Serious question re Darrell Issa, Arson and Insurance Fraud in 1982

[malaise]

is it true that the insurance company refused to pay the claim?

http://open.salon.com/blog/district_49/2011/01/16/darrell_issa_suspected_of_arson_and_insurance_fraud_in_1982
<snip>

On September 7, 1982, seven months after aqcuiring the Maple Heights company A.C. Custom Electronics, Darrell Issa was under suspicion of arson by Ohio state authorities and several of Issa's co-workers after the Quantum Enterprises manufacturing plant, a one-story brick building which housed his auto-alarm business among others, was destroyed in a 3 a.m. fire over Labor Day weekend in which one firefighter was "seriously injured".

Arson investigators hired by the state concluded that "this was not an accidental fire" and that flammable liquid appeared to have "been poured on the only area not covered by fire sprinklers" and observed "uneven and unnatural burn patterns".

Investigators' suspicions centered around Issa. Just three weeks before the fire, Issa and business partner Miles Hunsinger had quadrupled the fire insurance from about $100,000 to $462,000. At the same time, another business located at Quantum increased its insurance to $400,000. One investigator was "concerned about the coincidence."

Witnesses at Quantum also recalled Issa's presence at the building several times over the weekend.

Karen Brasdovich, a bookkeeper at the company told investigators that computers and records had been removed from the building eight days before the fire by Issa's lawyer. Brasdovich told reporters, "It was totally out of normal practice".

This is the scumbag attacking Eric Holder?

[atreides1]

1. My tin foil hat theory

Issa wants information that relates to possible CI's that are part of the Cartels in Mexico...and a briefing by Holder wouldn't provide those names, but the records of the operation would!

And even if the DoJ redacted the names...Issa would still claim that Holder wasn't being open about the operation...and would still go ahead and find Holder in contempt.

Just a thought, when you take into consideration Issa's shady past!

[malaise]

5. But for Boehner et al to carry this forward would mean

they all want this info.

[rfranklin]

2. He's slippery and has managed to evade capture numerous times...

He has an explanation for every crime that has happened in his vicinity--and there are many.

[malaise]

4. Why don't Dems keep repeating this stuff over and over

ReTHUGs would be on this like white on rice.

[Octafish]

3. Mercedes is a nice car.

According to court records, on December 28, 1979, William Issa arrived at Smythe European Motors, in San Jose, and offered to sell Darrell’s car, a red 1976 Mercedes sedan. William was carrying an Ohio driver’s license with his brother’s name on it and the dealer gave William a check for sixteen thousand dollars, which he immediately cashed. Soon afterward, Darrell reported the car stolen from the Monterey airport. He later told the police that he had left the title in the trunk.

SOURCE: The New Yorker, via TNR: http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/81698/the-roots-darrell-issas-suspicion

[malaise]

6. Good

Spread all of his past far and wide

[Octafish]

7. ''My brother did it.''

The four words Issa uses to describe his past.

Don’t Look Back

Darrell Issa, the congressman about to make life more difficult for President Obama, has had some troubles of his own.

by Ryan Lizza
The New Yorker, January 24, 2011

EXCERPT...

Issa didn’t even win the Republican primary. Although he outspent his main opponent, Matt Fong, the state treasurer, by some nine million dollars, he lost by five points. His campaign fell apart after a burst of investigative reporting raised serious questions about his honesty and his past. Many politicians have committed indiscretions in earlier years: maybe they had an affair or hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny. Issa, it turned out, had, among other things, been indicted for stealing a car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and accused by former associates of burning down a building.

In May of 1998, Lance Williams, of the San Francisco Examiner, reported that Issa had not always received the “highest possible” ratings in the Army. In fact, at one point he “received unsatisfactory conduct and efficiency ratings and was transferred to a supply depot.” Williams also discovered that Issa didn’t provide security for Nixon at the 1971 World Series, because Nixon didn’t attend any of the games.

A member of Issa’s Army unit, Jay Bergey, told Williams that his most vivid recollection of the young Issa was that in December, 1971, Issa stole his car, a yellow Dodge Charger. “I confronted Issa,” Bergey said in 1998. “I got in his face and threatened to kill him, and magically my car reappeared the next day, abandoned on the turnpike.”

Bergey died of lung cancer in 2002, but his widow, Joyce, recently said to me that she remembered her husband telling the story of the stolen Dodge Charger. She laughed when she heard that Issa is now a prominent member of Congress. “Well, he probably figured he was borrowing it from a friend,” she said. “But now we’re discussing politicians, so we all know how honest they are. When I meet a good one, I’ll let you know.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all

Wish more people would read, these days. Really, who has the time, though?