, Garcetti presented the higher developer appraisal to the city council while concealing the lower $4M CRA appraisal. As a result the city council was deceived into approving the $1.4M over payment. There were ancillary perks, which the intentionally blind FBI could not see, e.g. while the CRA held the property, the property owner did not have to pay his mortgage. At first one might say, “Of course not, he sold it.” Not so fast; in 2010, the CRA returned the property to the Ullman’s shill Culver Studios, aka Hal Katersky, for the sale prices of $365,000.00. Also, properties owned by the CRA/LA did not pay property taxes due to complex set of transactions where the county returns the property taxes for places like Bunker Hill to the City of Los Angeles, which then deposits the tax funds into special CRA accounts so that the money is not available to pay for police, fire, sewers, parks, street services, etc., but can be doled out to developers whose projects similarly would not pay property taxes.
FBI’s “We Don’t Care about That”
More than one person provided the FBI with the two appraisals and the proof that Garcetti had committed a felony by withholding the lower CRA $4M from the city council. I know that FBI’s response since it made it directly to me after I had provided the FBI copies of the two appraisals, “We don’t care about that,” but do you have any information about downtown development (Jose Huizar)?
Despite the FBI’s disregard of open and shut case of Garcetti corruption, in 2010 there were various city hearings about the Cesspool on Vine and the involvement of Hal Katersky and his Culver Studios. During the Garcetti controlled city hearings, it was claimed that none of the people from 2005 could be located. John Perfitt, who gave the $5.4M appraisal to Breezy was working for the city of Norwalk planning, but everyone claimed they could not find him. Garcetti aid, Allison Becker could not be found even though she worked for the city. Tom Breezy, according to his neighbors, just disappeared one day, but they weren’t going to talk about it. Of course, everyone knew where Steve Ullman was and so too Eric Garcetti. While Hal Katersky was questioned, he did a great impersonation of Sgt. Schultz, “I know nothing.”.
Those Who Do Not Know History Are Bound to Repeat it
As we now know, Garcetti’s corrupt densification of first Hollywood and then of DTLA, etc. resulted in the Homeless Crisis, in the fraudulent hype real estate prices through corrupt spot zoning, the forced transition of homeowners to renters, the city council’s criminal vote trading system (One and Done), the exodus of the Millennials and Gen Zer’s to the extent that the entire State of California lost one seat on the US Congress. Now, the Hotel workers, the Writers and SAG AFTRA all point to the extremely high housing costs as a major factor forcing the strikes.
Angelenos Are Easily Duped
People cannot figure out that the mass destruction of poor people’s homes is a major reason we have a Homeless Crisis, or why people, who work 40 to 60 per week, cannot afford to live in LA. They actually believe the LA Times when it tells them that homelessness is because people are lazy, because they are criminals and do not merit help, because of mentally ill or drug addiction. Thus, the solution to homeless is to give billions of dollars to developers so that they can charge between $800K and $1M per apartment for Affordable Housing. If the FBI had not had its head up its ass in 2010, Garcetti’s $1.4 Million fraud in 2005-2006 over 1601 N. Vine, the city would not now be the city’s allotting $1.3 BILLION for homeless. About now, Garcetti should be getting out of prison rather than going to India
Had the FBI Done its Job, Garcettism Would Have Been Stopped
Had Garcetti gone to prison for his $1.4M real estate fraud along with a gazillion other frauds, the horrible developer juggernaut which has ruined Los Angeles could have been stopped. Instead, the FBI protected city hall corruption by its prosecutions of Englander and Huizar. While they like Garcetti were participants in the corruption, their greed was a threat to the One and Done System where a developer could bribe one councilmember and be guaranteed unanimous city council approval. They were using the city PLUM committee to coerce developers to pay additional bribes. The only permitted extra bribe was to Garcetti’s Mayor’s Fund. The Mayor’s Fund has to be one of the slickest of operations. Developers merely label their bribe a “donation” to the Mayor’s Fund and magically it is no longer a crime!
FBI Blindness Redux
With Garcetti gone, the lynch pin to the non stop developer fraud is also gone. Nature, however, hates a vacuum. Thus, we now face the Woker-Developer Alliance. The Woker theme is simple: Minorities are “Oppressed,” and anti-Black White supremacists are the “Oppressors.” Give us power to us Wokers like Councilmembers Hernandez, Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martinez, and more recently Harris-Dawson, and the Woke will protect you. So far, the Oppressor anti-Blacks are former council president Nury Martinez, former councilmember Gil Cedillo, councilmember Kevin DeLeon, alleged White Supremacist councilmember John Lee and councilmember Curren Price.
The Woker goal to turn all minorities and poor into eternal renters dovetails perfectly with Wall Street’s plan for America to become a nation of renters, who may not accumulate any equity in a home of their own. When a faction declares itself to be the protectors of the Oppressed, its number on goal is to keep their followers Oppressed. That’s why Wokers have no homeownership goals and foster perpetual polarization. The GOP plays the same game in reverse.
Short Term Woker Goal – Conceal Origins of Non-Racist Audio Tape
Just as an FBI investigation into the Cesspool on Vine in 2010 would have halted Garcetti’s densification, disclosure of who released and falsely promoted the illegal audio tape as racist threatens the Woker-Developer Alliance. They are running a couple false scenarios up the flag pole to see who salutes. More about Santos Leon and his wife Karla Vasquez in future. The Wokers can be confident of one thing – the FBI’s silence is guaranteed.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a former attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed within this content are solely Richard Abrams’ and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of CityWatchLA.com or its affiliates.)
