MC partially blamed for skyrocketing real estate

Ontario, Canada (March 22, 2019) BTN —  A new report by an international anti-corruption organization is taking aim at Canadian real estate, showing the ways that illegitimate funds can and are entering the economy, and driving home prices up in cities across the country, including Toronto.

“Domestic criminals have known for decades that Canada is ‘la la land’ for financial crime, but word has spread internationally too,” says the publication from Transparency International Canada (TIC). “Canadian real estate has attracted the attention and money of corrupt government officials and organized crime syndicates from across the globe.”

According to the watchdog, they began focusing on Canadian real estate markets in 2016 after it Canada was revealed to be an alleged haven money laundering in the “Panama Papers,” a trove of confidential financial documents leaked to the press in 2015.

Investing and hiding money in Canada’s real estate market, according to the report, is called “snow washing.”

The real problem, says TIC, is that of transparency, or rather opacity — so much so it’s actually the name of the report. Ontario’s current laws allow private corporations to purchase property without revealing the names of its directors, as well as often times, the source of the money.

The report’s “central case study” involved an analysis of 1.4 million GTA home sales and 1.3 million mortgages, dating back to 2008. In doing so they “identified billions of dollars in property acquired by anonymous owners with money of unknown origin.”

Much of the report deals in the abstract. Outlining the various loopholes in policy that could allow for criminal elements to take advantage of Ontario and Canada’s laws around purchasing real estate. It does not, however, hold back in citing examples of those who have been caught in the act using a corporate cover for their own dirty money.

According to the report, CLJ Everest Ltd is an Ontario company that was used to acquire a sprawling rural estate in Burlington for “disgraced fund manager and alleged fraudster” Clayton Smith, who used it to misappropriate at least $5 million in investor funds for personal use.

Omid Mashinchi, a former realtor and convicted money launderer in the US, used Mashinchi Investments Ltd, a BC-registered company, to acquire residential properties in Vancouver and Toronto, some of which were then leased to criminal associates, according to the report.

 Outlaws Motorcycle Club Property 

Another example includes an Etobicoke residential property, bought by 953667 Ontario Ltd. that would go onto serve as the Toronto clubhouse of the Outlaws motorcycle club. The report says, “court documents show that the club held several residential properties through numbered Ontario companies, which it used to further its criminal operations.”

Obscured corporate buyers, both legitimate and otherwise, have acquired $28.4 billion in GTA housing since 2008. “The vast majority of those companies are privately owned, with no information on their beneficial owners,” says the TIC.

These companies are also increasingly relying on cash purchases, the rate of which has been rising steadily over the past 10 years.

The report says cash transactions accounted for nearly half of corporate purchases in 2018. In fact, in the GTA alone $9.8 billion in housing was acquired by companies using cash purchases. TIC says much of these were able to bypass safeguards that track information on the source of the funds and its owners.

SOURCE:  Daily Hive

Hells Angels member on trial for attempted murder

Milliken, Colorado (March 22, 2019) BTN —  The attorney for a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club argued on Thursday his client did not intend to kill a Milliken police officer when he fired on her during a high-speed chase in the summer of 2017.

Colorado Public Defender Brian Connors represents John Lockhart, 38, of Eaton, who is accused of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, among others. The charges stem from separate shootings during the early morning hours of June 11, 2017, in Greeley and Milliken.

On Thursday, a Weld County jury heard closing arguments in Lockhart’s case, during which Connors argued for a conviction on a lesser charge of attempted manslaughter, saying it was impossible for Lockhart to shoot to kill Milliken officer Katherine Lines in the midst of a high-speed chase.

Lines encountered Lockhart and his passenger, Amber Eaton, about 1:30 a.m. June 11, 2017, as they sped into Milliken on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. When Lines attempted to pull Lockhart over, he accelerated to speeds exceeding 100 mph and fired three shots at her cruiser. One of those bullets entered the cruiser near the driver’s side headlight. Lines was uninjured.

“Mr. Lockhart was controlling the bike with one hand, shooting with his left hand around a passenger, while also going over 100 mph,” Connors said. “What kind of aim, what kind of accuracy, what kind of intent can you have?

“There is plenty of evidence Mr. Lockhart fired a gun that night, but no evidence he intended to kill officer Lines.”

Connors explained to the jury the difference between an attempted first-degree murder conviction and an attempted manslaughter one comes down to whether or not Lockhart acted with intent or acted recklessly when he squeezed off three rounds in Lions’ direction. “Mr. Lockhart’s actions in Milliken are the very portrait of what it means to act recklessly,” Connors said. “The only way he could have acted more recklessly is if he was blindfolded.”

Weld Chief Deputy District Attorney Tony Perea painted a simpler picture of the events during his closing argument, saying Lockhart could only have had one intention in mind when he pointed a gun at another person and pulled the trigger. In officer Lines’ case, Perea cited a couple pieces of damning evidence against Lockhart that was brought up at trial.

The first was a portion of Lockhart’s taped interview with police following his arrest in June 2017. During the interview, Lockhart tells a Greeley police investigator he believes driving is a right, not a privilege, and that he doesn’t believe in pulling over for anyone.

The second piece of evidence came from a recorded telephone conversation to a friend Lockhart made from the Weld County Jail about a month after his arrest. “I did shoot at that (expletive),” Lockhart says in a snippet of the conversation played during Thursday’s hearing. “Her dash cam is gonna show that she tried to hit me, twice.”

Perea noted Lockhart made the decision to not only run from Lions after she activated her emergency lights, but to also shoot at her during the chase. “He (Connors) wants to argue that shooting at a police officer is reckless,” Perea said. “Does, ‘I did shoot at that (expletive)’ sound reckless? Shooting three times at a police officer is not the definition of reckless.”

Prior to the incident in Milliken, Lockhart was involved in a shooting with Faustino Garcia while driving on 8th Avenue through Greeley. That shooting occurred about 12:30 a.m. June 11, 2017, about an hour before Lockhart’s chase with Milliken police.

Lockhart is accused of firing seven times at Garcia, who was driving a Ford SUV. Garcia admitted at trial he had been drinking at the White Horse Bar in Garden City and that the shooting was the result of a road rage incident.

The jury began its deliberations shortly after 10 a.m. A verdict has not yet been announced.

SOURCE: GreeleyTribune

Thousands attend funeral for Taco Bowman

Dayton, Ohio, USA (March 17, 2019) BTN — Former Outlaws Motorcycle Club leader Harry ‘Taco’ Bowman’s was laid to rest at Bear Creek Cemetery Saturday. About a thousand members of the club came into town to honor their one-time leader. The ceremonies started at the Montgomery County Fair Grounds with a 24 hour viewing on Friday followed by a funeral service and burial Saturday morning. “There were thousands of people here today. We had a thousand on motorcycles, we had cars everywhere,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck.

The ride from the Fair Grounds to the cemetery proved to be a difficult task for law enforcement. Streck said deputies from his office, Trotwood Police officers, and troopers from Ohio State Highway Patrol made it as smooth as they could.

Related | Harry "Taco" Bowman funeral set for fairgrounds
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He apologized for the inconvenience it posed to other drivers, though. “At one point west third street from the 49 connector was at a standstill because there were so many vehicles trying to turn onto union to get to the cemetery,” he said. Bowman was the club’s international president in the 1990’s and died in federal prison from cancer.

He at one point was on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list. According to FBI reports, Bowman was convicted on multiple murder charges, including ones stemming from contracted bombings on rival clubs.

The Outlaws are a 1-percenter motorcycle club. That means they separate themselves from the American Motorcyclist Association's statement that 99-percent of all motorcyclists are law abiding. Despite the club’s reputation, Funeral Director Kevin Rogers said they were respectable. “We've actually done about four other Outlaw funerals,” Rogers said. “Every time I've ever worked with them they've been nothing but great.” Bowman is from Michigan and died in North Carolina.

He chose Dayton as his final resting place. “The answer they gave me as to why they chose Dayton is because Bear Creek Cemetery is where a lot of his outlaw brothers were already buried,” said Rogers.

Galloping Goose MC members sentenced

Kansas City, Missouri (March 15, 2019) BTN — Three men have been sentenced in federal court this week for their roles in a drug-trafficking conspiracy that led to the kidnap and torture of an Independence man almost three years ago. Randal Holmes of Kansas City, also known as “Peckerwood” or “Wood,” Michael Borrusch of Lakewood, Colorado, also known as “Birdie” were sentenced Thursday during separate appearances in federal court in Kansas City.

Holmes, 54, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison without parole. Borrusch was sentenced to three years and 10 months. Jeremy Bond, 40, of Independence, was sentenced Wednesday to two years and six months in federal prison without parole. In July, Holmes pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, conspiracy to distribute 50 kilograms or more of marijuana and brandishing firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.

Borrusch and Bond pleaded guilty to roles in drug trafficking. Holmes’ son and co-defendant Gerald, 27, also known as “Jerry” or “Joker,” and Richard Phoenix, 77, also known as “Snake,” have also pleaded guilty in the case and await sentencing. The Holmes duo and Phoenix were part of the Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club.

This particular drug trafficking lasted from May into September 2016, according to court documents. Bond invested $10,000, receiving $1,000 a week in return and free marijuana until the investment was repaid in full. The investment allowed Gerald Holmes and the eventual kidnapping victim to purchase greater quantities of marijuana in Colorado and then resell it in the Kansas City area. Conspirators bought at least 120 pounds of marijuana from Borrusch in Colorado, paying between $1,600 and $2,400 per pound. Randal Holmes received $100 for each pound brought back to Kansas city because of his prior connection to Borrusch. According to court documents from the state charges that preceded the federal ones, the kidnapping victim had made several drug runs for the motorcycle club.

But in September 2016, Gerald and Randal Holmes kidnapped him because he had taken the latest bunch of cash and the car given to him, had parked the car at Kansas City International Airport and had flown to Denver and then Las Vegas, where he spent the money.

The Holmes pair kidnapped the victim by going to his father’s house and having him call his son and tell him he was being held a gunpoint and needed to come to the house right away.


When the victim arrived, they pointed a gun at him, told him to get in the vehicle and then drove away to another conspirator’s house, beating him up along the way.

Phoenix met them at the house, and the victim was taken to a basement and beaten with fists and a ballpeen hammer. The men also threatened to cut off his fingers and toes using tin snips, demanding to know where a duffel bag of money was, and according to state documents gave him methamphetamine when we went unconscious so he could wake up and be beaten again. Phoenix then held the victim at gunpoint until the Holmes pair returned. The father and son then drove the victim to a home in rural Benton County, reportedly owned by a member of a support motorcycle club, where he was beaten again.

They then told the victim to call his father and tell him he was OK, had taken a beating that he deserved and would be home in a couple days. Law-enforcement officials traced the phone call and found the victim the day after the kidnapping took place. They saw his face was swollen and bloodied, and he also had injuries to his head, hands and feet, including a fractured hand, and had trouble walking. Officers found a pistol in Randal Holmes’ vehicle and another one in the house where the victim was held. They also found five guns, 36 grams of pot and drug paraphernalia in another residence.

SOURCE: Neosho Daily News