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Hempgate - SHUT DOWN the Land BankSubmitted by lmcshane on Wed, 05/29/2019 - 07:34.
Commonly known as the Land Bank, the mission of this quasi-governmental organization is to eliminate vacant and blighted properties. It does so by having tax-burdened properties transferred into its name. The transfer wipes out the outstanding tax obligations. Properties are then transferred and sometimes sold to new owners who obtain the properties free of the tax liens and back taxes. The Land Bank is mandated to put property into the hands of owners who will make it economically productive, produce tax revenues, create jobs and rejuvenate neighborhoods. That is why it is so important for the Land Bank to thoroughly investigate prospective applicants before transferring properties. That is why questions have now arisen as to the decision last August to transfer property located at 12735 Kirby Avenue in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood to Level 5 Global Corporation. Level 5 Global, its Ohio subsidiary North Coast Natural Solutions and its front man, Tierney R. Williams, have in recent weeks come under fire regarding the propriety of their business dealings. The question is, did the Land Bank unwittingly become the first of many Clevelanders scammed in what is likely to become known as the Hempgate Scandal? ($109,440.13 wited out by Land bank) https://coolcleveland.com/2019/05/commentary-hempcrete-to-hempgate-land-... No, Ellen Connally - the LAND BANK was not scammed. The LAND BANK is the scam.
As a result of my posting to the Cool Cleveland article - I was contacted and informed about another property in East Cleveland transferred by the Land Bank to one Steven Pontikos - Igor Ternovsky to Slavic Village Action League April 16
Many people don’t know, but Brancatelli is a King of vacant lots. As chairman of Cuyahoga land bank and council person he controls more than 7K parcels. (almost all empty land in Cleveland). And it is extremely difficult to get this land for development. I applied to get 1 parcel to build house in Cleveland and after waiting for 3 months got rejected. But there is good news. Friendship with Brancatelli is a fast track to achieving millionaire status. Cuyahoga land bank gets properties for free and can give them for any price. Let me show million dollar deal. Property: 13955 SUPERIOR RD EAST CLEVELAND, OH. 44118 (4 apartment buildings) 02/16/2018 - transfer to Cuyahoga land bank 02/16/2018 - same day transfer to company (beneficiary Steven Pontikos) today - for sale at loopnet for 3,625,000 USD
The Land Bank wited out $759K on this property and transferred to Steven Pontikos' Coventry Parks Apartments LLC for $0 - it is now listed for $3M. AND It is not paying taxes again !! $48,925.91 now due as of 4/10/2020. Steven Pontikos is delinquent on 14060 SUPERIOR AVE, in East Cleveland, which was also transferred to him by the Cuyahoga County Land Bank. How long does this continue??
Cuyahoga County Council has it within their powers to SHUT DOWN the Land Bank. End this now. The Land Bank is a racketeering operation: https://www.justice.gov/jm/criminal-resource-manual-109-rico-charges Lily Miller noted the use of CDCs in this process -especially Slavic Village CDC, once led by Tony Brancatelli, who now chairs the Land Bank. Connect the dots: http://realneo.us/content/slavic-village-community-development-selling-property-those-owe-delinquent-property-taxes-cu#comment-34096 Simple solution to stop me from investigating all of the CDCsSubmitted by Gone Fishin on Fri, 04/19/2013 - 02:01.
There is a simple solution to stop me from investigating ALL of the CDC's, land bank flippers and connections, Cuyahoga County Land Bank, Jim Rokakis, Jason Brooks, Randall Shorr, Robert Curry, Michael Hilliard, Michael DeCesare, etc......
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May 31 at 9:32 AM
Michael Frangos died in 2018 - the obituary listed his sisters : sisters, Harriet Frangos Vakos,(Bob deceased) Mary Frangos Pontikos, and brothers, Louis(Ann), and Gus Frangos,(Christie), and Damon (deceased)
Seriously - this Steven Pontikos is NOT related to Gus Frangos? He is 48 years old and lives in Brecksville. Why is he getting East Cleveland properties? He is also tax delinquent on a property also in East Cleveland and also given to him by Gus Frangos.
In addition, to this Hemp project, which stinks of fraud - investigators need to look at EVERY transaction in East Cleveland. Especially, the transfer of properties to Steven Pontikos' LLCs.
Firm denies business relationship in maligned hemp project
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Jun 6 at 8:42 AM
Mr. Sawyer,
Thank you for confirming that Mr. Steven Pontikos as Coventry Parks Apts LLC paid $25K for 13955 Superior Rd - currently listed for sale with Greenbridge Real Estate. 13955 Superior Rd - Coventry Park Apartments84 Unit Apartment Building Offered at $3,625,000 at a 10.38% Cap Rate in East Cleveland, OHPlease clarify Steven Pontikos relationship to Gus Frangos, President and Lead Counsel at the Cuyahoga County Land Bank. Gus Frangos' sister is Mary Frangos Pontikos.
Are there no restrictions for the transfer of properties to CCLB relatives?
There would appear to be a major return on investment for Mr. Pontikos, if this $3M sale is completed.
--Laura McShane
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Just who gets Land Bank properties??
Other Parcel(s) 672-28-008
Grantee(s) Grantor(s) LEVEL 5 GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS CORP. CUYAHOGA COUNTY LAND REUTILIZATION CORPORATION
Grantor
Grantee
References
Legal Description
CLEVELAND — In addition to facing allegations of not paying its employees, North Coast Natural Solutions LLC, the company behind a proposed hemp manufacturing facility in Cleveland, faces even more scrutiny after one of its supposed "business partners’" has denied all involvement in the project.
In the summer of 2018, Tierney ‘Ty’ Williams, the CEO of North Coast Natural Solutions, provided to the Cuyahoga County Land Bank a copy of the business plan behind the proposed hemp manufacturing facility. The documents were submitted to land bank officials in order to obtain a sprawling yet dilapidated industrial facility at 12735 Kirby Avenue in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. News 5 obtained a copy of the business plan through an open records request.
Land bank officials said staff had Williams provide them with the written prospectus and, later in the process, provide to the land bank letters of endorsement. As News 5 has previously reported, City Councilman Michael Polensek and County Executive Armond Budish provided letters endorsing the project. The proposed hemp manufacturing facility was also heavily championed by several prominent black pastors in Cleveland. Land bank officials said the entity's mission is to get long deliquent, tax-forfeited properties back into the hands of people and developers who ultimately get the properties back on the tax rolls. However, because the land bank does not have equity interest in these properties, the agency does not have the ability to underwrite and evaluate deals like a financial institution or city economic development department, land bank officials said.
Friends and Family Deal only for WHITE people!
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/06/assistant-county-prosecutor-who-chased-tax-cheats-held-fundraiser-for-housing-court-bid-at-tax-delinquent-property.html
Reply to @unpaysan: the friends and family plan only works and is unreported by the PD, if the person is of a lighter skin tone. Hence, Ms. Scott, like Ken Johnson gets scrutiny - but Ron O'Leary, Tony Brancatelli, Kevin Kelley, Gus Frangos, and Jim Rokakis are golden boys with the Land Bank Midas Touch! Mr. O'Leary's wife is also counsel for Cleveland City Council - Kevin Kelley's assistant, Steven Rys, got a sweet deal in Slavic Village, two homes Transfer Date: 5/20/2014 3:10:00 PM
AF Number:
Receipt:
Parcel Deed Type Vol / Page Sales Amt Convey Fee Convey No Multiple Sale / No of Parcels
134-01-024 Warranty Deed / $4,000.00 $16.00 304186 0 / 1
Grantee(s) Grantor(s)
RYS, STEVEN SLAVIC VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
Transfer Date: 4/5/2018 3:36:00 PM
AF Number:
Receipt:
Parcel Deed Type Vol / Page Sales Amt Convey Fee Convey No Multiple Sale / No of Parcels
132-21-070 Survivorship Deed / $6,500.00 $26.00 409536 0 / 1
Grantee(s) Grantor(s)
RYS, STEVEN & MILLER, CARRIE SLAVIC VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
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NOTE: Tony Brancatelli's cousin also got a Land Bank wite out deal and yet she can't pay taxes on her 7010 Claasen house that she got for $4500 despite foreclosing on a house in Garfield Hts. This house was a tax lien foreclosure by Woods Cove ...the Bodzionys now owe $5,147.85 in unpaid taxes.
The poor McClintocks (I am guessing they were of a darker skin tone) who lost their home to TonyB's cousin owed $3,006.41 in unpaid taxes when Woods Cove foreclosed on 7010 Claasen.
Yes- by all means, please make this information publicly available.
The poor McClintocks who lost their home to Woods Cove>>>(given to TonyB's cousin) owed $3,006.41 in unpaid taxes when Woods Cove foreclosed on 7010 Claasen.
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AF Number:
Receipt:
Parcel Deed Type Vol / Page Sales Amt Convey Fee Convey No Multiple Sale / No of Parcels
134-01-024 Warranty Deed / $4,000.00 $16.00 304186 0 / 1
Grantee(s) Grantor(s)
RYS, STEVEN SLAVIC VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
Transfer Date: 4/5/2018 3:36:00 PM
AF Number:
Receipt:
Parcel Deed Type Vol / Page Sales Amt Convey Fee Convey No Multiple Sale / No of Parcels
132-21-070 Survivorship Deed / $6,500.00 $26.00 409536 0 / 1
Grantee(s) Grantor(s)
RYS, STEVEN & MILLER, CARRIE SLAVIC VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT
Property: 13955 SUPERIOR RD EAST CLEVELAND, OH. 44118 (4 apartment buildings)
02/16/2018 - transfer to Cuyahoga land bank
02/16/2018 - same day transfer to company (beneficiary Steven Pontikos)
today - for sale at loopnet for 3,625,000 USD
Companies in Ohio (US) :: OpenCorporates
Free And Open Company Data On Companies in Ohio (US)
Officers for COVENTRY PARK APTS LLC (Ohio (US)) :: Page 1 :: OpenCorporates
Information on Officers for COVENTRY PARK APTS LLC (Ohio (US)) :: Page 1
STEPHEN B DOUCETTE, ESQ (agent) :: OpenCorporates
Information on STEPHEN B DOUCETTE, ESQ (agent)
STEVEN PONTIKOS, MEMBER (incorporator) :: OpenCorporates
Information on STEVEN PONTIKOS, MEMBER (incorporator)
The Land Bank wited out $759K on this property and transferred to Steven Pontikos' Coventry Parks Apartments LLC for $0 - it is now listed for $3M.
https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/13955-Superior-Rd-East-Cleveland-OH/15607734/?fbclid=IwAR39vFVymaqGAAa0W6ocK398Axw1o5vPOtQyr4f9l8rb0Z0lxG85fFS07fs
Steven Pontikos is also delinquent on 14060 SUPERIOR AVE, in East Cleveland, which was also transferred to him by the Cuyahoga County Land Bank.
Garry Kanter
Land Bank swindlers want more of your money
From the epilogue to Bad Minds, High Places by Robert Grundstein:
"Government and organized crime aren't that different. The idea is to get something for your group at the expense of people who aren't in it. The Jewish holocaust can be cast as not only racism, but a planned transfer of wealth. You kill the person you've cheated to remove his voice. Andrew Jackson did it with the Cherokee Indians after gold ws found in Georgia. No one is innocent."
Cuyahoga County housing values continue to increase, but Cleveland’s Eas...
Areas of the county where the majority of the population is African American continue to suffer disproportionate...
Another corruption deal. Parcel 374-07-015. 7428 BALDWIN CREEK DR MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, OH. 44130 Sold 3 times lower assessed value.
$27,523.98 wited out by Gus Frangos and the gang - then sold to
RAK, ROBERT & RAK, KATHLEEN for a cool $8,000 - cleared for new construction by you the TAXPAYER for $11K - most likely out of the County Demo fund. Sweet deal for the "right" people.
Archiving EJB content
CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OH – African American residents of the state’s largest county have been complaining that the county treasurer’s foreclosure process was unconstitutional and rigged against them ever since greedy Greek American lawyers James Rokakis and Gus Frangos wrote state laws to let the treasurer’s office they led sell delinquent property tax bills to third party investors in 1997.
There have been complaints that landbank employees and friends of Rokakis and Frangos have taken advantage of the public offices they hold and political relationships for their pick of the more than 100,000 homes taken from others since 2006 for pennies on the dollar or nothing. That doesn’t include the more than 40,000 homes Rokakis used his third party tax lien law to foreclose on between 1998 and 2005.
Rokakis’ Western Reserve Conservancy released a report in July 2018 showing how 80 percent of the 140,000 were black; and that more than 40 percent of people whose homes were taken were eastsiders in Cleveland, East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, South Euclid and University Heights.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (USDOJ) November 28, 2018 indictment of Kenneth Tyson appears not only to confirm the truth of the suspicions; but shockingly exposes a more extensive network of public officials using their public offices to steal and repair homes; and avoid paying property taxes.
The USDOJ’s indictment of Tyson indictment identifies several players by name and initial. Demolition contractor Michael Riley is MR. East Cleveland’s chief of staff Michael Smedley is MS. Cleveland Heights Mayor Cheryl Stephens is CS. Trapp Concrete & Masonry contractor Charles Trapp is CT. Drain Guru owner Jason Strzala is JS. The two contractors only appear to be named for the work they performed.
Tyson joined Rokakis and Frangos as a “pick” of Stephens who saw the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) law school graduate as highly-qualified for the job of project . She and Dennis Roberts, who’d come through the county’s ranks as an-ex-Commissoner Peter Lawson Jones appointee, were the agency’s visible “black faces.”
In 2016 Stephens helped Tyson write the business plan for CLRB Services as an offshoot of the Rokakis and Frangos-led landbank to handle asbestos remediation using government funds to compete with small business contractors. Tyson’s landbank offshoot picked up the bulk of the remediation work despite complaints of unfair competition from a local government insider.
The indictment outlines a 2013 scheme where Tyson used his job as a county landbank project specialist to get Riley demolition work in exchange for $6700 in free home repairs at 1210 Castleton Road in Cleveland Heights.
A civil complaint Ohio Attorney General Richard Michal DeWine filed againsr Riley details how Smedley and ex-East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton manipulated the city’s council to give two companies Riley controlled access to landbank property at 1705 Noble Road. Instead of preparing the site for redevelopment as instructed by a resolution council passed, Riley demolished and sold off approximately $3 million in scrap steel structures General Electric had left as remnants of its lighting division.
Norton, without an ordinance of council, personally-delivered Riley title to the 1705 Noble Road property for $10 two months later. The name of the Riley company Norton delivered the property’s title to was not the same as the one named in the resolution.
It’s been alleged by Norton’s former girlfriend, Nikki, that he paid her $700 a week cash on a $40,000 a year annual salary in 2013 and 2014 after Riley started working in the city.
After selling off the scrap Riley created an illegal construction and demolition debris landfill behind residential homes and near schools at the 1705 Noble Road site and sold space to dump demolished homes at $7 a ton. That price was far below the $12 to $17 a ton at legal sites like Boyas Excavating. Ohio EPA director Craig Butler negligently allowed the deadly construction and demolition debris landfill to operate under the “guise” of it being a recycling facility that never recycled. Butler never tested the “fugitive dust” inspectors reported during 26 site visits.
It’s estimated Riley and others dumped more than 1000 landbank properties and household waste at the 5-story illegal landfill behind the homes of residents Smedley and Norton were supposed to protect. Noble Road residents said Pete & Pete Container Service, Inc. violated state dumping laws daily by sending its trucks with household waste to the illegal site. Sources say Riley could have earned anywhere from $4 million to over $10 million dumping demolished homes illegally with Norton and Smedley’s help.
Smedley and Norton avoided performing all the mayor’s legal duties to enforce the resolution that put limits on Riley’s use of the property. They, instead, directed employees, including the city’s community development and building department, to cooperate with the criminally-minded contractor’s illegal enterprise.
Instead of causing Riley to be prosecuted, Norton and Smedley delivered him no bid federally-funded demolition contracts. The same with Tyson.
The USDOJ’s indictment focuses mainly on the demolition contracts Riley was awarded through the landbank to benefit Tyson. The language of the indictment makes it clear that Riley hired contractors like Trapp and Strzala to perform work on one of 5 homes Tyson picked up for next to nothing from foreclosure sales conducted by Sheriff Clifford PInkney.
The indictment and Cuyahoga property records show Tyson constantly quit claiming each of 5 properties between his own name and that of his EPIC LIfestyle LLC while he sought property tax reductions on 3 of them from the Board of Revision his boss, James Rokakis, influenced as the county’s treasurer.
What’s not clear in the indictment is if Smedley had East Cleveland’s community development director, Melran Leach, submit documents to pay Riley in Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds for a demolition in East Cleveland to cover Tyson’s repairs to his Cleveland Heights home. Leach did send pictures of a demolition project Riley did in East Cleveland to Stephens as proof he worked on a project. [NOTE: EJBNEWS’ publisher served as East Cleveland’s mayor, managed its community development department; and wrote the first $2.2 million NSP grant the agency received from HUD before leaving office in December 2009].
Tyson didn’t stop enriching himself with what the FBI and HUD’s inspector general uncovered in relation to his job as a landbank employee. After obtaining two foreclosed properties that were worth more than $220,000 combined in actual market value, Tyson filed a complaint with the county’s board of revision Rokakis once led and asked for a tax break.
His complaint sought the two properties valued at the $6700 price he paid for them from the sheriff’s sale. As evidence he submitted a mortgage for $62,000 with a complaint that said he’d only paid $6700 for it.
Instead of seeing the discrepancy in the two amounts, the board of revision taxed the two Tyson properties with a combined market rate value of $220,000 at a value of $6700 as he asked.
Tyson has filed another complaint to have his tax bill lowed for a foreclosed property he got free from HUD. The hearing is scheduled for January 2019.
What is highlighted are the conflicts-of-interest “extra money schemes” landbank envisioners Rokakis and Frangos created out of the misery caused by their racist-inspired and aggressive housing foreclosure practices with third party investors that began in 1998.
While the USDOJ’s indictment concentrates on the single property Riley repaired for Tyson, it doesn’t examine how he received the other four Cleveland Heights and University homes. All came from sheriff sale foreclosures. Two were given to Tyson for free out of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s inventory of foreclosed homes.
Landbank activists like Laura McShane have long criticized Rokakis and Frangos’ sale of a property owner’s delinquent tax bill to an investor have documented transactions between the landbank and their individual friends and associates. Like Tyson, they were “given” foreclosed homes valued in excess of $100,000 and $200,000 that they moved into for next to nothing and then sold at its market rate value.
Rokakis sold the idea of selling off a property owner’s property tax bill to a third party investor at a discount in 1997 and 1998 after he was elected Cuyahoga County treasurer. He claimed it was a way to streamline the forclosure process on “abandoned” properties. What he and Frangos ended up doing until voters in 2010 voted for a charter change that restructured the county’s government and put him out of a job at the end of the year was kick over 100,000 mostly African Americans out of their “occupied” homes.
The vast majority were behind on mortgages that were rigged against them by lending institutions like Charter One Bank. African Americans with solid jobs and good credit scores were automatically steered to subprime variable interest rate mortgages instead of prime fixed rate mortages. When the subprime rates escalated it increased their monthly note and home owners living in their homes with families fell behind on their mortgage and twice-annual property tax payments.
The Western Reserve Land Conservancy Rokakis serves as vice president released its own report in November 2018 confirming that 80 percent of homeowners kicked out were African Americans; with over 40 percent coming from the east side of Cleveland and East Cleveland.
Despite knowledge that lenders like Charter One Bank had engaged in discriminatory lending practices that Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network had drawn attention to with Rev. Horace Sheffield of Detroit, Michigan, Rokakis and Frangos used the new “streamlined” foreclosure process to target homeowners with tax bills of less than $2000 for foreclosure.
What should have been seen by “attorney” Tyson as a pattern and practice of racial discrimination against “his people” by racist lenders, the treasurer, prosecuting attorney and the court of common pleas, became an opportunity for him to profit off and aid them with the help of co-conspirers Rokakis, Frangos and Cheryl Stephens.
This is the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation that’s been operating as an organized crime gang to control homes James Rokakis and Gus Frangos started taking from property owners in 1998 that created blocks of abandoned streets and neighborhoods on Cleveland’s east side; and against 80 percent black county residents.
East Cleveland Frangos property transfers AGAIN
Steven Pontikos (Frangos' relative) didn't get $3M but he did get $1M on a property he acquire for $25K from his direct ties to Cuyahoga County Land Bank.