The Sometimes Spring Retro Estates fire insurance swindle. (Editor’s note: Regarding the wildfire that swept through Sometimes Spring last month, leaving hundreds of seniors homeless. Homeless and angry, since it turned out their expensive fire insurance was worthless, with no reimbursement in the offing. So far the local authorities haven’t been much help in explaining what happened. We reprint here an extract of the essay written by the Reveille’s part-time interim reporter Cheryl Weiss for Mr. Kinder’s Social Issues seminar at Chuckwalla High.)
The Imperial County District Attorney has issued an arrest warrant for Jerome Botts, the charismatic real estate promoter who reportedly has fled to Brazil following the devastating Virago Canyon Fire that ravaged more than 300 homes in the Sometimes Spring retirement community of Retro Estates. Assistant DA Dmitry Claustivitch said the county is still unraveling the complicated machinations that ended in the default of Botts’ Phoenix insurance company with an accompanying loss to residents estimated to be “in the millions.” According to Claustivitch, Botts used “suspicious bank loans” for a heavily discounted leveraged buyout of a housing tract in receivership after the bankruptcy of the late developer Calvin Busk. The houses had been an unsold ...
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new biscuit, retro estates, snake handling
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