New federal indictment coming soon in HOA scheme

Federal prosecutors are preparing to seek a long-awaited indictment as early as next week in their final push to charge conspirators in a massive scheme to take over Las Vegas Valley homeowners associations.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has previously reported that as many as a dozen defendants could be named in the corruption indictment being sought by attorneys with the Justice Department's Fraud Section in Washington, D.C.

Prosecutors this week told defense lawyers representing the targets that they will be charged and are arranging for them to surrender to the FBI after an indictment is returned.

So far, 28 defendants have pleaded guilty in the high-profile investigation, which has been running for more than five years. All but one of the defendants are cooperating with prosecutors.

The investigation became public in September 2008 when FBI agents and Las Vegas police conducted a valleywide raid to gather evidence of the scheme.

For the past several months, prosecutors have been presenting evidence against the remaining targets to a Las Vegas federal grand jury.

The biggest target yet to be charged is Leon Benzer, 45, the former construction company boss who prosecutors allege pulled the strings in the multimillion-dollar takeover scheme.

A total of 11 home-owners associations, including Vistana in southwest Las Vegas and Park Avenue on the south end of the Strip, have been identified as victims.

Prosecutors have alleged more than $8 million was funneled through secret bank accounts to fund the scheme, which allowed the conspirators to land lucrative legal, construction and community management contracts from the home-owners associations.

The conspirators, through election rigging and other dirty campaign tactics, stacked association boards with members who handed out the contracts worth millions of dollars, at the expense of the homeowners, prosecutors have alleged.

Benzer, who now drives a taxicab, is alleged to have used his former company, Silver Lining Construction, to obtain construction defect work at the condominium associations.

He once considered striking a deal to cooperate with prosecutors, but the talks fell through.

His lawyer, Daniel Albregts, did not return phone calls Friday.

The late attorney Nancy Quon, who became wealthy handling construction defect lawsuits for the associations, was the other chief target in the long-running investigation.

Quon, 51, was never charged, but under the weight of the sweeping investigation, she committed suicide in the bathtub of her Henderson condominium on March 20. The coroner ruled she died of drug and alcohol intoxication.

Lawyers, former police officers, homeowners association board members and community management company employees are among those who have pleaded guilty over the past 16 months. Most pleaded to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

One of those defendants, Las Vegas attorney David Amesbury, hanged himself in Northern California five days after Quon's death.

Amesbury, 57, who was married to a former prosecutor, once ran a popular courthouse restaurant with Benzer.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.