By JEFF GERMAN LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL — Posted May 5, 2013
Edith Gillespie marveled at the way her half-brother, former construction company boss Leon Benzer, was spreading money around town. While sharing a bottle of wine at her home with a friend in January 2012, the dance teacher allegedly admitted — in a secretly recorded conversation set up by the FBI — that she became involved in a massive scheme to help Benzer take over homeowners associations to earn a small share of his wealth. “And I just saw him get more and more money,” Gillespie said. “And so I’m like, well, you know … I want a piece of that … That’s why I did it.”
Gillespie, 51, was talking to Christine Cabingas, a Gillespie-recruited straw buyer who had agreed to cooperate in the long-running investigation into the homeowners association scheme, which occurred from 2003 to 2009. Federal authorities zeroed in on Gillespie after they turned up allegations she was a straw buyer for her brother and was recruiting other straw buyers to the scheme. Read more:http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/crime-courts/investigators-snared-hoa-suspect-using-hidden-microphone-bottle-wine