Who Are These People

I have gone back and tagged most of my posts on pension fraud. I have about 800 posts and didn't read them; but, lots of dots. Be well.

CIM Group, who are these people? CIM, it is said, is the third largest property owner in Hollywood. It was started by three people, Mr. Richard Ressler, Mr. Shaul Kuba and Mr. Avi Shemesh.

As for Mr. Ressler, he had previously worked for Drexel Burnham Lambert and founded Orchard Capital Corporation. You might remember Drexel Burnham Lambert because one of their employees, Michael Milken was known as the junk bond king, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail and is one of the 500 wealthiest people in the world. Mr. Ressler's brother, Tony Ressler, is the managing partner of Ares Management. Tony was also a founder of Apollo Management. Tony was also the Senior Vice President in the High Yield Bond Department of Drexel Burnham Lambert.

In regards to Mr. Shaul Kuba we know practically nothing. He had previously founded Dekel Development is all his bio says at CIM's website. Mr. Avi Shemesh, his bio is about identical. An article from Y Net Money, "Tshuva's rescuers: Avi Shemesh, Shaul Kuba".

An article in the Los Angeles Business Journal (found here on allbusiness.com) states the following:

"By 1994, Ressler, by then semi-retired, had started private equity firm Orchard Capital Corp. He was overseeing work on his Westside home when he, Kuba and Shemesh, who had built commercial real estate and landscaping businesses, met to talk about his lawn.

The trio hit it off, and bought a building on Third Street."

CIM Group has almost a billion dollars in assets and has received investments of hundreds of millions of dollars from CalPers, Lacers and other Public Pension Funds. Now when CIM Group first sought investments from CalPers, they hired Alfred Villalobos to lobby for them, we will get back to him. The president of CalPers, at the time, was Sean Harringan, we'll get back to him too.

So how do a couple of Israeli ex-soldiers become so powerful so quick and how did they manage to get so much money from public pensions? Better yet, how come we know practically nothing about these people? Do you buy the story that a couple of landscapers met a retired investment manager and started this company while discussing his lawn?

Lets get back to Alfred Villalobos. Here is a story about Mr. Villalobos' son, he was just convicted on extortion charges. The story is from the Sacramento Bee. Now Mr. Alfred Villalobos is currently being sued by the state for allegedly paying bribes to former CalPERS Chief Executive Federico Buenrostro Jr.

What is interesting is how many of these people have a connection to the City of Los Angeles, it's politicians and it's retirement funds. Seems like one big happy family. I forgot to mention Mr. Ari Swiller. Mr. Swiller, as I mentioned in previous posts, partnered with CIM Group to buy land that LADWP was trying to buy. Mr. Swiller had worked for Ralphs and Mr. Harrigan was a regional director of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. I wonder if they ever met?

Here is a nice article on Mr. Harrigan from the L.A. Times. It is about when he had to resign from the Los Angeles Police and Fire Pension Board. The article also mentions another man, Elliot Broidy, he was the one convicted of bribing members of the New York Pension board in order to get investments.

CIM Group bought a famous Hollywood landmark from a man named Eddie Nash. The L.A. Times reported this in 2007. You might want to read up on him. Mr. Nash who had owned the building for decades said that they had "wore him down". Now, that would be quite an achievement.

I do hope you are enjoying my little story. I forgot to mention that CIM Group, funded by public pensions, bought the Lady Luck Hotel and Casino according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Now if CIM Group planned on opening the casino again, they would have to tell a lot about themselves to the Nevada Gaming Commission. Maybe that is why it is still not open.

Maybe it is just me; but, I would like to know more about Mr. Kuba and Mr. Shemesh seeing as how lots of tax dollars have gone into making them very wealthy. I would like to know what it took to wear down Mr. Nash. I forgot something, New York.

CIM Group has been buying properties in New York, they have partnered with a Mr. Macklowe.