Gregory Martel - $293 million gonzo - update VII

The granting of an order in California allows trustee PricewaterhouseCoopers to act in the U.S. as it has been in Canada. It precludes anyone other than PwC from transferring, selling or encumbering any of Martel’s U.S. assets. Martel’s Las Vegas property, which was transferred to Daniel Castellini, will be part of assets. U.S. courts recognize a bench warrant issued by the B.C. Supreme Court and directed that Martel, should he return to the U.S., be arrested. Martel reportedly left Thailand August 30.

Greg Martel transferred a US $5.6m Las Vegas property to Daniel Castellini, 47, on August 29, 2023. The property transfer was notarized by “audio-video communication” from Thailand. Martel also gave Castellini two Teslas and $300k. Castellini met Martel through his fiancé, an employee of Martel’s.

Castellini began investing with Martel in Dec 2022. By Feb 2023, he was unable to get payouts. In June 2023, Castellini and four others filed a $2m lawsuit against Martel in Nevada. Martel’s Las Vegas residence on Quiet Moon Lane has $1.8m in equity.

Thieving K9 Gregory Martel has been found guilty of contempt of court. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. A judge ruled that Martel is guilty of contempt after breaching court orders that required him to provide information to the receiver overseeing his bankruptcy proceedings. The receiver overseeing Greg Martel and his ponzi scheme My Mortgage Auction petitioned the court to have Martel held in contempt. PricewaterhouseCoopers says it has been stymied by the heinous basterd. They are searching for a quarter of a billion and found $330k. The steal is $293m owed to 855 investors. Where precisely Gregory Martel is now isn't certain. It probably isn't Canada.

Conman Gregory Martel sent a bizarre email to court appointed receiver PwC. In it he gives the reason he hasn't complied with court orders to provide banking information and documents. He references the FBI and threatens to ... "file charges to PwC and a formal complaint to the judge." Martel states in the email: "My hands are tied, and I have no problem proving this isn't the case in court Friday." Martel was not in court Friday, nor did he furnish any information demanded by the court. Martel and his companies have been hit with 11 civil lawsuits and counting from burnt lenders. In excess of $226m is owed to 1,200 investors. PwC has control of $292,586.

After giving us the immortal "The defendant has not wrongfully handled, misappropriated, embezzled, disposed of, or destroyed the plaintiffs’ monies." lawyer Ritchie Clark told the court he terminated his retainer with Gregory Martel for 'ethical reasons'. On the 4th receivership hearing everything Martel owned has been petitioned into bankruptcy.

The receiver has no clue where Martel is.

500 attended an investors virtual meeting by receiver PwC. The news was grim. Investors were told to expect a complete wipe out from an imploding Ponzi scheme. Martel is out of the top chair of his own company after the B.C. Supreme Court appointed a receiver. PwC took over My Mortgage Auction Corp., dba Shop Your Own Mortgage. Martel started his scheme in 2016. A report noted only $273 was in Royal Bank of Canada accounts. Those same accounts had $58m deposited and withdrawn over the past six months, with no explanation evident.

Gustavo Falcon - last of the 'cocaine cowboys'

The last of Miami's 'Cocaine Cowboys' Gustavo Falcon, then 56, was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2018 after almost three decades on the run. Falcon was arrested in 2017 near Orlando, where he was living under an assumed name with his wife. For 26 years, Gustavo Falcon lived the mundane life of a middle-aged dad. He jogged, he worked an ordinary job.

Falcon vanished in 1991 when he, his older brother Augusto 'Willie' Falcon, Salvador 'Sal' Magluta and seven others were charged in a major federal grand jury indictment. Magluta and Augusto Falcon ran one of the biggest cocaine trafficking rings in Florida history. The gang smuggled at least 75 tons of cocaine into the US and made some $2 billion in the 1980s 'Miami Vice' era.

Trump gag order - 'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?'

"Because he is running for president, he gets to make threats?" Judge Tanya Chutkan asked Trump's lawyers before issuing the gag order. Her ruling prevents Trump from posting or reposting attacks against special counsel Jack Smith, his staff, court staff or personnel. Trump has been formally ordered to stop attacking potential witnesses against him.

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" (also "troublesome priest" or "meddlesome priest") is a quote attributed to Henry II of England preceding the death of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. 4 of his knights killed the cleric after the comments.

The phrase is used today to express that a ruler's wish may be interpreted as a command by his subordinates. "What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric!" After the murder, Becket was venerated and Henry was vilified.

Russian Mob Boss Aslan 'Dzhako' Gagiev

Many of his victims were high-ranking Russian officials and prominent businessmen.

Aslan 'Dzhako' Gagiev, Russia's bloodiest godfather, is responsible for at least 60 gangland murders. He has been jailed for life. Gagiev was found guilty of heading a criminal organization, multiple murders and trafficking in weapons. After Gagiev's trial began, he and his henchmen fled. Gagiev was detained in Austria in 2015 and sent back to Moscow in 2018. Barrel with concrete with the body of banker Oleg Novoseltsev.

Right-hand man Artur Dzhioev fled to Greece before he was sent back to Russia, also in 2018. A year later, he was sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony. 37 killers from Gagiev's groups have been sentenced to long prison terms. 7 are still being sought and 7 others have been killed in gang conflicts.

Winnipeg's pink crack queenpin Sandra Guiboche looking at 10 years

Sandra Guiboche, 59, was the head of a crack network in Winnipeg that was known for it's pink product. She was the boss of a drug trafficking organization she built over several years that was headquartered in homes she owned in Point Douglas. Cops busted 26 and laid more than 100 charges in 'Project Matriarch'. Cops seized $2.3m in contraband, including 10 homes, bank accounts, vehicles, weapons and drugs.

Guiboche's workers lived in her homes and paid rent, including working shifts at her crack shacks selling drugs. Three of her crack houses on Lisgar Avenue and three on Austin Street N. were seized through the province's Criminal Property Forfeiture Act.

One of her 24/7 crack cooks, Timothy Verbong, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit an indictable offence and was sentenced to eight years less time served in September 2022.

41 charges in Hells Angels bust on Vancouver Island - update VII

HA Sean Douglas Kendall, 45, plead guilty to three counts of trafficking cocaine and one of illegally selling pot. He goes away for 3 years. The other three bikers busted, William Bradley Thompson, Kristopher Stephen Smith and William Karl Paulsen, are still before the court.

HA Kristopher Stephen Smith, 44, turned himself in to cops. He was wanted on three drug offences and three weapons offences. HA Sean Oliver Douglas Kendall, 44, turned himself in on seven charges related to drug trafficking. 41 charges resulted from a 4 year drug trafficking investigation of the Hells Angels on Vancouver Island. Cops targeted Hells Angels in Nanaimo and their support clubs – the Savages and the Devils Army. HA William Karl Paulsen of Campbell River was reeled in and released.

Paulsen, 51, is facing sixteen drug charges (1 meth, 15 cocaine) and one count of unlawfully possessing explosives. Unlawful Possession of Explosives [CC 82(1)] Here.

Cops seized six tubes of Senatel Magnafrac, an explosive used in mining. Senatel Magnafrac is an emulsion packed, robust explosive sensitive to a detonator. The explosive is orange in color with a firm, putty-like consistency. Explosives in Canada fall under the Explosives Act R.S.C., 1985, c. E-17 Here.

Also seized were 22 weapons, including an Uzi.

Cops seized 7.75kg of cocaine, 4kg of pot, 1.9kg of meth and 248 oxycodone pills. An unknown amount of cash was taken in.

Disbarred lawyer Doron Jorden Kolman busted again

This time Kolman was been charged with having loaded guns, ammunition, cocaine, and opioids for the purpose of trafficking.

Doron Jorden Kolman was a lawyer. He lost his licence in 2001 after he was convicted of fraud. He ripped off 21 clients for $1.2m. He gambled the money away. The law society covered losses. After serving his 3 year sentence, Kolman was arrested again a few years later for another fraud. In 2015, he was one of 19 busted in an investigation targeting the 'Ndrangheta in the GTA. Kolman was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion, counselling an offence and committing an offence for a criminal organization.

Gangster Jonathan Olson appeal dismissed - update

Brodie Tyrel Takahashi Robinson died in custody Oct. 5. He was serving time for discharging a firearm, assault of a peace officer with a weapon and obstruction of public/peace officer. Robinson was convicted with Jonathan David Olson for a rampage in 2017.

The Crown was seeking a sentence of 14 years.

Prolific offender Jonathon Olsen's appeal of his 11.5-year jail sentence for a crime spree five years ago that included shooting a man in the head was dismissed. Olson was convicted with Brodie Tyrel Takahashi Robinson for incidents over the 2017 Canada Day long weekend. Olson was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 13, 2021. He has an extensive, violent criminal record.

Police dog Grinder after Olson attempted to drown him in the Vedder River.

The Crown informed the court in Sept 2019 of a pending application under section 752.1 of the criminal code ... the dangerous offender tag and indeterminate sentence. The dangerous offender designation was thereafter taken off the table. Intense drama ensued as Olson was found in possession of a stolen vehicle near the Vedder Canal. He ended up in the water fleeing from a cop dog that he fought off and attempted to drown. He was arrested by the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team hiding in bushes. Both Robinson and Olson faced a minimum for the most serious weapons offences. The criminal code calls for a minimum of five years with the use of a restricted or prohibited firearm. Olson originally faced the rare charge of attempting to kill or maim a law enforcement animal, but that was dropped.

Philip Esformes - 'unbounded greed'

Philip Esformes is a Florida nursing home owner whose 20-year prison sentence for a $1.3b Medicare fraud scheme was commuted by then-President Trump in late 2020. He is headed for retrial on 6 counts after losing an appeal claiming prosecutorial misconduct. The decision also leaves him on the hook for $44m in fines and forfeiture orders related to his conviction. When charges were filed against him and two others in 2016, the DoJ called it the “largest single criminal health-care fraud case ever brought against individuals” in department history. In the announcement of the commutation, the White House said Esformes had been “devoted to prayer and repentance” while in prison and was in “declining health.”

Esformes played his Jewish card and connections. Esformes’s family donated $65k to the Aleph Institute over several years starting after his indictment. That group petitioned for his release. Esformes’ fraud spanned two decades and involved $1.3b in losses from fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid. With the loot, Esformes bought a $1.6m Ferrari, a $360k Greubel Forsey watch, and paid for hookers. The FBI said he “is a man driven by almost unbounded greed.” There is no federal statute that explicitly states that prosecutors cannot retry a defendant on charges a jury deadlocked on after a president commuted their sentence for other counts on which they were convicted.

Kyrgyzstan cracks down on organized crime - Kamchybek Kolbayev

A day after Kamchybek Kolbayev was killed in an armed standoff, the chief of the State Committee for National Security, GKNB, spoke. “I am addressing criminal elements: do not break the law. From now on, in our country there will be no thieves-in-law, no leaders of organized crime groups, no criminal organizations,” Kamchybek Tashiyev said.

The GKNB said on October 4 that Kolbaev was 'liquidated' during a special operation in Bishkek after he resisted arrest and opened fire at security forces. The 49-year-old Kolbaev was a top level "thief-in-law" boss. Kamchy Kolbaev 'Kamchybek Asanbek', was added by the US to a list of major global drug traffickers in 2011. Kolbaev's criminal network is described as being "part of the broader Brothers' Circle transnational criminal organization composed of leaders and members of several Eurasian criminal groups."