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Friday, March 03, 2006
Truth is stranger than fiction
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The most bizarre story is unfolding in Los Angeles right now. I swear, if you had written this as a movie or book you would have been laughed out of town.
The LA Times has been
tracking this story, which I too been reading. I now think that a single car traffic accident in Malibu a few days ago has blown the lid off a huge scam ripping off the US tax payers.br>
The SGVTA Contraversy
This is one part of a series of posts about The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority
It started out a week and a half ago as simply an unusual traffic accident. A rare Ferrari, worth almost a million dollars, crashed into a light pole along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and was totalled. It was reported that the Ferrari was speeding, doing 120 mph, and lost control. No one was injured. You think that would be the end of story. Some idiot with more money than brains in Malibu wrecks his million dollar car.
That it when things get weird.
The only person the police found was a 44 year old Swedish millionaire, Stefan Eriksson, with a cut lip. Eriksson lives in the super-rich LA suburb of Bel-Air. He made his money with video games, specifically racing games. Eriksson claims that he was just the passenger. He claims that the driver was some German guy who he only knew as "Dietrich". After the accident "Dietrich" ran off up into the hills of Malibu and never found, despite a 3 hour search by police.
Needless to say, the police are not buying it. Eriksson blew a .09 blood-alcohol level, which is fine if he was a passenger. It would be a DUI of he was driving. So, now we have a name and face for the idiot with more money than brains. And this idiot is trying to avoid a DUI by making up some story about a fake driver. Interesting.
It gets weirder.
It turns out the police can't tell who owns the Ferrari. It was imported from Europe and was not even legal to drive in California. In addition, the police found at Mercedes SLR in Eriksson's home that is listed as being stolen, by Mr Eriksson, in London. A Scottish bank contacted the LA Sheriff's department claiming that they own the Ferrari (and were probably wondering where it was). Also, Mr. Eriksson has a felony conviction back in Sweden where he served prison time for counterfeiting. He recently resigned as a top executive of a failed game company called Gizmondo.
So... now we have a convicted felon, dot.com millionaire, and apparent fraudster, who plays fast and loose. The guy has balls. Despite everything, he still manages to somehow live the high lifeÂ… fast exotic cars, a mansion in Bel-Air, multi-million dollar business deals, world travel. Wow!
It gets even weirder...
The story takes a strange twist with the involvement of a tiny public transport agency that gives rides to paraplegics in the San Gabriel Valley. The San Gabriel Valley is a cluster of small bedroom communities north east of Los Angeles. Pasadena, home of JPL, CalTech, and the Rose Bowl, is the best known city in the valley.
It turns out that shortly after the crash, two men showed up at the accident site and identified themselves to the police "homeland security" officers from a small San Gabriel Valley transit authority. Stefan Eriksson told investigators that he himself was ‘Deputy Commissioner’ of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority police department's antiterrorism unit.
Huh? The tiny little SGVTA has its own police department? And that department even has it own anti-terrorism unit? All of this was news to the cities and the law-enforcement departments in the San Gabriel Valley. The SGVTA web site claims that their police department has a chief, detectives, marked police cruisers and an "antiterrorism" division. It also claims that they hired a new police chief, one Philip J. Sugar, who has years of experience with the LAPD and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. They say “
Chief Sugar takes over at a time when mass transit is faced with perhaps its greatest challenges ever - - the post 911 era…”.
Gee. A simple check of the
SGVTA own web site shows that it is nothing but a tiny private non-profit company contracted by local cities to provide transportation services to their disabled citizens. They have some vans that drive people around. It also seems strange that their web site seems to be obsessed with terrorism security levels. Something ainÂ’t right.
The real police canÂ’t seem to find the two "homeland security" officers that showed up in Malibu. It also seems strange that a private company claims to have their own police and anti-terror taskforce. Or
how does a Swedish citizen with felony convictions become ‘Deputy Commissioner’ of a law enforcement anti-terrorism unit in California?
I canÂ’t wait for the police and the LA Times to get to the bottom of this story!
I think the whole thing is a scam designed to fleece the America taxpayers out of millions of dollars. They set up a phoney “transit authority”. They then set up a phoney police and security department. They then apply for federal funds to equip that department with the security equipment, staff, and resources needed to meet the new standards that the real
Dept of Homeland Security has issued for public transportation to meet when the official threat level reaches high levels. The
TSA is giving out $15 million grants to bus companies for security. That is a tempting target, no?