On August 24, 2010, what will Florida's Democrats say to Jeff Greene?

seafan

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Wed Aug-04-10 11:07 AM
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On August 24, 2010, what will Florida's Democrats say to Jeff Greene?

In less than 3 weeks, Florida Democrats will decide between Jeff Greene and Kendrick Meek in the primary for the US Senate seat.

I sincerely hope that the information in this post will be of use in rendering that decision.

(Jeff) Greene's newness to the Florida (or any) political scene will be both a curse and a blessing for the 55-year-old billionaire over the next two months, leading up to the August 24 Democratic Senate primary election against Kendrick Meek. Most of what Floridians know about Greene so far comes from a massive television and direct mail campaign, a relatively generic offensive that in one case featured his 83-year-old West Palm Beach mother, and highlights his criticisms of "career politicians" like his Democratic rival. With the help of the ad onslaught, he finished in a statistical tie in the Quinnipiac poll released in June.

.....

Greene's candidacy is drawing national attention, and his connections with Tyson and Fleiss have become de rigueur set pieces in every political profile written about him. A much-discussed piece in the Washington Post explained the connections (he met Tyson at a Malibu barbecue and met his future wife at a party Tyson hosted; he let Fleiss stay in one of his houses as she recovered from an abusive relationship). The story also shows that he's still, well, green, readily spouting all-too-quotable quotes, such as a statement that everyone knows the Koran contains "all kinds of this crazy stuff," as well as the instant classic, "I've never even been into strippers or had a hooker, it's not my thing." The latter was tweeted en masse by Florida political junkies throughout the day. ----LINK

The issue of Florida residency:

1. Native of Massachusetts, grew up in Worcester. Age 55. Parents moved to Florida in 1970, but Greene stayed behind in Massachusetts with an aunt to finish high school. Summers spent with parents in Florida. Greene obtained Florida drivers' license in 1970 as a 16 year-old.

2. Went to college at Johns Hopkins, spending school breaks in South Florida. Went on to Harvard Business School, then moved to Los Angeles in 1980.

3. Greene claims Florida has been "a part of his life" for over 40 years. (You know, fond memories of the teenage summers in Palm Beach busing/waiting tables thing.)

4. Greene established residency in Florida in early 2008.

The Miami-Dade property appraiser's website shows that Greene purchased a Miami Beach condo on Alton Road for $3.1 million in April 2008. The Palm Beach County property appraiser's website shows that Greene purchased a $24 million home at 1200 S. Ocean Boulevard Palm Beach in December 2009.

For other official sources showing when Greene established residency in Florida, we turned to his driver's license. Greene got his Florida driver's license on March 20, 2008, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. At the same time, he registered to vote.

Greene spokesman Paul Blank told us that Greene became a Florida resident when he moved to a boat docked at a Miami Beach marina in February 2008. ---LINK

5. According to Florida Election Statutes, Greene's brief 2-year residency disqualifies him from running for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Cabinet member or Supreme Court Justice(appointed by the governor). But, to run for US Senate in Florida, requirements are to be a US citizen for 9 years and a resident of the state when elected. That's how he qualifies to run.

The issue of prior political affiliation:

1. Greene ran unsuccessfully in California in 1982 as a Republican.

The history here dates back to 1982. Greene was 28 years old and living in California. He ran as a Republican for Congress, for a seat representing the Los Angeles area. But he came in second in the primary with 28.2 percent of the vote. The winner was David Armor, who won 43.9 percent.

The Miami Herald recently tracked down Armor, who was then a 43-year-old social scientist; now he's a professor of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia. Armor won the primary but lost the general election to then-incumbent Democrat Anthony Beilenson.

Armor's recollection is that Greene put out a flier attacking him as an "aging Berkeley radical," based on Armor's time as a student activist at University of California at Berkeley.

"It was a hit piece claiming I was a deceiving the people,'' Armor told the Herald. "Being in my 40s, I think I was more offended at being called 'aging' than a 'radical.' "

Greene doesn't dispute that he ran for Congress as a Republican. "For a year of my life I was a Republican, and then I quickly got back to what I really believed in,'' he told the Herald in June.

What's not clear is how long Greene stayed a Republican. PolitiFact Florida examined Greene's voting history last month, contacting voting officials around the country. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk told us that Greene registered as a Republican with an address in the city of Los Angeles in 1982. In 1992, he re-registered with an address in Malibu with a party affiliation of "Decline to State." If Greene changed his party affiliation shortly after the 1982 run, officials were unable to provide documentation of that.

It was at Harvard that he began his real estate career, and his life as a Republican. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles and in 1982 ran as a Reagan Republican in an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for Congress.

Of course, that was then. When asked by MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball if he voted for Reagan for president in either 1980 or 1984, Greene was suddenly hit with a case of amnesia, saying he simply couldn't recall.

Since he was described in a Forbes 2008 profile as having "an active social life," perhaps the '80s are a blur to Greene. Or maybe he did vote for the Gipper. On this question, it was probably wiser for Greene to act dumb than confess his support for a man who ranks alongside George W. Bush and Richard Nixon as Democrats' Least Favorite Presidents Ever.

His lack of connection to the Democratic Party in Florida was exacerbated when he told a Sarasota media forum earlier this month, "Whether I was a Republican or Democrat, who cares?"

Actually, a lot of Democrats in Florida do. The comment provoked a letter from a group of local party heads chastising him, ending with the comment, "Since you are seeking the Democratic nomination in this race, we urge you not to be dismissive of our Democratic Party."

South Florida political blogger Joy-Ann Reid, who like Greene attended Harvard Business School, buys Greene's statements that he entered there as a Democrat and exited a Republican.

"They churn out Republicans," she notes. "The Milton Friedman Chicago School of economics is ingrained at Harvard. They really push the laissez-faire economic theory there."

Reid attended last week's Palm Beach Post debate and said he veered off into "Republican party language," specifically his remarks about illegal immigrants and the structure of the federal stimulus program. ----LINK

The issue of Jeff Greene's real estate dealings in Southern California:

1. After moving to Los Angeles in 1980, Greene became a real estate mogul, buying up apartments and converting them to condominiums for resale.

By 1991, living in Los Angeles, he owned thousands of Southern California rental units and had a net worth of $700 million, plus a mansion famous for all-night parties, according to a Forbes magazine profile. ----LINK

2. One of the apartment-condo conversion properties Greene owned was known as La Mirage, in the city of Ridgecrest, outside of Bakersfield. According to investigative records, he purchased the property in 2004, and began selling units on July 14, 2006.

3. On June 25, 2010, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the arrest of James Delbert McConville (aka Jim McConville) near Bakersfield, California.

Jim McConville

He and five others were indicted May 13 by an Oakland federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and money laundering. The charges were brought in connection with real estate deals involving condominium conversions in Escondido and San Marcos, as well as a 300-unit complex in Ridgecrest, outside of Bakersfield. McConville had eluded authorities from the time of the indictment until his arrest.

.....

McConville allegedly recruited straw buyers to lend their names and good credit ratings to purchase condos, mostly at full asking price. They were promised a fee ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 for making the deals and were told they would not be responsible for making any payments on mortgage loans, according to court documents.

McConville allegedly received a significant marketing fee for each condo, sometimes exceeding $150,000 per unit on properties for which deed records showed the purchase price around $310,000. He also collected money from renters of the units.

The marketing fees were not disclosed to lenders as required, according to the indictment. After a few months, McConville stopped making payments on the mortgages, which resulted in the condos falling into foreclosure. ----LINK

From May 16, 2010:

McConville, along with Laura Margery Caton, Araks Davoudi, Donna Demello, Jason Arthur Piette and Rasul Rasuli, all from the San Francisco area, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Oakland Thursday and face up to 40 years in prison and fines of $1 million or more for one count of conspiracy and four of money laundering. ---LINK

A Staggering Swindle: Feds Charge McConville, May 14, 2010

Full investigative series here:

PART I Rented Identities, Extravagant Prices and Foreclosure: A Post-Boom Real Estate Scam , April 11, 2010, updated May 17, 2010

PART II How It Could Happen in 2008, April 11, 2010, updated May 17, 2010

4. An investigative report by Blog of San Diego details the La Mirage condo sales., and reports that Greene and McConville were both involved in the sales of these condos to alleged "straw buyers", many of whose same names were on lists of sales by both men, some listed as purchasing multiple properties on the same day.

Pat Flannery reported:

April 27, 2009

.....

I did an in-depth analysis of his condo conversion project in the City of Ridgecrest, Kern County. The nearby China Lake Naval Weapons Center makes it familiar to many San Diego families. Some may have lived in the 300-unit La Mirage complex, the subject of this analysis.

It was formerly called "The Willows". Jeff Greene bought the complex and changed its name to "La Mirage" (appropriately named) on October 12, 2004. He took title using a company he had formed on June 14, 2000, named 1402 Alta Vista Partners LLC. Here is the full (restated) CC&Rs document, signed by Greene personally and recorded on January 18, 2005 by a company named Millennium Holdings Inc. at 1800 N. Argyle Ave., Los Angeles, the address given on Greene's (now expired) real estate broker's license.

Greene started selling his La Mirage condos on July 14, 2006. His first buyer was a close associate of Jim McConville, Jack Thomas. He is the registered straw owner of McConville's much-used address at 37968 Canyon Heights Drive, Fremont, Ca 94536.

Here is that first Grant Deed, signed by Greene himself. The purchase price was $165,000. Here is the Trust Deed for Thomas's mortgage with New Century Mortgage for $148,500. It was notarized by another key member of the McConville team, Agnes Kantere. The scam was on.

Greene had already sold 189 of these condos before he deeded the remaining 111 to McConville on August 15, 2006. Here is the full attachment showing the legal descriptions of each condo unit. All subsequent sale deeds were signed by or on behalf of McConville.

I compiled a list of all 300 La Mirage condo sales from the Kern County Recorder's Office. Here is a list of those sold by Greene and here is a list of those sold by McConville. Many straw buyers are common to both lists. This means that Greene was familiar with and actually selling to McConville's buyers before McConville bought the La Mirage complex.

Did McConville really buy these 111 condo units? Greene paid $7,840.25 transfer tax on the grant deed, indicating a sales price of $7,127,500 or $64,211 per unit. Where did McConville get the money? If the sale was genuine he must have paid cash because there is no loan for anything like that amount recorded around that date.

Did he really buy the 42 units in Kearny Mesa? According to Chris Lafornara, McConville shelled out another $7.4 million 3 months later, on November 30, 2006, for the 42 units called Kearny Mesa Townhomes.

There are a few other tell-tales in the public record, Agnes Kantere for example. Not only did both Greene and McConville use her as a straw buyer, both before and after Greene sold to McConville, they both used her to notarize various straw buyer Trust Deeds! ----LINK

The issue of Greene's massive profiting from credit default swaps while everyone else was drowning:

1. In view of the above information about the now heavily-foreclosed La Mirage condo units, which had in common the same straw buyers in 2006 used by Greene and the now-arrested and jailed Jim McConville, a window opens into Greene's motives for pushing for his very own credit default swaps, that up until then were only available to hedge funds.

Real Estate Mogul Jeff Greene: The Man Who Shorted Subprime

February 29, 2008
CNBC
By Jane Wells

Today I have the first television interview with Jeff Greene, a Beverly Hills real estate mogul who single-handedly shorted subprime. His $50 million investment is up tenfold, to $500,000,000. He is apparently the first individual investor to do such a trade.

I met Greene at his 40,000 square foot estate on 27 acres off Coldwater Canyon. He took me by surprise--a nice, smart, focused and somewhat eccentric man of contrasts. He is someone who lives large, but always expects the worst. He's ostentatious, yet can't shake his New England sense of modesty.

As you can see from the television interview segments posted here (more coming through the day), Greene tells his story of working his way up from nothing to something, then nearly losing it all in the housing bust of the '90s. After rebuilding his portfolio, he vowed not to get burned again. "Every year I'd go into a mini-panic mode," he told me, "and think 'I need to protect myself.'" Greene says that two years ago, he asked a friend, hedge fund manager John Paulson, about a hedge. Paulson said he was starting a fund to short subprime bonds through credit default swaps. "I asked him, 'John, can I do this on my own?'" He says Paulson told him, "You won't get approved.'"

Greene tried anyway, finally convincing Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan to let him short bonds backed by risky mortgages through these swaps. It took a lot of convincing. But it has paid off handsomely, though it may have cost him a friendship--he and Paulson are no longer talking. When we asked Paulson to talk to us about Greene, we were given a firm "no comment."

Greene has cashed out about $75 million of his subprime bet, but he still has a lot of money in the game, partly because the investment is somewhat illiquid.

That's okay. He's got enough money to refurbish the his mini Hearst Castle. This is where he got married last fall--his first marriage--to wife Mei Sze, a lovely woman who stayed off-camera but appeared protective of her husband and their home, letting us know what we could and could not videotape. At their wedding, Mike Tyson was best man. MIKE. TYSON. Another Jeff Greene contrast. Why Mike Tyson? Greene tells me they met ten years ago at an annual Memorial Day barbecue Greene throws at his second home in Malibu.

Greene took me through his gorgeous mansion, filled with an eclectic mix of contemporary Vietnamese art and European antiques. He could tell me the price of everything, and what a great deal he got on each item. Greene didn't even used to like antiques, but has grown fond of them. One reason: antiques can be resold to recoup at least some of your investment, while new furniture has no residual value.

He also owns not one personal jet, but three. Yet these are not the most expensive jets available. Two are Hawker 700s which Greene bought, only to turn around and charter (waste not, want not!). The third is a G2 Gulfstream. Greene could afford the much nicer G550, but says he and his wife do most of their traveling within the continental U.S. "If a G2 is worth $2 million, and a G550 is now, I think, $50 million," he says, "you really have to have a reason to use that other than your ego."

.....

But, he 'just can't shake his New England sense of modesty', you see.

To hear Jeff Greene tell it:

July 10, 2010
Palm Beach Post

.....

Greene, for his part, said he feared in early 2006 that the housing market was about to crash. As the owner of a large portfolio of apartment complexes in California, Greene wanted to hedge his bets.

"When I saw the real estate market imploding, I had to do something to protect the jobs I'd created, the mouths I was feeding and the investments that I'd worked a lifetime to own," Greene said during last month's debate.

About that time, Greene met with John Paulson, a New York hedge fund manager who described his idea for betting on a housing downturn through credit default swaps.

Greene declined to invest with Paulson, but he decided to do a credit default swap himself. According to The Greatest Trade Ever, written by Wall Street Journal columnist Gregory Zuckerman, Greene spent weeks badgering his broker at Merrill Lynch, where he had a $50 million account, to let him trade credit default swaps.

In the past, brokers allowed only hedge funds to trade the unregulated derivatives.

"They didn't even want to do these trades with me," Greene said in an interview with the Post's editorial board. "I pushed and pushed and pushed, and I got them to agree to let me buy this protection."

In May 2006, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell Greene contracts on mortgage bonds backed by subprime mortgages. The credit default swaps were essentially insurance on bonds made up of mortgages.

"Before investing in the swaps, I studied each portfolio to see the geographic distribution, rate structure and credit scores of the borrowers," Greene writes on his website.

.....

So, it seems plausible that Greene 'studied each portfolio' very well, just prior to commencing selling La Mirage condos to apparent straw buyers in July, 2006, in collusion with Jim McConville, who is now jailed and awaiting trial on RICO charges for mail and wire fraud and money laundering in relation to his real estate scams. It also seems plausible that Greene would know that these deals would have a very high likelihood of failure, because he and McConville allegedly set them up.

The Post continues:

During the next few months (of 2006), Greene bought more swaps from Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Chase. In all, Greene agreed to pay $12 million a year in premiums for contracts on $1 billion in mortgage bonds.

For months, Greene's gambit looked like a loser. Even as the mortgage market began to waver in late 2006, Greene's contracts shed value.

As Greene lost money on the trade, Merrill Lynch made a margin call on his account, which meant that Greene had to put several million dollars into his account to keep his position, Zuckerman writes.

Finally, in 2007, the mortgage meltdown began in earnest, and Greene's trade turned into a winner.

Zuckerman writes that Greene and a friend, Jeffrey Libert, discussed the ethical implications of the trade. Greene had persuaded Libert to do a similar deal.

"It just gives me the heebie-jeebies," Libert said.

Greene told Libert he had no reason to feel guilty, and he said during last month's debate that he has no regrets.

"Not a single Floridian lost a penny because of what I did," Greene said.

It's unclear exactly how much Greene made. Zuckerman reports the profit was $500 million. A 2008 article in Forbes magazine pegged the amount at $800 million. Asked by The Post's editorial board how much the profit was, Greene gave an answer as opaque as the derivatives market itself.

"I don't even have an exact amount," he said.

Nice how that worked out for Mr. Jeff Greene.... betting on foreclosures he had a hand in creating.

We'll leave the investigation to the Feds. It would be stellar if we heard something before the Senate primary on August 24 in Florida. By the way, that is also McConville's next court date.

USA v. JAMES DELBERT McCONVILLE (Custody)
Further Detention Hrg.
**Next set bef. Mag. Judge D.M. Ryu on 8/24/10 at 10:00 a.m. for Status or Motion/Trial Setting**
AUSA: Keslie Stewart
Retained: David Kenner

Billionaire Jeff Greene's Campaign Slogan: "I Took on Wall Street and Won", May 4, 2010

And who lost?

LANNIS WATERS / PALM BEACH POST

"Not a single Floridian lost a penny because of what I did," Greene said.

It's obvious he has selective memory, so here's another question:

'What about Californians?', a prominent Florida blog asks:

Jeff Greene: Supposedly Defrauded California Elderly, Can Do the Same for Us!, May 7, 2010

Earlier this week, I reported on how Jeff Greene was smarter than you when the housing market collapsed and how somehow he thought that meant you should vote for him. If you liked that one, Florida, you're going to love this one: Greene is currently being sued for allegedly defrauding a group of California senior citizens in a bad land deal.

According to the complaint and summons, Greene created a subdivision without proper permission from the Coastal Commission, then sold it all to a felon. A felon convicted of what, you may ask? Oh, just some bank fraud. No big. Steven Reeder was likely a buddy of Greene's.

Reeder's appraiser told the seniors that the land was worth five times what he had paid Greene for it, based on probably intentionally faulty logic (again, the Coastal Commission did not approve of any of this). In the end, Reeder made big money by making the seniors give him loans. And when Reeder got his money, so did Greene.

Pretty clever, huh? Maybe we should vote for him after all.

The issue of Greene's lack of respect for the environment: (This should be a real winner for Floridians....)

Belize: Jeff Greene's yacht tore up coral reef, left unpaid fines up to $1.87 million

July 23, 2010
St. Petersburg Times

Greene�s 145-foot yacht, Summerwind, sits in a Miami boatyard. (St. Pete Times)

On a Tuesday morning five years ago, Summerwind, a three-story, 145-foot luxury yacht, maneuvered above the celebrated barrier reef that lines the coast of Belize.
There it dropped anchor � and plunged into controversy over severe damage to a coral reef system officially recognized by the United Nations as one of the world's most magnificent and irreplaceable treasures.

"The guys from the area told me they were beside the boat before it dropped anchor, and they were yelling and waving their hands, shouting, 'No! No, don't drop here,' '' recounted Melanie McField, a marine scientist with the Smithsonian Institution who surveyed the Central American reef shortly after the incident. "It was bad. There was a lot of damage."

The owner of that yacht? Billionaire Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene.

But, you see, Greene just simply claims it never happened. Poof. Problem solved.

The real estate mogul from Palm Beach was not aboard the boat at the time. And, oddly, Greene today says the incident never happened, despite extensive publicity about it at the time (including statements from his representatives), eyewitness accounts, scientific surveys of the damage and an extensive case file at the country's Department of Environment.

"Jeff Greene doesn't take a penny of special interest money, so career politicians are attacking him with ridiculous stories about something that didn't even happen five years ago on a boat he wasn't even on,'' said campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino.

Asked how he could say it never happened when Greene's own employees at the time acknowledged a problem on the reef with Summerwind, Vizcaino declined further comment: "That's our position. That's our quote."

Greene bought Summerwind in 2003, registering it in the Marshall Islands, a well-known tax haven. The yacht has traveled across the world, hosting Greene, family members and celebrities including Lindsay Lohan. He took it to Nantucket, Mass., last weekend to crash a meeting of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee where only his Democratic rival, Kendrick Meek, had been invited to speak.

.....

In Belize, the chief environmental officer of the Department of Environment, Martin Alegria, thumbed through a two-volume file on the Summerwind case in response to questions from the St. Petersburg Times. The case remains officially open, Alegria said in a phone interview, and if Greene or the Summerwind's then-captain returns to Belize they face fines of up to $1.87 million, given the amount of reef damage caused. ..... Billy Leslie, president of the San Pedro Tourist Guide Council in Belize, said he saw the damage soon after the incident and closely followed the investigation. Summerwind's anchor caused a 50-by-200-foot swath of destruction on the living reef, he said.

.....

The issue of Greene's stance on US-Cuba relations:

For some very odd reason, the information about the Cuba trip noted in the blog below has been cut from Adam C. Smith's piece in the Miami Herald. Fortunately, the text remains in the St. Pete Times printing.

From Beth Reinhard at the Naked Politics blog at the Miami Herald:

August 2, 2010

For some Hispanics in South Florida, one detail stood out in Adam C. Smith's profile of Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene: Former crew members say his 145-foot yacht went to Cuba in 2007, and "everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on.''

Greene says he supports the Cuba embargo and stumbled in yesterday's debate againt rival Kendrick Meek to explain. From today's story on the debate:

"I don't know if I need to slide my chair over, because a bolt of lightning may come in and hit Jeff,'' Meek scoffed. "You're saying you weren't on your yacht, when it went to Cuba and eyewitnesses said you were on the yacht?"

"No," Greene responded. "I went to Cuba years ago on a Jewish mission to Cuba, yes, for the Jewish community."

"Were you on the yacht when it was reported �" Meek pressed.

"No, not that time � I was not on the yacht on the trip you're talking about. I was on the yacht on another time when I had a visa to go there and visit the Jewish community," Greene stammered as Meek cross-examined him.

Greene said during the debate he hadn't been to Cuba in probably five years but later acknowledged it may have been 2007.

On the issue of suitability of temperament for the job of US Senator representing Florida:

1. Damn, that big boat is turning out to be just a liability for Jeff Greene.

From the long expos� in the St. Petersburg Times on August 1, 2010:

.....

But behind the bio soundbites and chipper TV ads lies a man widely disparaged by current and former employees, former tenants and political consultants as a self-absorbed cheapskate. A lawsuit accuses him of being cruel and verbally abusive to his former chef. A deckhand shocked on Greene's Summerwind yacht had to fight eight months to get his medical bills paid after Greene denied knowing him.

Now the 55-year-old businessman who came out of nowhere is poised to earn the Democratic nomination. He faces Kendrick Meek in the Aug. 24 primary and if he wins will take on Republican Marco Rubio and independent Charlie Crist � a three-way race where 35 percent of the vote could be enough to be elected senator.

"If he plans on running his country like his yacht, we're all going to be sinking," said John Walenczyk, a Summerwind deckhand.

.....

Greene's former and current employees speak out.

The buzz among Greene employees is that if the Asian or European markets have done poorly overnight, it's going to be a rough morning because Greene, a screamer, is up all hours monitoring his vast portfolio.

James Battles, Greene's former personal chef, sued him last year. The suit alleges Greene demanded round-the-clock attention and would berate and humiliate Battles when he sought reimbursement for food paid for out of his own pocket.
Battles said Greene fired him after he was hospitalized for exhaustion before one of Greene's parties. The settlement is confidential and Greene declined to discuss the case.

Former and current employees tell similar stories, though most fear talking publicly.

Adam Lambert worked as captain of Greene's 145-foot yacht, Summerwind, earlier this year.
"He has total disregard for anybody else,'' chuckled Lambert, who said he was Greene's 20th and 22nd Summerwind captain (No. 21 quit after a few hours with Greene).

"I don't think I ever once had an actual conversation with him. It was always, 'I should just get rid of you, what f------ good are you? You're just a f------ boat driver. You're the third-highest paid employee in my corporation and I should just get rid of you,' '' Lambert, 43, recalled by phone from a yacht in Croatia. "It didn't bother me. I just felt sorry for the man. He doesn't seem very happy."

Harlan Hoffman, 37, was in a Fort Lauderdale yachting apparel store in 2007 when he saw a help wanted ad for Summerwind.
"There were two people from Australia there who said, 'Oh, good luck with that one. . . . We're still waiting to get paid by Summerwind.' I should have listened," Hoffman said.

The deckhand was shocked while buffing Greene's yacht and wound up hospitalized.

A boat's owner is supposed to take care of on-the-job medical costs, but Hoffman said Greene � whom he never met � told the insurance company he had never heard of Hoffman and that he didn't work on Summerwind. It took eight months and legal action that included affidavits from other crew members vouching for Hoffman and trashing Greene to get his bills paid.
.....

Whoa, another example of amnesia. Greene 'never heard of Hoffman'. Poof. Problem solved.

This guy is seriously in his own fantasy world.

"This guy Jeff Greene threw tons of money into new diving gear, but the crew's basic equipment � food and supplies � he didn't want to spend any money on. Summerwind has a terrible reputation,'' Hoffman said. "Mr. Greene's yacht is known to be a party yacht. When it went to Cuba, everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on."

Hoffman couldn't believe it a few weeks back he saw Greene's campaign ads on TV.

"He has this act on TV talking about what a good guy he is, and he's anything but. He treats his own employees like s---,'' he said. "If he can't even treat his employees good, I don't see how he's going to do good for the American people."

John Walenczyk, the Summerwind deckhand, was aboard that notorious trip to Cuba.

"He didn't want to put a dollar into anything, but expected miracles from the crew. He doesn't care about anybody but himself � a real peach,'' said Walenczyk.

.....

2. Campaign staff firings....

Greene already has lost one campaign manager and shoved aside senior media consultant Joe Trippi. But he brushes off questions about temperament.

"I've ruffled some feathers. I'm not embarrassed because a handful of people didn't like me," Greene said. "Most of my employees would say, 'Wow, you were a tough boss, you were so aggressive, but I learned a lot from you.' . . . I would never expect anything from somebody I wouldn't expect from myself."

.....

3. Slum landlording with little regard for his tenants:

Investing heavily in low-end apartment buildings, Greene was a millionaire by his mid 20s and a multimillionaire by his mid 30s.

.....

At one point, Greene owned more than 8,000 properties, and records show he was a hard-nosed landlord. One tenant complaining about heat and water problems in 2002 wound up on the phone with Greene. She said he threatened to get a city council aide who was advocating for her fired and scoffed when the woman said she was complaining to then-Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

"Mr. Greene replied, 'Ha, ha, ha. I know Rocky personally. He and his wife were married in my house. I'll see to it that this council aide will be fired,' " according to an account in city records.

Greene acknowledges that he has received plenty of tenant complaints but says that goes with the territory and that he always strived to make his buildings the nicest on their blocks.

"Being a landlord's a tough business. Just by its nature, the relationship tends to be negative," he said.

.....

4. The party animal....

As Greene's wealth grew, so did his reputation as a playboy bachelor. Vanity Fair in 2003 ran a spread about Greene's 12,000-square-foot mansion in the Hollywood Hills � complete with disco and a Moroccan "love den" � being a go-to spot for debauchery at late-night parties.

Greene's lavish parties drew the likes of Paris Hilton, Kato Kaelin and Mike Tyson, but he's quick to note he also entertains more erudite friends, from George Soros to Itzhak Perlman.

....

Perhaps nothing summarizes this man of contrasts better than a story he tells from his childhood. Back in Worcester, Greene says wealthy people would still drive their old Impalas. One didn't show off. So when someone once drove by in a Cadillac, a friend's mother said, "'Look at that guy in the Cadillac with the little window so he can hide his bulging wallet!'" Greene says, "I'll never forget that." What would she say about Jeff Greene?

Most importantly, on August 24, 2010, what will Florida's Democrats say to Jeff Greene?

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Scurrilous

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Wed Aug-04-10 11:26 AM
Response to Original message

1. I'm voting for Meek.

:thumbsup:

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seafan

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Fri Aug-06-10 02:04 PM
Response to Original message

2. 'But, hey, I'm just a regular guy with middle class roots. You know, one of those outsiders.'

August 4:

Jeff Greene corrects course, remembers yachting to Cuba, but not the partying

Democratic Senate front-runner Jeff Greene is backtracking on his claim that he had visited Cuba as part of a Jewish humanitarian trip, and a former deckhand says he's still not telling the truth.

Greene spokesman Luis Vizcaino said Tuesday that the real estate mogul's 145-foot yacht Summerwind docked for two days in Havana's Hemingway Marina in 2007 while awaiting repairs. In Sunday's Bay News 9 debate against Democratic rival Kendrick Meek, Greene said he went to Cuba on a Jewish mission.

"During the debate Jeff misspoke," Vizcaino said after receiving media inquiries about the trip. "What he meant to say was that in 2007, he went on the boat from Honduras to the Bahamas, and en route the boat had a hydraulic problem. � The captain said we could wait for the part at Hemingway Marina."

But a deckhand on that trip tells a different story.

John Walenczyk said the boat traveled from Fort Lauderdale directly to Cuba and docked for about one week.

"It was their total intention to go to Cuba," he said Tuesday. "We never went to Honduras, not even close. I figure it was the glamour of wanting to go to a banned country."

Travel to Cuba is an explosive issue in Miami's Cuban-American community, where some exiles view visiting the repressive regime as tantamount to treason.

Tuesday marked the second time that Greene tried to clarify the trip since a St. Petersburg Times story on Sunday quoted former deckhands recounting a lot of partying aboard the yacht.

.....

August 5:

One trip candidate Jeff Greene can't shake (to Cuba)

.....

But there is also the fact that when questioned about it on the campaign trail, Greene told two contradictory stories about that trip. And, thanks to a ban on vacation trips to Cuba, Americans taking yachting trips there typically require a few fibs, usually either in log books or to U.S. immigration officials.

In the first version Greene gave voters, he passed off his 5-day Cuba stay as a humanitarian mission. That wasn't floating too well, maybe because the Jewish organization supposedly involved knew nothing about it or because you have to report that sort of thing to do it lawfully.

.....

Most people believe, as I do, that the U.S. policy now almost five decades old that bars most Americans from vacationing there is an anachronistic mistake and a holdover from the days of the Cold War, and maybe a violation of their travel rights.

Agree or not, but when a yachtsman wants to be the Democratic Party's candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, and to become a crafter of U.S. law and policy, he needs to convincingly tell all about any yachting excursion to Castro-land.

Part of Greene's problem might be that he is not one who wants to change that travel ban. Or, anyway, so he claims.

.....

When famed former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss wanted to stay "in an extra guest room in a house I owned," he explains on his website, "of course, I allowed her to stay."

Of course. And he chose convicted rapist Mike Tyson to be best man at his wedding. So he should be able to tell all about a trip to Cuba.

Of course, neither of those other potentially controversial decisions violated federal law.

That could be one difference.

(bold type added)

Today, he's trying to reinvent himself as a humble, hard-working, middle-class kinda guy.

That this charlatan hasn't yet been run out of town on a rail or jailed is disgraceful.

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Scurrilous

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Fri Aug-06-10 02:24 PM
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3. Thanks for the info seafan.

:thumbsup:

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seafan

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Sun Aug-08-10 12:33 AM
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4. August 7: This story now breaking in Miami Herald, St. Pete Times

Condo sale by U.S. Senate hopeful raises questions, experts say (Jeff Greene/Florida), August 7, 2010

This candidate is a disgrace to Florida.

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seafan

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Tue Aug-10-10 02:44 PM
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5. Forbes: Jeff Greene's Libel Woes

More of the ugly truth about Jeff Greene, who is trying to buy a US Senate seat in Florida:

Jeff Greene's Libel Woes

By Nathan Vardi, 08.09.10, 4:22 PM ET

Documents from a libel case paint an unflattering picture of Florida Democratic Senate hopeful Jeff Greene, with employees of a property management firm he used making declarations describing him as cruel and abusive. Greene paid $115,000 in 2007 to settle the suit, filed by an employee of the firm.

Craig Tice, chief operating officer of LB Property Management in Sherman Oaks, Calif., filed the libel suit in California state court in Los Angeles after Greene telephoned Tice's colleagues at LB Property Management and told them Tice was a "thief" and "criminal" who "'stole' Greene's money," a court document filed by Tice says. But nearly a year after allegedly making the comments, in deposition testimony, Greene said he had "no evidence that anybody stole any money."

In one telephone call, Tice alleged in court documents, Greene told an LB Property employee "he was going to file criminal charges" against Tice and LB Property Management, and "take them all down." In that same phone call, Greene said that Rocky Delgadillo, then the city attorney of Los Angeles, was married at Greene's home and that Greene was "worth half a billion dollars," a court document filed by Tice alleges. In another phone call to a different LB employee, Greene said that Tice was a "liar" who "does not know who he is dealing with," according to a court document filed by Tice.

In total, Tice alleged in court documents that he had evidence, including e-mail messages and transcribed voicemail messages, showing Greene had made over 40 defamatory statements to Tice's corporate and industry colleagues in 2006, including one phone call in which Greene told an LB employee that Tice was "uneducated" and "in jail," and that Greene "will do anything to tear Tice apart."

Tice also filed with the court seven declarations made under penalty of perjury by employees of LB Property Management, many of which claimed Greene would frequently make "cruel" and "abusive" statements to them. In the libel case, Greene denied that Tice had sustained damages and that even if he had, those damages were due to Tice's own conduct. Later Greene amended his denial, saying the statements Tice complained about were either true or Greene's privileged opinion and therefore not slanderous, court documents say.

.....

This is a repeated pattern with Greene's other statements he has made to "absolve" his responsibility.

1. Extensive damage his 145-foot yacht caused to the famous Belize coral reef? ---Greene: 'Didn't happen.'

2. Pay for the medical expenses for a deckhand's electric shock injuries? ----Greene: 'Don't know him.'

3. Explain business dealings with real estate partner Jim McConville, who is now jailed in California for widespread mortgage fraud? ---- Greene: 'I wouldn't know (Jim McConville) if I saw him.'

4. Abusive verbal and written statements against multiple employees of a property management firm? ----Greene: 'It was my privileged opinion, so it's not slanderous.'

More on the libel suit against Greene:

.....

But declarations from seven individuals made under penalty of perjury in 2006 say that Greene had a habit of making abusive statements to the employees of both LRA Property and LB Property. In addition, those declarations say Greene had frequently failed to sufficiently fund his trust account to pay invoices for work done on his properties, and that Greene also accused LRA Property officials of stealing money. "I have spoken many times with Jeff Greene," said Cecilia Blackstock, an administrative assistant who fielded Greene's calls at LRA Property and LB Property, in a declaration. "Most of the time on the telephone, Mr. Greene is abusive and rude." Blackstock said Greene told her an LRA Property official stole money and that "LRA employees are lazy, incompetent and stupid."

In another declaration, Linda Briggs, who worked frequently for Greene at both LRA Property and LB Property, said that at LRA Property she was instructed to take all calls from Greene because Greene had been "so abusive toward the supervisors."

"Mr. Greene has been cruel to me and to other employees in my department," said Briggs in her declaration. "Mr. Greene has often lashed out at me, telling me that I am not qualified for my position." Briggs said that when she worked as a district manager at LRA Property, Greene often caused there to be a deficit balance in his trust account by failing to place sufficient funds to pay all property-related expenses. "I am personally aware that certain vendors refused to work on Mr. Greene's properties because Mr. Greene had failed to pay them for work they had completed," said Briggs.

"I tried to keep the conversations to a minimum because Mr. Greene is so unpleasant to deal with," said Laura Herbert, who worked at both LB Property and LRA Property, adding that Greene screamed at one LRA employee for paying outstanding vendor invoices on his property accounts. "Mr. Greene often instructed us to place money in an account from which his personal expenses were paid rather than pay the expenses related to properties."

.....

Floridians, we know what we've got to do.

(bold type added)

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seafan

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Tue Aug-10-10 03:18 PM
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6. "That never happened."

From Maggie Haberman at Politico:

August 9, 2010

Florida Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene has had to spend a lot of time talking about how he made his money, who he used to hang around with, and his past �lifestyle.� The latest questions are about his boat - and specifically what used to happen on it.

The most recent round was prompted by an interview former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson gave to Sports Illustrated describing his lost �junkie� days, a three month period in the summer of 2005 that he spent in Europe, some of the time on Greene�s 145-foot yacht, Summerwind.
The tale by the now-sober Tyson � the best man at Greene�s 2007 wedding � is another glimpse into the colorful world of high-life travel and sometimes eyebrow-raising associations that were part of the pre-political, bachelor days of the candidate, a billionaire whose burgeoning fortune was boosted by betting that the subprime mortgage market would collapse,

Tyson�s description of his summer travels was certainly colorful. �I was in St. Tropez, in the South of France. In Ibiza, Spain. I was in Monte Carlo. I was in the Ukraine, Russia, all those places, for three months," he told Sports Illustrated. "From Russia I went to Lisbon, Portgual, from Portugal I went to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam I met this drug dealer, right? And he sees that I like getting high, and he wants to be my buddy, right? This guy goes and gets me a big rock of cocaine. So pretty soon I got a party going on."

.....

In an interview with POLITICO, Greene said that Tyson was on the boat with him that summer �between the first of August and the first of September,� after coming aboard in St. Tropez. Photos and videos - and Greene�s recollections of the trip � fill in other stops, including the Ukraine, Romania, Istanbul, Sardinia and Capri � but not Amsterdam, where Greene said he did not go. A picture on a celebrity website dated Aug. 4, 2005 shows Tyson at a nightclub, with a person a Greene aide confirmed was Greene.

But whatever Tyson was doing, Greene said, he didn�t do it around him or on his boat.

.....

�He would never do drugs around me,� Greene said, adding that he and his new wife personally drove Tyson to rehab and paid �tens of thousands of dollars� toward the boxer�s recovery.
�When you�re on a boat you�re going to little islands and stuff. It�s not a partying kind of thing,� he added. �I�m not into that whole party scene�my world (while boating) is the daytime world.

.....

In the book �The Greatest Trade Ever� by the Wall Street Journal�s Gregory Zuckerman, a section about Greene says that during the Ukraine leg of the 2005 summer trip, he brought two strippers aboard the yacht.

Greene has said that never happened, and his spokesman Luis Vizcaino said it was a masseuse who was on board.

.....

Ah, there it is.

Greene: 'That never happened.' True to his history.

I sincerely hope that when polls close at 7pm on August 24, 2010, Floridians will say, 'Jeff Greene wanted to buy a US Senate seat? That never happened.'

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