The Detroit News
05/03/12 Robert Snell
“Drug Link cited in pension loan: Fund borrower bought houses, gave some to
allege dealer”
A businessman who borrowed $10 million from a Detroit
pension fund to buy foreclosed homes had transferred some of the properties to
an alleged international heroin dealer's company, The Detroit News has learned.
Agents found property records indicating a company headed by
Detroit businessman Abner McWhorter had transferred two dozen houses to a firm
headed by Macomb County resident Carlos Powell, who was indicted in January and
accused of heading a large-scale drug ring.
The link is the latest fallout from a failed deal that led
to McWhorter's suicide, an international manhunt and a search for $5 million in
missing pension fund money.
The search warrant describes a connection between one of the
largest drug busts in Metro Detroit history and a failed pension fund deal involving
McWhorter and his company, Paramount Land Holdings.
The size, scope and profits of Powell's alleged drug ring
would rank him among the most prolific drug dealers in recent Metro Detroit
history, according to federal investigators.
During the drug probe, federal agents have raided multiple
locations in Michigan and Florida and seized more than $21 million in cash, 66
pounds of heroin, 26 pounds of cocaine, 1,000 pounds of marijuana and a fleet
of exotic vehicles.
During a November 2010 raid of Powell's home in Washington
Township, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents found copies of property
records transferring approximately 26 Detroit houses to an Eastpointe company,
Grand Towers Inc., according to the search warrant.
The property records were quitclaim deeds transferring
Paramount's title to the homes to Grand Towers, according to the federal search
warrant application.
The quitclaim deeds found by drug agents were never recorded
with the Wayne County Register of Deeds. The deeds were dated Jan. 11, 2008.
Common Sense Review
When the people of Detroit are stand up against a corrupt
local govt. The union workers pension is
loaned to a land holder who buys property then transfers two dozen of them to a
known drug dealer. What?!?!
What kinds of investment research did the pension
controllers do? The properties were supposed
to be a part of a foreclosure program, but they sit blight.
When are the people of Detroit going to wake up? Is there no oversight in Detroit? Unfortunately this story is not shocking and
yet it is shocking that it is not shocking for Detroit.
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