American Police Force scandal in MT feeds the loons

[Blup]

Anybody seen the latest saga of the APF, American Police Force, and its attempt to scam a hick town in Montana?

It's got the sovereigns/FEMA death camps/Obama is Hitler/etc loons coming out of the woodwork.

Google it.

The short story is some small-time con man from Southern Cal who'd done time for check forgery and other little scams decided to go big. He saw that the small Montana town of Hardin had built a huge jail and couldn't find anybody to put in it. So he formed the "American Police Force," scammed a Mercedes dealership out of a couple of nice black SUVs, drove up there all fancy and apparently rich, and started negotiations with the illiterate hicks who run the town. Well the local gov't up there was >< INCHES away from signing a deal to give him control of the facility in return for his promises of $$$$$, the building of a homeless shelter, dog pound, ice cream parlor, work for the yokels..er.. locals.. and god knows what else.

I'm sure his end game was not so much about scamming the hicks, but about scamming large contractors and defense suppliers for big bucks once he could say he "ran" a government agency's prison facility.

Well, the sovereigns and their crazy network of loons somehow heard of the story and came up with billions of ridiculous conspiracy theories--- you know the type-- the gov't is hiring private contractors to enforce martial law, Obama is selling us to death camps, international bankers are running the country and are going to take over all the towns starting with backwater hillbilly bergs, etc. etc. etc.

Ironically, the loon network seems to have pulled the rug out of the scammer, a guy who goes by the name "Hilton" but has about 50 aliases. Now people are checking into him, the MT attorney general is demanding info, it's on all the right-wing radio, the MT governor is up in arms, and I bet you'll have a federal investigation pretty soon.

Pretty damn funny. And, of course, the little dude who started the scam, "Captain" Michael Hilton, is nowhere to be found. Probably back in California.

Google it! City of Hardin, American Police Force, etc. Great story.

[Demosthenes]

Thanks.

I've been besieged by shrill posts about this subject since Thursday. The dumb dumbs in the wingnut contingency who have been sending me the emails have never provided the backstory.

[Unidyne]

Alex Jones and his crackpot followers have been following this hot and heavy, but they were firmly convinced it was a "private military force" with international links, death camps, round up of patriotic Americans, blather blather. Just go to prisonplanet.com and type "American Police Force" in the search block.

I just checked the site, and according to Jones, the group is now called "American Private Police Force".

Also, there is now a bit of news leaking out that the APF is a scam:
http://cryptogon.com/?p=10995

[Blup]

LOL now it appears the California courts want "Hilton" back in CA to explain why he hasn't paid back the cool $1 million he scammed from those other folks.

Lesson to con-men: keep a low profile

If you're interested, you can search for the guy's cases here:

http://www.occourts.org/online-services/case-access/

...ANNNND... it looks like that this isn't the first time the city has been scammed!

To quote wikipedia:

"In 2004-05, a Texas development consortium convinced Hardin's industrial development authority to float bonds to build the speculative Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility, a $27 million jail for 464 inmates mostly dormitory housing located on a 40-acre field. Officials claimed that the understanding when construction began in 2006 was that the State of Montana would send some state prisoners there. The state has denied that allegation, and the economic feasibility study used to promote the bonds had not mentioned the possibility of incarceration of sentenced state prisoners. The facility was ready to open in July 2007, but no such transfer occurred."

Who in the FUCK is running that town? Lesson to citizens: if you elect idiots to run your town, you will lose lots of $$$.

////

Here's more, from http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... 002e0.html

(The Two Rivers Authority are the dimwits who not only got scammed into building a $27 million worthless jail but then nearly got scammed by Hardin/APPF into letting him run it. Al Peterson, VP of Two Rivers, is king of the dimwits.)

----------------
"I'm trusting in Two Rivers Authority," Hardin Chevrolet owner Jamey Eisenbarth said Wednesday. "Al Peterson is obviously a bright guy. I'm putting my trust in him."
...
Councilwoman Carla Colstad is also putting her faith in Peterson and other members of the Two Rivers board. "As a City Council person, I trust the Two Rivers Port Authority and their board to do what's best for the community," she said.
...
Becky Shay, who quit her job as a Billings Gazette reporter to become APF's spokeswoman in Hardin, used similar language in describing her decision to sign on with the company.
"I have assurances and I have faith that there are connections with that parent group."
-----------------

THESE PEOPLE ARE MORONS! I guess they deserve what they get up there.

And here's more from the article for your amusement:

"McLeary, who is part Little Shell Indian, said people in Hardin have been complaining about the sheriff's department ever since the long tenure of Larson Medicine Horse, Big Hair's predecessor and the first Indian sheriff in Big Horn County.

"This is their main complaint - that there are drunks on the street and the deputies aren't doing their job," McLeary said."

ahahahahaa. OMG this is better than a movie.

[Blup]

This is a fast-moving story and is likely to be dead before the end of the week, because it's just so ridiculous.

After the town's 3pm meeting today:

Hardin puts controversial jail project on hold; attorney, economic development leader resign.

http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/ar ... 03286.html

Greg Smith, one of the city geniuses behind the scandal, and some city attorney Becky Convery, handed in their resignations today. As they should have, and as everyone who has any political responsibility in Hardin should also do.

[Unidyne]

Just for the heck of it, I decided to perform a WHOIS search on NetworkSolutions.com to see who owns the website domains for the "American Police Farce".

"http://www.americanpolicegroup.com/" is registered through "DomainsByProxy.com", which is a commercial service to hide the registration of a domain owner.

I have, however, discovered a website at http://www.americanpoliceforce.net/, whose masthead proclaims "Fighting Tyranny" and "Exposing Jack Booted Thugs". To quote the website:

"It appears that the crooks and con artists at http://www.AmericanPoliceGroup.com have changed the name of their website from American Police Force to American Private Police Force....Like we've been saying all along, this is a Beta Testing of the privatization of our police departments and jails in the U.S. and outsourcing to foreign countries. But we, along with thousands and thousands of our fellow bloggers and patriots are going to stay on top of these stories."

To quote the French proverb: "Never teach a pig how to sing. It only wastes your time and annoys the pig."

[bmielke]

Anyone interested in this story should go to the Billings Paper and read the stories. It is unbelievable in this day and age a deal like this could get as far as it did without the town involved doing a through check on the players. One of the town officials was quoted as saying he didn;t know what position Hilton held with the company, yet Hilton was the chief representative for the company. Wouldn't you want to know who is sitting on the other side of the table from you?

Also from several of the articles it appears everything was fine until Hilton showed up in town with three Mercedes with decals proclaiming the "City of Hardin Police Force". The City has spent the last three years trying to get their own police force and get away from the county sheriff.

[Blup]

More fun stuff.

Michael Cohen, the guy that con man Michael Hilton supposedly told everyone would be working for him, denies ever accepting the job.

HOWEVER, it appears that Cohen is *also* a convicted felon, having bilked the US Secret Service out of a couple of thousand $$ a few years ago.

From the Billings Gazette, at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... 002e0.html:

--------
[Michael] Cohen was working for the Secret Service, supervising the agency's Philadelphia fraud squad, when he was accused of stealing $2,800 in the course of seizing assets in two different Secret Service investigations.

He was eventually found guilty of theft and other charges and sentenced to 33 months in prison. He ended up serving a little more than 14 months, according to The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, Shay released an e-mail from Cohen to Hilton, dated Sept. 21, 2009, in which Cohen disclosed his theft conviction, though not his prison term, and said he was still interested in "a position with your company."

Shay said the e-mail shows that Cohen, contrary to earlier statements he made to The Gazette, did not sever ties to APF and was still interested in a job.

"Frankly, my understanding was that he was hired and he was coming to town," Shay said.
--------

Seems like everybody in this story is lying!

"'I realize APF doesn't look good, and APF may never look good,' [Spokeswoman Becky] Shay said..."

ya think?

[bmielke]

This story looks like a lot of desperate people looking for anything that might save them.

You have Hardin Montana with $27 million in outstanding bonds. I haven't looked for it, but I remember a few months back when everyone was talking about Gitmo there was a small Montana town that had an brand new empty jail that said they would take the prisioners. That sounds like this town, but I haven't checked.

Then you have this former Secret Service Agent. He is a convicted felon and probably doesn't have many open doors.

You have Becky Shay the spokesperson who was a reporter in Montana, she couldn;t have been making that much, and someone comes into town offering a $60,000 a year job she lept on it as many would do. Now she is left holding the bag.

Then there is the Two Rivers Authority. They built the jail, and for some reason never got a contract for prisoners. What I have read is not too clear, it appears there was a deal of some sort, but it fell apart.

The only person in this hole story who is truely a bad person is Hilton. He is the scammer. Sure people like the Two Rivers Authority are stupid they shouldn't have let this get as far as it had without better background information. Shay might not be too bright for not looking into her employer. She must not have been a very good reporter.

[Blup]

I'd be interested to know what the "other charges" were against Michael Cohen... 33 months is a pretty stiff sentence for stealing $2800.

[Demosthenes]

Michael Cohen Docket

United States District Court
Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
CRIMINAL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 2:00-cr-00715-BMS-1

18:654 THEFT OF GOVERNMENT FUNDS

(1) IMPR. 18 MOS., SUPV'D RELEASE 3 YRS., ALL CONCURRENTLY, FINE 6,000.00, SPEC. ASSESS. 225.00 (RE-SENTENCING: IMPRISONMENT FOR TIME SERVED SUPERVISED RELEASE 2 YEARS)

18:1001 FALSE STATEMENT

(2) IMPR. 18 MOS., SUPV'D RELEASE 3 YRS., ALL CONCURRENTLY, FINE 6,000.00, SPEC. ASSESS. 225.00 (RE-SENTENCING: IMPRISONMENT FOR TIME SERVED SUPERVISED RELEASE 2 YEARS)

18:1503 OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

(3) DISMISSED

18:654 THEFT OF GOVERNMENT FUNDS

(5) IMPR. 12 MOS., SUPV'D RELEASE 1 YRS., ALL CONCURRENTLY, FINE 6,000.00, SPEC. ASSESS. 225.00(RE-SENTENCING: IMPRISONMENT FOR TIME SERVED SUPERVISED RELEASE 2 YEARS)

18:1503 OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

(6) IMPR. 33 MOS., SUPV'D RELEASE 3 YRS., ALL CONCURRENTLY, FINE ,000.00, SPEC. ASSESS. .00(RE-SENTENCING: IMPRISONMENT FOR TIME SERVED SUPERVISED RELEASE 2 YEARS)

[Blup]

Wow thanks!

Guess the feds take that sorta stuff pretty seriously. They got him big on the obstruction charge and all the others were just riders looks like.

Edit: what whaa? 18:1503 is:

Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede any grand or petit juror, or officer in or of any court of the United States, or officer who may be serving at any examination or other proceeding before any United States magistrate judge or other committing magistrate, in the discharge of his duty, or injures any such grand or petit juror in his person or property on account of any verdict or indictment assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, or injures any such officer, magistrate judge, or other committing magistrate in his person or property on account of the performance of his official duties, or corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b). If the offense under this section occurs in connection with a trial of a criminal case, and the act in violation of this section involves the threat of physical force or physical force, the maximum term of imprisonment which may be imposed for the offense shall be the higher of that otherwise provided by law or the maximum term that could have been imposed for any offense charged in such case.

???? sounds interesting.

[Blup]

here's his appeal in 2002, did they bother with the second trial? dunno

http://openjurist.org/301/f3d/152/unite ... -v-s-cohen

Wow, reminds me of the corrupt cops in American Gangster and Training Day:

"During a review of the seized evidence, Vernon discovered an envelope containing "what appeared to be a thousand dollars of genuine United States currency." App. at 30. Vernon "immediately picked [his] phone up and ... paged Mr. Cohen on the intercom to call [him] at [his] extension." Id. at 31. Cohen came down to the squad, praised the agents for finding the money, and asked Vernon to see him in his office so that they could "take care of the money." Id. at 32-33. According to Vernon's testimony, when he arrived at Cohen's office, Cohen instructed: "[J]ust don't worry about it, I'll hold on to the money for now, when it's time to, you know, inventory the money, we'll take care of it...." Id. at 34. Vernon further testified that Cohen "jokingly said" that "maybe when the case is over with, .... you might be able to keep the money and split it.... Christmas was coming ... [and] it would be nice to have ... the money at the end of the holiday...." Id. at 34. Later, Cohen called Vernon to his office, and Cohen pulled out the envelope with the money. Vernon testified that Cohen asked him to "hold on to half of the money" and said that "if anybody says anything to you about the money ... you've got half and I've got half." Id. at 36. Vernon testified he "held onto the envelop[e]," "went back to his office, sat down at [his] desk," "opened the envelop[e] up," "looked inside and there was four hundred dollars still in the envelop[e]." Id. at 37."

Yup, it appears this Michael Cohen guy is totally corrupt:

"Kavanaugh questioned Cohen about the propriety of splitting the money, but Cohen informed him that "[w]e did it all the time in Kansas City." Id. at 14."

Perfect for the town of Hardin!

[bmielke]

Wow...

When I read the articals in the Billings Paper I thought that the former Secret Service Agent was a conficted felon who just got caught up with Hilton. Now I see he is a corrupt cop, I don't feel so bad for the guy. I wonder if he was involved more then is being said.

[Blup]

Well, I was right, this story is fading faster than my girlfriend after 12 shots of jagermeister.

BUT before it disappears completely I thought I'd post this. You know a good con man when his victims aren't even angry at him:

from the AP
------------------
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer upbraided Hardin officials for first striking a deal with what he called "con men" and then defending American Police Force after Hilton's history emerged.

"They became part of the conspiracy. They became apologists," he said of Peterson and others involved in the deal.

Schweitzer added that Hardin residents "need some people to represent them that have some business skills, that are honest and have integrity."

[...]

Despite this, people like Al Peterson of the Two Rivers Authority still maintain that they did nothing wrong even after they knew Hilton was a fraudster.

“I can’t say it was a mistake,” he said. “We make the best decision we can based on the information we have on hand. I don’t think we did anything we couldn’t or wouldn’t do in the future,” Peterson told the AP.
---------------

THAT should inspire confidence in his constituents!

And more, from http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-an ... 002e0.html

---------------
Meet Marcianna Smith.

She is the owner of the Kendrick House Inn at 206 N. Custer Ave. in Hardin, a bed-and-breakfast where Michael Hilton and several other people associated with American Police Force stayed in late September.

Smith said a check Hilton wrote to her for "about $1,000" has bounced. It came back with "account frozen" stamped on it, she said Tuesday. In addition to staying at the B&B, Hilton invited a lot of people to breakfast and put the bill on his tab.

Even so, Smith finds it hard to be angry with Hilton.

"He was very charming," she said. "I just find it hard to read what I've read and believe it was the same person."

[...]

Smith said she doesn't have any idea how to go about collecting from Hilton, and she's not particularly upset.

"For some reason, I'm not holding any ill will," she said.

Smith said she hadn't heard from any other Hardin businesspeople who took bad checks from Hilton, but she did talk to one business owner who altered a pair of pants for Hilton and wanted to know where to send them.
------------------

Either this Michael Hilton character is the smoothest talking dude since Moses or these people are the biggest rubes in history.

Which?

[bmielke]

What kind of government official or business person enters into contract negociations without knowing that the other side is legimate? Does this happen a lot more then I think it does? There should have been some investigation into whether or not this company could support it's promises.

What kind of prisoners were they expecting? If they were US Prisioners then there would not be any secrecy. If they were War on Terror POWs they wouldn't see US Shores. If they were something else it was probably illegal and the city shouldn't be involved. Wouldn't these things have been important. I would think the town should have gotten more for Maximum Security prisioners then for Minimum Security. That should have come up at the very beginning of talks. It also would have been important for the town to know that their facility could handle whatever Hilton was bringing in. These kinds of questions should have gotten a reaction out of Hilton that should have set off red flags.

I can't believe these idiots run a gas station, much less a town.

[Blup]

well this entertaining little saga is almost played out on the national stage, though its reverberations will probably be felt in Hardin for years.

But I wanted to point out a quote in a news article. Often, the ones who are closest to the scam are the last ones to figure out they're being played. Such is the case of Becky Shay. She seems to just now be starting to pull her head out of the sand. From an AP article:

--------------
[Scammer Michael Hilton] has struggled to keep up with far smaller financial obligations, such as $1,000 debt to a Hardin bed and breakfast where he and several associates stayed for several days in September. Hilton said he was "transferring money from one account to another account" to pay off the debt.

Such promises appear to be stacking up too quickly for Hilton's Montana spokeswoman, Becky Shay, who is now seeking [Greg] Smith's former post at the Two Rivers Authority after failing to receive a paycheck from Hilton after three weeks on the job.

Shay quit her job as a reporter covering Hardin for the Billings Gazette Sept. 25, when Hilton offered her $60,000 a year and a company car. After the Mercedes SUV she was using courtesy of Hilton was reclaimed this week by Mafi, Hilton's former business partner, Shay was back in her old car — a 1999 Dodge Intrepid with balding tires.
--------------

I saw it, you saw it, everybody saw it but Ms. Shay. There's no way she's getting her job back as a reporter--anywhere--so now she's desperately trying to pick up any local job she can. $10 says she'll be working at a diner by the end of the year, if at all.

Insert P.T. Barnum quote here.

[Lambkin]

The shocking truth...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/10 ... .html?_r=1

The California con man who failed in his bid to take over an empty Montana jail testified Friday he has no money, none of the corporate backing he once claimed and no law enforcement or military experience.

[bmielke]

But the deal was never ratified by a bank overseeing the jail and it collapsed after media revelations about Hilton's criminal background.

That's new to me, I never knew a bank was overseeing the jail. I'm glad that someone was there to stop the Montana Morons from giving away the farm. (At least I hope they would have stopped it.)

[Blup]

In other news, it appears the Becky Shay may get a job after all!

"Shay the only applicant so far for TRA director job"

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-a ... 03286.html