Whipped Cream Difficulties

I noted previously that two of the Yassine brothers were convicted of money laundering in the Austin nightclub case. (Previoisly.)

They were sentenced today. Hussein Ali Yassine, aka “Mike”, “founder and president of Yassine Enterprises”, was sentenced to twelve years and seven months in federal prison. Hadi Yassine, his brother, got a five year sentence. Both will also serve three years on probation after they are released.

In addition, “Mike”, Hadi, and their other brother Mohammed Ali (aka “Steve”) are not US citizens, so there is “a chance” that they will be deported after serving their time. (“Steve”, as you may recall, took a plea deal last year and was sentenced to a year in prison.)

I go out for a couple of hours to run some errands. I come back, and I find out that the police have arrested Russell Erxleben, who was somewhat famous as a UT football player. (He actually still shares the record for longest field goal kicked in NCAA history.)

Of course, anybody can be arrested; there’s no shortage of domestic violence or DWI arrests among former football players at any level. But Erxleben is charged with running a Ponzi scheme: that’s something you don’t see every day.

The indictment said Erxleben used several companies, including WALTEC Consultants, LRE Holdings and the MDM Group, to promote investments in fraudulent ventures, mainly in post-WWI German government gold bearer bonds and in work purportedly by Paul Gauguin, the famous late 19th-early 20th century artist.

“post-WWI German government gold bearer bonds”? That sounds like something straight out of Mission: Impossible.

Also worth noting:

In 1999, Erxleben pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and securities fraud charges stemming from a foreign currency trading scam in which hundreds of investors lost more than $30 million.

You know, I’m not Mister Sophisticated F’ing Investor here, but I’d like to think that before I gave someone $60,000 to invest in “post-WWI German government gold bearer bonds” that were purportedly worth $350,000, I’d maybe, just maybe, do A FREAKING BACKGROUND CHECK ON THE PERSON I WAS GIVING THE MONEY TO. And if that check turned up something odd, like the fact that this person got out of prison in 2005 after being convicted in a “foreign currency trading scam”, more than likely I WOULDN’T GIVE THEM ANY OF MY DAMN MONEY!

But that’s just me. As I said, I’m not a Sophisticated Investor.

Lawrence sent an inquiry as to why I didn’t blog the Sergei Filin/Bolshoi Ballet attack.

Part of the reason is that I was away from the Internet; the other reason is that I wanted to think some more about the story.

As dancers kept an overnight vigil at the burn unit where he is being treated, his colleagues said they suspected that professional jealousy was behind the attack. In recent weeks, his tires were punctured and his car scratched, and his cellphones and personal e-mail account were hacked and correspondence published, his associates have said. A relative had offered to supply Mr. Filin with a bodyguard, but Mr. Filin refused because he did not believe that the threats would lead to physical violence, said Dilyara Timergazina, his assistant and adviser.

This raised some red flags for me. Punctured tires, scratched car, “hacked” cellphone and email: all of those are things that have been seen in cases where people have staged attacks on themselves. The refusal of a bodyguard contributes to that as well.

But throwing acid in your own face? That seems extreme. But it turns out that kind of self-harm is not unheard of. I don’t see any evidence in the NYT report that anyone else witnessed the attack.

Do I think Filin staged his own attack? I don’t think there’s any evidence for that, but I do think that it is an investigative possibility Russian law enforcement will be exploring.

What are the alternatives? People were so upset with Filin’s artistic direction that they threw acid on him? M-m-m-m-m-maybe:

One simmering conflict has involved Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a popular principal dancer who last year harshly criticized a recent reconstruction of the theater and has publicly clashed with its leadership since then. A group of Mr. Tsiskaridze’s supporters petitioned President Vladimir V. Putin in November, requesting that Mr. Tsiskaridze be appointed director of the Bolshoi.

Crime of passion? Filin was sleeping with the wrong person? Or was sleeping with the right person but didn’t give them the role they wanted? I’m better able to buy that than I am the “artistic differences” theory.

Filin was involved with something else crooked, maybe outside of the Bolshoi? That seems more unlikely to me: if you’re the head of the Bolshoi, apparently you’re making major bank. Why would you get involved with the Russian Mafia or other criminal organizations? Unless they have something you need or want badly…or unless they’re promising to keep secret something you don’t want known…

Random crazy person? Why target Filin specifically? Unless that’s part of the crazy pathology.

I think this comes down to three things:

1. It should be interesting to watch this play out.
2. If Russian law enforcement states that Filin staged his own attack, many many people are not going to believe it, no matter how strong the evidence is.
3. Russia needs strict acid control laws.

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted former Mayor Ray Nagin with 21 counts of corruption, alleging that while in office, Nagin took cash bribes and gifts from three city contractors and used his power as mayor to leverage a granite installation contract from Home Depot as the retailer was building a store in Central City. Despite New Orleans’ reputation for political shenanigans, Nagin is the first mayor in the city’s history to be indicted by a grand jury on corruption charges.

Six counts of bribery, one count of conspiracy, one count of money laundering, nine counts of “deprivation of honest services through wire fraud”, and four counts of filing false tax returns. NOLA.com has more details on the charges.

Let me say this about the subject: YOU’RE GOING DOWN IN FLAMES, YOU TAX-FATTENED HYENA!

(Subject line hattip.)