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Article Courtesy of The Miami
Herald
By DIANA MOSKOVITZ
Published April 11, 2008
Another tale of secret meetings and inflated bids
has come to light in the saga of a South Florida condominium that
allegedly was bilked out of more than $1.4 million.
The criminal case came to light in May. That was
when Hallandale Beach police said former maintenance man Angel Ramos, 78,
contractor Ira Silver, 63, and building manager Robert Hittner, 60,
crafted a scheme in which the Parker Plaza Estates condo board approved
inflated estimates for work at the Hallandale Beach building.
Police said the extra money was kicked back to a few
condo employees.
Since then, contractor Brian Atwood of Borat
Holdings/Hunihan Painting has talked with prosecutors about his experience
inflating bids and turning over the extra money to a few men who ran the
building, according to court documents released Thursday.
Hittner and Ramos face three counts of fraud; Silver
faces one.
Attorneys for all three men said they were moving
ahead with preparations for the trial.
Here is what Atwood told investigators in November,
according to court documents: Atwood heard about a bid coming up for
Parker Plaza in 2004. He submitted a bid for work through a contractor,
knowing 'he would be supplying a commission to this contractor in the way
of a `finders fee,' '' the documents stated.
Atwood's original bid was $215,000. The final bid
that went to Parker Plaza was nearly $800,000, with the extra going back
to Parker Plaza employees.
And when circumstances meant the price of the work
was going to go up about $100,000, Atwood was told to go ahead and up the
contract by $200,000 to $225,000. Anything after the $100,000 would go to
the condo employees.
Several times throughout the job, Atwood would meet
with then-condo president Joseph Greenberg at various check-cashing
stores, where Atwood would sign checks and give them to Greenberg, Atwood
said.
Greenberg,
84, has since pleaded guilty to one charge of organized fraud.
Man,
83, pleads guilty in
$1.4 million condo kickback scheme
THE
PARKER PLAZA SCAM!
THE
SCAM PILOT PROGRAM
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