Here tis . . .
Dr. Niman (who writes on Media follies), ALT Press, Blue Dog Press
I need your responses to an endless supply of 'media follies'
I again went looking for Farina at his new address Sunday, where he moved in less than 24 hr. after I asked (Nov 14 AT 2:30 PM) that the BD of Elections sanction him for voting from a free room, non-address at 521 Lafayette.
Being fast, 22 hr. later (12:30PM Nov 15) Farina had moved in with Gary Parenti, Sheldon Silver's WNY rep (speaking of too much govt.?) who also moves a lot. He has been Pigeon's roommate in Nanula's old waterfront condo, but is registered to vote at Marine Dr. Apts. Now he and Farina share 849 Delaware, Apt 401.
But Farina is hard to find. Saturday at 4PM Farina was "out" . . Sunday at 9AM Farina was "at SPOT Coffee" Parenti told me . . but I couldn't find him at either SPOT . . Is it true Farina has split with his wife of many decades?
Is it because she disapproves of voting fraud?
So many questions.
I picked up new ALT at SPOT & read with interest the unsigned Pitts feature. And another full page ad for charlatan-judge Bayger's sue-National-Fuel-Gas initiative, which now has billboards all over. ALT's not yet year-long "business manager" Paul Fallon, Esq., has moved from Statler #1645, to 100 So Elmwood, altho still listed at 120 Delaware . . like Farina, he's a fast mover too! Not long ago he lost his shirt doing capitalism in Russia, with a list of bad debts field with the County Clerk, as he now apparently funds Indymedia, altho nobody will say so. Indymedia has apparently split from ALT Press & is now opposite Fallon's s old #1645 Statler office, which was also ALT's old office (& is still NYCLU office, with a paper note that Fallon may be there, but he is not listed in the lobby) where Fallon is/was also Green Party chair.
I know its confusing! But this is all secret stuff I should not be telling you!
INCIDENTALLY, Alt Press is apparently in hiding on the huge, spooky 2nd fl. of the Statler, where decades ago the help (& small social agencies) used to live, but where now most of the elevators don't stop. There are a dozen beer bottles outside #208 where ALT used to be, but the UNITED-WE-STAND sticker seems un-ALT. Further into the dusty, deserted labyrinth, there is a graffiti wall (with some [un]love notes to me) & an obliterated INDYMEDIA sign. Room 210, former hdqtrs of Officer Logal, whose alter-ego-in-skirt, Flora Nerk who lusted after Barbra Kavanaugh, was last seen in the Niagara River Rapids when he sued Schmidbauer for $2500, is where ALT may now be. The promised "Mega-cash, Major Perks" promised to new ALT staff are hard to see . .but truth in (small) media is elusive in Buffalo!
ALT also boasts "daily updates from around the world" on www.altpressonline.com. The last update was at 1AM, Nov 7 . . . but who's watching? Besides Mr. Pitts, that is.
Is Buffalo's alternative the status quo?! Pitts would say so.
Alt's new issue again focuses integrity issues of struggling "alternative" papers praising, or utterly silent about, their political benefactors. (ALT now has Broadway Market ads, after supporting Market BD Pres. now Erie Co. legislator David Dale, who paid ALT $350 for ads).
Pitts is paid $83,000 plus a car, and an ever growing office budget now over $1/3 million / yr.
While Rochester Council Pres gets $37,000 plus a car.
We have 12 councilpersons at $52,000 each,
Rochester has 9 at $27000 each.
They have about 9 council staff, we have 39(?)
They have no paid interns.
We have had $1/2 mil annually, monitored only by the councilperson him/herself, including Pitts-hired Schmidbauer kids . . . (Quintana's son was a 3 year no-show intern, as Pitts winked, now a 21 year-old deadbeat dad, as Pitts' oldest son also has been a longtime intern)
Until Sept 11 ended Buffalo's own special version of taxpayer-funded "corrupting the morals of minors"teaching bad government to a new generation of friends & relatives of the governing class. . .
As Parlato last week sought opinions for Illuzziletter on tithing in city hall!!?? & DOCTOR Niman publishes his ARTVOICE articles on Illuzziletter. where Illuzzi sells ads for $1,000 a month, (Is Scripture extra?)
A vocal critic of Realamherst.com, Illuzzi now has a similar message board . . where, interestingly, he is the major 'poster' . . as other messages disappear!
As a lifelong scammer, currently on $25,000 bail, he certainly has many friends in high places . . . see . . .
“I read Illuzzi every day and I find it to be very interesting and helpful,” says Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello. “The Illuzzi Letter will very often scoop the more traditional media on particular stories. But, even when it doesn’t, I enjoy the topical interviews with local political leaders and longer studies of important local issues such as education and health care that I see every day at www.illuzziletter.com.”
Scarey, since Illuzzi has formed a virtual "political crime-syndicate news" with Parlato-Farina-Flynn-Nanula-Pigeon. . . & mediafollies-watcher DOCTOR Niman. Illuzzi broke Flynn's expose of my child molesting history, but never announced the photos Flynn has of me, my 64 yr.old social worker friend & GM of 4, having sex with 3 black gay boys, which Flynn announced 3 days after Judge Murphy dismissed DA Clark's prosecution #11 of me on Flynn's 9 pages of perjured charges. After somebody robs a bank, telling the manager his family is being held hostage in Lackawanna & a gun is trained at his head from across the street . . & and more recently scams Bon Ton Stores, and does fiscal analysis while having $100,000 of bad debt (& a bankruptcy for $210,000 a dozen yrs ago) now, having no assets, his bail is posted by relatives for lifelong child nonsupport of his 7 year-old half-orphaned daughter . . . truth, integrity & character, become random occurrences.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pits reads ( & funds?) ALT Press & Mr. Masiello reads (& funds?) Illuzziletter . . . every day!
GOLLY!
GOLLY!
Media folly!
FYI
City Hall WatchNov27
Parlato "Satisfied Buyers" with Countrywide Loans. . . 4 Years Later, 54% are losing their homes
In early 1998 Frank Parlato Jr. prepared two books of 'proof' that his HUD-FHA insured homebuyers were happy & successful.
It was his response to a scathing expose by then-City Councilman David Franczyk & County legislator Greg Olma, whose staff (now-atty Mike Kuzma & Andrew Rusiniak) extensively documented Parlato's highly questionable real estate investment practices. His profits exceeded $10,000 per house, totaling $10 million, in about 1000 sales over a dozen years from mid1980's to late-1990's. Soon after, a national HUD-FHA scandal was publicized, which was having devastating impact on poor neighborhoods in cities nationwide, as unscrupled realtors, as well as appraisers, lawyers & banks profited handsomely.
The sales were all insured by HUD's FHA program, which backed up failed mortgages, as well as generous related costs. Coupled with lax HUD supervision, FHA sales evolved into a bonanza for some . .. & a disaster for the poor buyers, their neighbors & taxpayers. When exposed, HUD put more effort into covering-up the problem than into reforming a well-intentioned program run amuck.
Local HUD officials gave little or no help in correcting obvious misconduct by front-man Frank Parlato Jr., & his real estate family, headed by his minimally visible lawyer-father, Frank Parlato, Sr. Indeed, as he was exposed nationally by grassroots activists of Chicago-based NPA (National Peoples Action), Frank Jr. dedicated his efforts locally to punishing Olma & Franczyk for exposing him. Having both independence & impressive resources created by his ill-gotten millions, he has been a formidable player in several local arenas, religion, print & internet media, "progressive" activism, and most recently, third party politics. He has become a key advisor to Olma's victorious opponent David Dale in a hard-fought (& dirty) race in a devastated East Side Legislative District . . no matter that Parlato lives in a northern suburb.
Ticking Time Bomb . . . The silver lining of a cloud that Parlato (& his many "followers") cast over Buffalo's poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods, is growing proof over time of his destructiveness. A month ago Buffalo News published a settlement by PNC Mortgage Corp with HUD involving Parlato loans: a one-time $1.47 cash payment & indemnification (guarantee) of another million of Parlato mortgages not being foreclosed to HUD.
Parlato was not charged with wrongdoing in the PNC settlement. YET!
Parlato has repeatedly beaten back charges of misconduct, by changing his business name . . 10 TIMES. By hiring skilled attorneys . .by using his political connections . . and by BUYING a HUD worker (Jerry Wilke). Incredibly, US Attorney Denise ODonnell did not prosecute him, despite evidence that Parlato intended to defraud HUD & buyers, because it was allegedly not illegal to buy advice from a HUD worker about how to skirt HUD rules.
PNC is not the biggest lender in Parlato's scam. More significant is Countrywide Loans, where there has been a powerful appearance of a dirty connection to the local Sheridan office manager. Now the evidence is building. Of 26 Parlato "satisfied" buyers in Buffalo who had Countrywide loans, 14 (54%) have gone into foreclosure four years later. More are bound to follow (most recent foreclosure began 10/10/01), as buyers struggle to maintain too-often unaffordable payments based on their incomes . . in neighborhoods where property values are plummeting much faster than buyers are building equity. Often their neighbors simply abandon their homes, which often do not sell at any price.
Parlato buyers that already lost, or are losing, homes are just the tip of the iceberg. Those 46% who are 'successful' & still in homes often lose even more. After paying on a 30-year mortgage for a lifetime, they will have virtually no equity in their over-priced homes. As shown in the chart, houses usually resell for far less than Parlato paid, as he sold them marked up 180% to 590%. With mortgages averaging $35,000 to $40,000, most Parlato buyers would be lucky to get $5,000 for their homes.
Neighbors of Parlato buyers pay heavily as well. He often 'leads the way' for other housing predators to follow. Discerning neighbors flee, creating more fodder for scams, and a snow ball effect often takes over. We are aware of no neighborhood that has remained stable, or rebounded, after Parlato (& his 'followers') moved in.
There is obviously a serious problem. The scam was, and is, funded by HUD. But when we asked one of 13 "Community Builders" in Buffalo's HUD office (created by past-HUD Secretary Cuomo, paid $50,000 to $100,000 each, to make HUD . .& him. . look good,) for help in listing Parlato mortgages with Countrywide, we got no response. After several efforts, & getting past the new armed guard in Cuomo's $1/4 million storefront at 465 Main, we tracked
Page 2; CONT. Parlato "Satisfied Buyers" . . . 4 Years Later City Hall WatchNov26
down the 'community builder'. He assured us there was no access to the information, but we could submit a "FOIA request" (bureaucratic lingo: "Freedom of Information Act"). What all those "Community Builders" do, we have't a clue.
But apparently several years of 'building' necessitated an armed guard . . . in a city now verging on bankruptcy. As senior-Community Builder (paid $100,000?), former-Masiello-aide Steve Banko is utterly silent . . & rarely seen. Ironically, HUD stands for "Housing & Urban Development".
How much HUD money pours into virtually bankrupt-Buffalo annually is also not 'accessible'. Nor how much of it is stolen by the likes of Frank Parlato Jr.
The table below updates the 26 "satisfied" Parlato customers with Countrywide loans. Parlato averaged profits of $15,000 to $20,000 per house. The average buyer's mortgage is $37,750, as average sale price today is estimated to be $5,000. Parlato profited about $17,500 per house as his average buyer lost (or will lose) $32,500 per house.
AND THESE ARE PARLATO'S "SATISFIED BUYERS"!
Parlato, Countrywide loans . . . & "the American Dream"?
Address Parlato cost, date Sale Pr. Date Buyer Foreclosure, HUD resale (Notes)
2084 Bailey $8000 4/4/97 $38000 6/30/97 Victor Colon 351 10/10/1
62 Barton $12000 6/6/96 $42000 7/29/96 Haydee Garcia
127 Burgard $11000 4/11/96 $34900 5/31/96 Leslie Foote HUD: $600 5/10/99 $6001 9/6/0
161 Dartmouth $30000 10/25/94 $50000 11/17/95 Benny Reese (1st Union Home Equity loan $17900 10/15/9)
53 Davey $25000 1/297 $49500 1/10/97 Denise Bugaj
106 Ericson $22500 7/25/97 $40000 8/29/97 Sadie Miller
85 Fisher $19000 6/25/97 $45000 7/28/97 Tim Oaks (NEW Mortg: Household Finance loan $58221 11/3/0)
41 Freund $18000 8/8/97 $42900 12/16/97 Enrique Periera
16 Geneva $15000 4/15/96 $27000 8/15/96 Rita Bankston 351 7/29/95
*20 Miller $11000 $7/17/97 $32000 10/20/95 Carlene Buchanan HUD: $33827 6/9/99 $1000 6/30/0
(Internet purchase by Joseph Griffiths, resold on EBAY Auction to Susan Derlan, Wellington FLA, $3600 9/28/0)
47 Heward $22000 4/30/97 $46000 11/26/97 Linda Hudson
361 Hewitt $10000 3/1/95 $39000 6/7/95 Bobby Young 351 2/7/97 ??
*72 Hirschbeck $16000 4/23/96 $39900 4/26/96 Jeff Creighton HUD $51285 10/14/99 $6555 8/4/0
(purchased by Robt. Kroeger, resold $45000 11/16/1 Dawn Fagman; ANOTHER SCAM?)
230 Huntington $43000 4/3/97 $79900 12/22/97 Robt Spearman 351 5/26/0
31 Keystone $14000 11/22/96 $40000 4/21/97 Anne Raymond 351 7/7/0
68 Liddell $10500 11/25/97 $36900 7/22/96 Frank Payne 351 4/6/1
122 Liddell $15000 2/29/96 $34900 2/29/96 Kim Middlebrook (Household Fin. loan $$15600 11/15/99)
75 Loepere $9000 5/20/96 $29900 7/30/96 Vickie Heard 351 3/24/99HUD-funded DEMOLITION?
77 Loepere $12500 7/11/96 $34000 11/15/96 Latrice Peals 351 9/5/0 $721 10/19/1
189 May $5000 11/7/96 $36000 2/7/97 Helen Tyes HUD $46780 11/30/0
249 May $7000 3/29/96 $34900 6/20/96 Dorothea Mixon HUD $45981 8/5/99 $1512 7/26/1
71 Moeller $4500 1/10/97 $35000 6/25/97 Marion Brewer HUD $45987 3/24/99 $1710 3/9/0
733 Norfolk $19000 7/8/94 $37900 9/25/95 Christa Hill
92 Peck $6000 11/21/97 $23500 12/9/97 Norma Gibbs
131 Playter $8250 7/25/96 $32000 1/14/96 Barb Northington
Code
ü Total mark-up on 26 parcels was $774,350 averaging $29,780. Estimated profits were $15,000 to $20,000 per house. Estimated total profit on 26 houses: $390,000 to $520,000
ü BOLD Italics indicate foreclosure ("351" is the lis pendens notice of impending foreclosure action by bank)
ü Underlined addresses indicate additional loans on top of too-often unaffordable Parlato loan burden
ü (*) indicates Parlato's "leading the way" for other speculators to distressed streets, speeding decline
Richard Kern, MSW 882-2388; Nov. 27, 2001
WEBSITE: www.kernwatch.com email: Kernwatch@AOL.com
Also:
FYI
Housing WatchDec2corrected
Dec 2, 2001 UPDATE . . .
TARNISHED STERLING? Phone message, Sat. 12/1 from "Bill King" seeking to talk about 'a different way of doing housing in Buffalo'. A day earlier I got a lawyer letter from Greg Perla, Esq. threatening "You are defaming the character of 2 licensed professionals with 25+ years of sterling legal reputation by accusing them of a breach of legal ethics or worse yet, a crime . . . (any repetition) will be dealt with severely by this office".
Last Sunday (11AM) I viewed Chas., now-"Howard" & Wm, now-"Ralph at their adjacent split-level homes 45 & 41 Mahogany in Wmsville, where Wm. was working on a project in his garage, beside his motorcycle. A shiny SUV & Mercedes sedan were parked in the driveway . . . At his Sept. 24 sentencing by Judge Arcara, a repeatedly choked-up Wm. (Ralph) King expressed his deep shame & repentance . . .after his defense atty. hammered at Wm's poverty, dispair & inability to get work (living without furniture or wife). When I telephoned Wm. the following Sun., he declared, "I have no comment". I'll be happy to talk about different ways to do housing in Buffalo. . . with the NYS AG, US Atty, etc. . . . But certainly not alone, not on the phone.
R. Kern, 12/2/01
COPY: Housing WatchNov30 Rev UPDATE: Latest King Foreclosure 144 Zelmer
Purchased by Chas H King 8/31/97 $29,000
Sold to Kenneth J Turrentine 11/19/97 $56,900 Owned by King 2 2/3 months MARK-UP $27,900 (96%)
Foreclosed to HUD 7/26/01 $71,970
Resold by HUD 11/20/01 $ 8,700 HUD Cost $63,270
NOTE: of dozens of HUD foreclosures on King sales, most costly was their first business address at 296 Baynes, purchased from Atty Greg Fina as he moved to Kenmore in 1990. Fina held mortgage until King's sale in 1996. It was foreclosed to HUD 27 months later at $103,600. Resold to another investor by HUD at $8000, HUD's loss on 296 Baynes $95,600
COPY November 30, 2001 To: John Early, "HOWARD" & "RALPH" (Chas & Wm King)
From: Richard Kern, MSW COPY RE: Suriel Dev. Housing SCAM
Your Nov. 18 letter to the victims of your (& King bro's) housing scam is most informative.
I have shared it with the HUD Inspector General, NYS Atty. Gen., Buff.Neigh. Hous. Service, WS Neigh. Hous. Serv., Legal Aid, HOME, WNY Law Cent., NACA & LISC, US Probation, US Attorney (also Buffalo CHALLENGER & Buffalo News) all of whom have a strong interest in (legal) home ownership activity.
I urge you to talk to all of them. Which community leaders are you talking to? You listed only Betty Grant . . .And all your lawyers. (Is Tom Eoannou, ESQ, who angered Judge Arcara by repeatedly insisting that "giftng" money to a 3rd party is legal your atty., as well as Chas' & Wm's? What is the role of Lorigo, Esq.? I know you kindly refer & pay Perla, Esq. to "represent the best interests of buyers", a novel, even "charitable" concept)
Nobody in Buffalo had any knowledge of your Las Vegas "Charity". Why were the King's so unwilling to talk about it? The apparently unlimited ceiling for "gifts" from Seller to Buyer needs to be publicized. It was a major concern to Judge Arcara when he sentenced Charles & William.
Perhaps you could take out ads in neighborhood papers? Even 'exposing' me if you wish? Actually my real vendetta is against Frank Parlato jr., the real 'King' of housing scams. He made well over $10 million while devastating countless neighbor-hoods. (Atty. Greg Perla may have helped him?) You may have seen that PNC Mortgage just refunded $1.47 mil to HUD & indemnified another million of Parlato mortgages (actually his connection to Countrywide is even more troubling) I'll publicize your initiative on my web site (I'll post your letter soon & link to Responsiblehome.com . . I found their staffer-Michael Emelio & his bikini girls particularly intriguing). There many items in your letter that merit discussion. Like "independent appraiser" (a crooked appraiser is key to both the Palano & Venere Hutchinson indictments).
But first you need to clarify your use of the "Hispanic race card". Your wife's name on public records is Grecia Madera-Early, Your housing scam is named "Suriel". Does your wife have 2 maiden names, Suriel & Madera? I don't consider playing the 'race card" on your unsophisticated, predominantly black victims "a joke". I'd suggest you not do it again. cc. M. Kuzma, Esq; community groups
WEBSITE: www.kernwatch.com email: Kernwatch@AOL.com
