Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Apparently, the building across from my store, that DesertScape had owned, in now back in the hands of Dr. Wadsworth, the previous owner.

Interesting rumor, no?

Wonder what happened.
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15 comments:

The Natives Are Restless said...

Is that the old Dr. Wadsworth that's been around here forever?

February 20, 2008 at 7:49:00 PM PST
Anonymous said...

Are we talking Super Burrito or what DUNCAN?? Be specific exact locales.

Last time I research this the 'DREAM-SCAPE' was a front for walmart, but given that nobody in their right fucking MIND would now be trying to build another fucking Walmart in a ghost town like BEND, my guess is that MOTHER fucking walmart has pulled the plug.

February 20, 2008 at 8:43:00 PM PST
Anonymous said...

Wonder what happened.

*

Sorry to be HARD on you dunc, normally there is only love, but the new IMPERIAL-IPA from cascade-locks is now avail by growler, ...

What fucking happened, please dunc your form of rhetoric makes me want to puke, OK, the real question is "IS SUPER-BURRITO COMING BACK TO THEIR OLD HOLE??"

Note, the new super-burrito has had the signs for months, and nothing, thus I think that even they realize if you want to make a fucking nickel in Bend then work out of a trailer ( ROACH COACH ). NOTHING else will pencil.

February 20, 2008 at 8:46:00 PM PST
Bewert said...

The 2/15/08 doc:
http://recordings.co.deschutes.or.us/TempImages/99314131322424.pdf

The 1/1/06 doc referred to above:
http://recordings.co.deschutes.or.us/TempImages/99314131322642.pdf

As far as I can figure on a quick read, the '06 doc gave DesertScape LLC the right to the rents in return for paying Wadsworth back a $2.3M "loan". The current doc transfers the loan rights from Wadsworth himself to a family trust. Fancy lawyering that maybe someone else can decipher...

February 20, 2008 at 10:29:00 PM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

Are we talking Super Burrito or what DUNCAN??? Be specific exact locales.

Yep. The whole fucking building. Where SB was and everything else on that block facing my store.

February 20, 2008 at 10:38:00 PM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

Is that the old Dr. Wadsworth that's been around here forever?

YEP.

February 20, 2008 at 10:38:00 PM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

Bruce,

Sounds like a deal fell through....

February 20, 2008 at 10:39:00 PM PST
Anonymous said...

yep, rumor's true.
basically, the young guns from desert scape were in over their head (big surprise) they "gave it back" because that was part of their financing contract opt out.
ps: you wouldn't be happening to leave "smartass" comments on my product blog for treefort wouldya?
c'mon, we're all mature here right?

February 21, 2008 at 12:06:00 AM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

Not unless they say Dunc. I've never left an anonymous blog comment anywhere-- too lazy to try to keep track of what I've said.

Sorry to hear that.

Dunc

Yeah, I've had this feeling that we got a bunch of young guns come to town and get fleeced.

The old Bend guy ends up with the building and the money.

I mean, look at the purchase price? At 2.50 a foot or so, they could probably only charge a couple hundred thou a year in rents, so it would take 10 years of princble payments just to break-even, not counting interest and improvements.

I wonder if they thought they could add a couple of levels, offices and condo's, charge 3.00 a foot and so on. Wonder if that's working out for Franklin Crossing?

I suspect that when the buildings currently being built are done, we won't be seeing much of that anymore for awhile.

February 21, 2008 at 7:28:00 AM PST
Anonymous said...

Read the Following VERY CLOSELY Dunc, and also NOTE that Desertscape was helping investors capitalize on selling land to Walmart all over the country, they had a racket that worked, I suspect they got delusional when they tried to become BIG players in downtown Bend.

google "Walmart Desertscape" to see a complete tree of these transactions; too much done in too many places, too late in the game,

***
[October 16, 2006]

Red flags at U.S. Bank

(Oregonian (Portland, OR) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 15--In his day job, David Shelofsky hunted bank fraud.

The onetime small-town cop chased bad-check writers and credit-card thieves to recover money stolen from U.S. Bank, ex-colleagues say.

On the side, the West Linn resident developed real estate. He and partners sank more than $20 million into prime commercial and resort properties, mostly in and around Bend, land records show. Earlier this year, they sold land in Redmond to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for $10 million.


On Friday, federal officials alleged what several co-workers had long suspected: He was actually defrauding the bank by pocketing some of the recovered assets while building a development empire on his modest bank salary.

The U.S. attorney's office said Shelofsky, 38, intends to plead guilty in coming weeks to embezzling money from the bank, according to a filing in U.S. District Court in Portland on Friday. Federal attorneys believe Shelofsky, an investigative recovery manager, took the money between 2002 and 2005.


Federal authorities declined to describe the case against Shelofsky or say whether his alleged embezzlement and property development were connected. They also declined to reveal the amount of his alleged fraud.

But in an Oregon civil rights complaint, a co-worker has accused Shelofsky of "possibly embezzling millions of dollars" from Oregon's largest bank.

An examination of the case by The Oregonian raises deeper questions about U.S. Bank's internal controls and policing of employee theft since its 1997 purchase by First Bank System of Minneapolis.

Former workers say that, following the merger, the bank got rid of a seasoned investigative unit dedicated exclusively to internal fraud. They say bank managers also failed to properly oversee the money and property recovered by Shelofsky and repeatedly ignored red flags raised by co-workers.

"They would rather let an employee retire or quit than investigate and prosecute," said Ron Schanaker, who headed the bank's former internal investigative unit before leaving shortly after the merger. "They definitely had a small bank mentality."

In 1999, the bank discovered a loan fraud scheme that involved at least one senior manager and cost millions, according to a former investigator and depositions in a wrongful termination lawsuit, later settled.

To some who worked with Shelofsky, his plan to plead guilty comes as little surprise. Two former U.S. Bank investigators say they raised concerns about Shelofsky's honesty with bank managers shortly after he was hired in 1997. In 1999, co-workers recommended that the bank keep better tabs on the assets he recovered, according to depositions in the lawsuit.

In the civil-rights complaint to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries in May, longtime fraud investigator Deborah Anderson alleged Shelofsky gave gifts to co-workers to keep his activities quiet and claims the bank discriminated against her, in part, for reporting her suspicions to the FBI.

On Friday, U.S. Bancorp spokeswoman Teri Charest said Shelofsky no longer works for the bank. But she declined via e-mail to answer further questions about the case. But she noted that "at no time were customer accounts or funds ever at risk."

Charest also declined comment on matters that took place before 2001, when Firstar Corp. bought U.S. Bancorp and ushered in new management.

In a July filing with the labor bureau, the bank denied retaliating against Anderson, saying she never told managers of her suspicions.

Anderson and her attorney both declined to comment.

Shelofsky, reached by phone June 12, called Anderson "a very volatile person." He has not returned calls since. His attorney, Stephen Houze, said he expects the matter "will proceed by plea agreement" but said one had not been signed. He declined further comment.

Those who know Shelofsky describe him as energetic and athletic, with an aggressive but likeable personality.

"He's got really good people skills," said Doug Knight, one of Shelofsky's development partners in Bend. He described Shelofsky as "the wild sales guy who's very good at procuring other investors."

Shelofsky came to the bank after a two-year stint as an officer with the South San Francisco Police Department ending in 1993 and a one-year tour on the force in Arcata, Calif., according to those departments.

A former colleague in Arcata said he was "the type of person you can't help but like."

"He really had a gift of gab," Capt. Tom Chapman said.

U.S. Bank hired Shelofsky as a fraud investigator in February 1997, according to records kept by a former bank investigator. He volunteered as a reserve officer for two years with the Milwaukie Police Department, officials there said.

Within two years, the bank promoted him to a new post recovering assets from customers and employees who had written bad checks or stolen money, ex-employees said. He negotiated with suspects to fork over stolen money or goods, which the bank then auctioned or redeposited.

"He was very effective," recalled Steve Ryker, one of Shelofsky's ex-bosses at U.S. Bank. "He embraced (the job)."

Within a few years, Shelofsky began flashing signs of wealth and making friends in high places while pulling down a salary that one former manager estimated at about $35,000.

In 2001, he bought a half-million-dollar home in a West Linn hillside neighborhood and built a second home in the sagebrush east of Bend with a second-story deck facing Three Sisters.

He struck up a conversation with Brian Snodgrass, a builder whose family owned Dennis' Seven Dees Landscaping business, at a gym in Clackamas, Snodgrass said. Together, in 2002, they formed Rhino Properties and developed 50 rowhouses in Portland's Delta Park area, he said.

Shelofsky also met Craig Glazier, who managed the U.S. Bancorp Tower in Portland for then-owner Unico Properties. Beginning in 2001, they formed Peaceful Warrior Enterprises, later renamed DesertScape Properties, along with at least four other limited-liability corporations, to develop land, according to records of the Oregon secretary of state's corporation division.

Over the next few years, the duo and a group of mostly unspecified investors began buying Bend-area land, including prime commercial properties downtown, according to Deschutes County property records. They set per-square-foot purchase price records, local developers say, as they bought St. Clair Place, Bend's first mixed-use boutique mall; the historic D.H. Sphier Building; and land next to the popular Deschutes Brewery, where they plan a mixed-use condo project.

Shelofsky and Glazier also acquired two parcels on their own in Pronghorn Estates, a new exclusive golf resort northeast of Bend, county records show. In 2005, Shelofsky also bought a $1.5 million home hugging the Deschutes River in downtown Bend. In August, he borrowed $1.7 million to buy two lots in the tony community of Broken Top, west of Bend.

But Shelofsky and Glazier found their biggest success in Redmond, where the duo and partners assembled six commercial lots on the north edge of town. Earlier this year, DesertScape subdivided the 32 acres into three parcels and sold the largest to Wal-Mart for $10.3 million for a Supercenter.

"Wal-Mart," Glazier said in an interview in July, "was huge." Lenders opened their coffers, he said, and the duo's investors were thrilled.

"They've been just perfectly honest with us," said L. Scott Goodrich, an investor and a Bend-area contractor who built Shelofsky's second home, in an interview this summer. Added wife Wanda Goodrich, "We're pretty touchy about who we invest with."

On Friday, Glazier said he was unaware of Shelofsky's planned guilty plea and said his partner "was never really a huge part of our company."

"He was with me in the beginning," he said. "I needed someone to sign on these loans for me. I've been running this thing some time now. . . . I'm the only one with real estate experience."

In July, DesertScape removed Shelofsky's name from its list of shareholders, corporation division records show, and reorganized as a company solely managed by Glazier.

Long before Shelofsky went into development, several former and current co-workers said they found him less than honest.

One was Anderson's former boss, Tammy Glenn, a fraud investigator at U.S. Bank from 1995 to 1999.

Glenn sued the bank in 2001 for wrongful termination, alleging the bank forced her out after she reported to federal authorities an unrelated loan fraud scheme by bank employees. Without admitting wrongdoing, the bank settled the lawsuit in 2002 for an undisclosed sum.

When Shelofsky joined the bank in 1997, Glenn was working for internal investigations chief Schanaker. The four-person unit -- kept separate from investigators who looked into fraud by customers -- investigated and fired 135 workers that year, Schanaker said.

Glenn and another investigator quickly grew suspicious about Shelofsky, according to interviews with Glenn and depositions taken in her case. Shelofsky, Glenn said, bragged about working on a SWAT team and showed off a tattoo he said he got working undercover. The two investigators doubted the claims.

Glenn said they took their misgivings to Schanaker, who she said found inaccuracies in Shelofsky's job application. But First Bank managers, who by then had assumed control of the consolidated bank, barred Schanaker from confronting Shelofsky, Glenn said.

Schanaker declined to discuss his findings but said they would have prompted the bank to fire Shelofsky under its previous ownership. "They made some poor judgments on retaining Shelofsky," Schanaker said.

After the bank combined internal and external investigators into a single unit, it offered Glenn a supervisory role. She accepted the job but objected to overseeing Shelofsky, she said. Glenn said she recommended to Ryker, then the bank's regional investigations manager, that Shelofsky be fired, citing the alleged discrepancies in his application.

Ryker, who now works for Wells Fargo Bank's corporate security department in Portland, said he investigated Glenn's allegations but found nothing improper.

Ryker then assigned Shelofsky to report to him, Glenn said, and promoted him to the asset-recovery job.

Later, Glenn said, she recommended a second time that Shelofsky be fired, this time for allegedly violating bank policies. Glenn and another investigator alleged Shelofsky brought a gun to work, flashed his Milwaukie reserve officer's badge while interviewing a suspect at the bank and sexually harassed female co-workers, including Glenn. Her recommendation went unheeded, she said.

Shelofsky and Ryker, meanwhile, became friends. They worked out together at lunch several times a week and occasionally socialized with each other's families, Ryker said.

Before long, other investigators grew resentful of Shelofsky's relationship with Ryker, particularly after Shelofsky was placed on a more favorable pay scale, according to depositions in Glenn's case. Several workers expressed qualms about Shelofsky's honesty and his handling of recovered assets, according to Glenn and depositions.

"He'd come in and brag about the brand-new car he was buying or the latest boat," Glenn said in an interview.

Glenn said she doubted Shelofsky could afford the purchases on a salary that she recalled to be in the mid-$30,000s. She also disbelieved accounts Shelofsky told of a large inheritance because, she said, his stories varied.

"There was just lots of complaining going on around the office about Dave, and ethics issues, dishonesty, unreliability," said Kim M. Stone, a bank investigator, in a deposition in Glenn's case. "And so we went to Steve (Ryker) to talk to him about that."

Glenn, Stone and another investigator, Debra Zabel, met with Ryker on Aug. 16, 1999, to air their concerns, exhibits in the lawsuit show.

"Some staff feel David is dishonest," according to Ryker's notes on the meeting, submitted as an exhibit in Glenn's lawsuit. "Need controls on recovered property. Feel David is given too much room. Recommend that all staff handle their own recoveries."

Within two weeks, Ryker informed the women that the allegations against Shelofsky were "unfounded," Ryker's notes say.

Glenn quit the bank a month later.

In an interview last month, Ryker said he could recall no indication that Shelofsky might be stealing money. "If there were warning signs, the company would have looked into them," Ryker said.

Yet, suspicions about Shelofsky continued, stirring tensions on another front.

Anderson, a 21-year fraud investigator, said she suspected as early as 1998 that Shelofsky was embezzling large sums, according to the complaint she filed with the state labor bureau. In May 2005, Anderson told a co-worker that she had passed her suspicions on to the FBI, the complaint says.

A month later, the complaint alleges, she told the bank's human resources manager about the alleged embezzlement. The manager, the complaint states, later told her that her allegations were "false" and that she was a "gossip."

Anderson also suspected Shelofsky had shared some allegedly embezzled money with co-workers, her complaint says. "I was informed that Mr. Shelofsky was giving 'gifts' of large sums of money to persons I worked with and/or around," she says in the complaint.

No other claims or evidence suggesting such payments took place surfaced in The Oregonian's examination.

Anderson said in her complaint that she believed Jim Ghelfi, a regional manager for the bank, and Zabel, then her direct supervisor, "and others" had been aware of "illegal activity" at the bank for some time. "Some may have accepted gifts from Mr. Shelofsky and/or others may have just looked the other way," her complaint alleges.

Ghelfi declined comment, citing the bank's media policy, and referred questions to a spokesperson. Zabel did not return calls placed to her home and work.

Anderson alleges in her complaint that bank managers disciplined her, personally attacked her and treated her differently, partly because of her suspicions.

In a written response to Anderson's complaint, U.S. Bank said Ghelfi and Zabel learned of Anderson's allegations on June 9, when they received a copy of Anderson's labor bureau complaint.

"Ms. Anderson did complain to Mr. Ghelfi and Ms. Zabel that she thought Mr. Shelofsky was away from his desk too frequently," the bank said. "However, she said nothing to them about his alleged illegal or unethical behavior."

The bank said Anderson's performance "took a turn for the worse beginning in 2003" when she failed to resolve cases on time and also engaged in "disruptive behavior."

Labor bureau officials say they are investigating the complaint. Anderson remains an employee of the bank but has been on medical leave since August 2005.

February 21, 2008 at 7:59:00 AM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

Wow. Thanks for that Bilbo. And this isn't even the drug laundering guy who was an early partner in Desertscape?

Birds of a feather.

February 21, 2008 at 8:28:00 AM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

puhinaivi,

I sort of have made a deal with myself. If I was going to express myself on these blogs, I would do it under my own name or not at all.

I try to avoid attacking, or rumors that aren't labeled as such, or saying something I can't prove without using a question mark.

February 21, 2008 at 11:36:00 AM PST
Anonymous said...

I believe you, just asking because
I have a comment that said "that's assom" from Dunkys...
I couldn't figure out what that meant or who Dunkys was...but just a coincidence.
I'm a big girl and already said my piece about your piece...
water under the bridge.

February 21, 2008 at 11:44:00 AM PST
Duncan McGeary said...

It's the wild west out there....

February 21, 2008 at 11:51:00 AM PST
Bewert said...

That guy, David Shelofsky, sounds like a classic psychopath.

February 21, 2008 at 5:18:00 PM PST

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