Saturday, December 22, 2007

Housing Agency Makes Quick Deal With RCM Phoenix Owners

Somebody wanted to make a pretty quick deal with the owners of Phoenix Apartments. The Indianapolis Housing Agency cut a deal allowing the owners of the troubled Section 8 apartments, RCM Phoenix Partners to repay less than half the amount the agency originally said it was asked the owners to repay. Ted Evanoff of the Star writes:

The Indianapolis Housing Agency investigated RCM Phoenix, finding the landlord had breached Section 8 rules. It had not disclosed its ownership of the property for more than a year and had leased Section 8 apartments to unqualified tenants.

The Housing Agency filed an administrative notice Dec. 5, demanding that the landlord return $318,000 in federal welfare rent payments. That led to negotiations this week with RCM Phoenix attorneys, culminating in Friday's agreement.

The deal shows RCM Phoenix agreed to return $141,749 on apartments it rented out under the program managed by the Housing Agency. It was not clear why the settlement was lower than what the agency asked for.

Hmmm. What I would really like to know is who the local investors in the RCM Phoenix are? Nobody in the media seems too anxious to share that information with us. It looks like someone wants to get this place sold and off the news pages as quickly as possible.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Start digging Gary, I think your on to something...somebody locally is making money on that cess pool.

Anonymous said...

Indianapolis is ripe with corruption and has been for many years. Whether it be gang or business organized; Pea Shakes, Money Laundering or Sweetheart Tax Abatements to Rich Business Friends of City Officials.

Indy was bad enough before Peterson but unless someone organizes a White Collar Crime Unit and tackles the under pinnings of corruption in City/County Government why bother with the Street Thugs.

Why have the Feds overlooked Indy for Investigation and RICO Prosecutions?

We cannot rely on IMPD to investigate itself or the corruption that exists in County Government let alone close down the multi million dollar Pea Shake Dynasty.

It took IMPD 6 Months with untold man hours and FBI assistance to determine that Abdul may have made posts on IndyU.

Let's hope that whoever wins in 2008 will recruit some zealous and determined prosecutors.

We after all, are a World Class City with the Current Super-Bowl Champs and a Bar/NightClub in a Federal Building.

Anonymous said...

You can bet that the Indy Star will not be a part of digging into this. Just the other day they had an article about a retiring coach from Roncalli who people were accusing of taking sexual liberties with an underage student and bam, the star pulls the plug just as some people who appeared to be personally involved started making comments. Why is this city so afraid of investigating for truth.

Anonymous said...

Gary, you and I have discussed this via messages and my contention is still the same. RCM Phoenix Partners LLC is an entity of private local investors that used Belfoniti to help bring the capital in addition to a credit line.
The Housing Agency knows damn good and well who the partners are in RCM and my guess is so do the media. Why are these partners identities keep secret? They are members of the black community and have been involved with this property in the past.
The name Phoenix, rising from the ashes, is the givaway. You think Belfonti thought that up?
If the local media won't do their work them maybe the national media will, especially when the name of a rather famous black Hall of Fame basketball player is involved.
BTW, where did the $7 million loan money go that Belfonti took out on this property that he bought for $2.3 million in 2004.
A 7 million dollar loan on a 2.3 million property???????????
Sounds just like the Mozel Sanders deal! Same damn people!

Gary R. Welsh said...

anon 3:05, I e-mailed two different Star reporters asking them why the newspaper won't publish the name of the local investors. I'm still awaiting their reply.

Anonymous said...

The Housing Agency knows who these local investors are. Part of the reason that the Housing Agency sued RCM Phoenix Partners LLC was because RCM did not provide the Housing Agency with the names of the partners. Only Belfonti's name appears on the LLC papers filed with the Secretary of State's Office in Connecticut.
The REAL partners are now known by the Housing Agency and that's why RCM was able to cut a deal with the Housing Agency and reduce the amount of over $300,000 they owed.
Of course the Housing Agency is administered by blacks.
The deal? Cut the amount in half for us and keep our names out of the news. Which is precisely what Meyers from the Agency did once he found out who the real partners were.
That money is OUR tax money and we have a right to know who these partners are. If it requires a private lawsuit to get these names I've can write the check.
Then maybe the media will have second thoughts about sitting on those names.
If a lawsuit can go forward then I'm willing to foot the bill.

Anonymous said...

We after all, are a World Class City with the Current Super-Bowl Champs and a Bar/NightClub in a Federal Building.

It's a township building, not a federal one.

Anonymous said...

This story was on the front page of the IndIanapolis Star and I remember reading that the apartment complex was near another one that was just investigated and money was being accepted for tenants who were dead for almost a year. If you really want to find out any more you can get the name of who owns the property from the city-county building, after all someone pays taxes on this property. Just go to the information desk and tell the receptionist you would like to find the owner of a property, that's what I did. It shouldn't take much more work from there to find out what is going on. It is about time we make someone accoutable for this, maybe we would have more affordable housing if this kind of abuse of assistance was under control.