Remember the issues with the Hotel Foster, how the city rewarded the owners with a whopping quarter of a million dollars to purchase the building. The owners had it for some dozen years, never put a penny into it, didn't even turn on the heat (which then wreaked havoc with downtown when the pipes burst and caused like a million dollars of damage to the building), and the pair of owners were delinquent in taxes on the hotel building. Remember how the dems rewarded the pair with all that money even though they were delinquent in taxes on that building as well as many other properties they owned in the city. Remember how the dems didn't even bother to withhold from the city/plex's $250K purchase price the amount in delinquent taxes on the hotel building and all the other such tax deliquent properties, instead, the dems stole money from the financially struggling homeowners in the city to cover the cost of the delinquent taxes on the hotel building. Remember all that?
Check out this story. Todd was one of the owners of the hotel Foster building. So nice that the dems rewarded him so lavishly with taxpayers' money
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Now just take away his state pension from his employment at the Office of Real Property Services (an office now under Suzy Savage)
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
KIM MARTINEAU Staff writer Section: CAPITAL REGION, Page: D1
Date: Sunday, May 6, 2001
After years of trying to sell two homes he owned in Schenectady's Hamilton Hill, a landlord turned his sights on a group of tenants who seemed ripe for a scam, a lawsuit alleges. Jennifer and Brian Vietta had been renting an apartment on Albany Street when they were approached last spring by their landlord, Dennis Todd, on buying the building, the couple claims. The Viettas are mentally retarded and unable to read and write. Jennifer Vietta also suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Their sole source of income is public assistance.
They bought the house but failed to grasp the implications, according to their lawsuit, which alleges racketeering and other fraud and was filed by their lawyer last week in U.S. District Court. The couple lost their Medicaid because they had obtained an asset, the lawsuit says. They defaulted on their loan. And the house they had purchased for $65,000 was worth only a fraction of that amount, or $19,000, according to an appraisal done later, they claim. Before they bought the house, it had been on the market since 1993, with a listing in November 1995 at $46,000, the lawsuit states.
Similar allegations are made regarding another disabled couple, Mary and Ralph Brown, in the same lawsuit. They purchased the house they were renting from Todd for $60,000 last fall. The house at 437 Hulett St. was later appraised by an outside agency at $24,500, according to court records.
The lawsuit claims that Todd conspired with an appraisal agency, Tri-City Mortgage Service, to inflate the value of his properties, and then teamed up with a lending company, Aames Home Loan, to offer loans on the inflated real estate.
``The plaintiffs lacked the ability to even pay for the property, (let) alone at the inflated appraisal,'' their lawyer, Richard DiMaggio, wrote. ``The loans were destined to fail from the beginning. Todd was unable to legitimately sell the (houses) on the open market at the legitimate value, so he took advantage of tenants that lacked the capacity to enter into the transaction.''
Officials with Aames, based in California, had not been served with the papers and refused to comment. Neither Todd nor the owner of Latham-based Tri-City, John Warner, could be reached for comment.
According to DiMaggio, Tri-City either had not visited the properties, overlooking broken windows and other defects, or they had intentionally jacked up the value. Neither couple was shown a copy of any appraisal, he alleges. After securing an inflated appraisal, Todd, and his real estate firm, Benedex, arranged for financing through Aames, the lawsuit says. The lending company was allegedly in on the scam too. ``(Aames) was simply going to sell the loan almost immediately,'' writes DiMaggio. ``The bigger the appraisal, the bigger the mortgage. The bigger the mortgage, the bigger the fee could be obtained by `flipping' the loan and assigning it to another lender.''
Neither Todd nor Aames informed the couples about federally backed loans, DiMaggio maintains, because an outside inspector would have realized that the fair market value of the properties was at least three times less.
The Viettas allegedly were duped into assigning all rents in their multiunit home to Aames, while Todd continued to rent the garage in the Browns' home, the lawsuit claims.
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Of course, this story isn't about downtown itself, but just so all know where your tax money goes
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
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