mvgordie

3 Responses to “Developer Charged With Stealing, Laundering Money”

1. I don’t think Iddo Benzeevi originally intended to steal money from the city treasury through a variety of LLCs. He did it as many other developers did during the housing bubble to save money on taxes by buying large numbers of acreage, prevent landowners from raising their prices high when they know its in huge demand or to prevent future development in rural areas, and to avoid competition from other developers who might know they’re intent and buy the land next to their property before they can grab it and build on it first.

   Once the fact he overestimated his ability to finish the Moreno Highlands development and Aquabella he became another victim of the collapsing housing boom and is now in the hole for thousands of acres he can’t shed due to the poor economic conditions and has to rely on the city officials he has legally bribed with hundreds of thousands in dollars to create fake infrastructure projects like the extension of Nason Street to Iris Avenue for the medical center which there are no plans for and the Rancho Belago signs designed to support the area for development of housing that will never be completed.

   What else is “miracle maker” Iddo Benzeevi going to propose for eastern Moreno Valley on his land that he will never submit plans for to build or get permitted for?

   A unicorn ranch? Or another BS factory that will supposedly be able to employee the whole city’s work force, end the foreclosure crisis locally, attract small businesses to invest in the area and fill in the empty retail space, and a thousand other miracle that will never realistically happen. What will the city propose to support him to help him pay off his massive debt he lacked too much intelligence to to get into in the first place. A widened Alessandro Boulevard east of the Moreno townsite? Finishing the extension of Eucalyptus Avenue (which should actually be Fir if you look at the grid lines on the map) between Theodore Street, and Redlands Boulevard. Build a giant sign and foliage for the entrance gateway to the World Logistics Center that will never be built? Put sidewalks, streetlights, sewage, or whatever else they can makeup to justify spending on infrastructure at the expense of the taxpayer just to make Benzeevi happy?

   Plus I hope the city staff taking huge campaign donations from Benzeevi who never actually has been known to have finished a single building on his resume, let alone in Moreno Valley, may be giving them the millions in loans he got to buy the land in eastern Moreno Valley he can’t develop during the unregulated lending chaos of the housing bubble. Benzeevi may have actually been a true land developer and has no successful experience as it he has ever cited and been able to prove. What we know about him trying to make a deal to redevelop the San Bernardino International airport failed, Moreno Highlands in 1992, and 2007 along with Aquabella. It could easily be that Iddo Beneevi is an individual with narcissistic personality disorder who is playing pretend about being a great developer in a get quick rich scheme that was heavily encouraged by the unrealistic dreams of the real estate bubble that have now crashed and burned bringing down the whole of the Western economy to its knees. It’s time for a sobering reminder to citizens of Moreno Valley about Iddo Benzeevi really is and to stop playing these delusional games of pretend that one miracle solution is going to solve the issues of the local economy that have been brewing for the past few decades and are more deeper than the city officials represented will ever be able to accomplish.

   bobby said this on June 6, 2012 at 9:59 pm | Reply

2. Now we just need to find out which LLC got the tax payer funds for the Nason Street expansion to Iris.

   bobby said this on June 5, 2012 at 9:36 pm | Reply

3. For a developer that seems to have half a million dollars to donate to the election campaigns of Mike Rios and several of the city council members who support his projects, he sure has a lot of money for someone who has actually built a single building in the whole of Moreno Valley and actually can’t afford to ever do so at all.

   He was never going to be able to finish developing Moreno Highlands, in 1992 or 2005 when asked both times by Mayor Stewart to work on them, Aquabella senior housing, the eastern medical corridor, the Skechers distribution center, or plans for the World Logistics Center and has never submitted blue prints for a leg of any of the newer projects nor nearly paid a dime in developer fees for any land or infrastructure of his. He couldn’t even finish renovating the housing he planned to move into overlooking Highland Fairview that still stands vacant overlooking Theodore Street.

   Why does the city offer so much incentive for his projects when major corporations won’t lease the empty commercial space when they will charged large developer fees to install infrastructure such as sidewalks, street lights, stop signs, sewage, landscaping, etc? Because they figure why should they pay for it. Why no businesses surround where Moreno Beach Drive and Eucalpyptus Avenue don’t surround this area is because they will not pay for the work. There was plenty of commercial space for large buildings before the real estate bubble occurred, it was just cheaper to buy land and erect a new building than to pay to renovate the old facilities and to rent them. Beenzevi bit on the same idea, so did Skechers and this is the only reason its standing on the eastern end of Moreno Valley today, because one greedy corporation got stuck in a bad land deal with Benzeevi which forced them to build a new building if they wanted to vacate their former building in Ontario on time. Otherwise they would easily want to be in Fontana, San Bernardino, Banning, or elsewhere closer to rail and highway transit corridors rather than the boondocks of eastern Moreno Valley. Or even not along I-215 and the San Jacinto Industrial Spur that serves it by rail.

   While Moreno Valley has no problems increasing the utility tax, streetlight fees, taxes for road construction, city fees, laying off employees, shutting of street lights to save money, requirements for city permits, etc. and lets the many Limited Liabilities Corporations owned by Iddo Benzeevi have money at tax payers expense from other accounts, there is clearly a biased relationship.

   I say let the California Attorney indict them like in San Jacinto, Bell, San Bernardino, and beyond.

   bobby said this on June 5, 2012 at 3:59 pm | Reply