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the Verifiable TruthOctober 03 NHL removes announcement of Gambling Tournament from Red Wings' Official Web SiteNHL Removes Post on Gambling Tournament from Detroit Red Wings' Official Web Site This snapshot below reveals a post previously on the official NHL Web site of the Ilitch-owned Detroit Red Wings announcing the "Inaugural Red Wings' Hockeytown Hold'Em Tournament" scheduled for November 5, 2007 to be held at the Ilitch-owned MotorCity Casino. Less than 24-hours after a 10.02.07 post on TheVerifiableTruth.com linking readers to this Web page (snapshot below), the NHL removed the announcement from the Red Wings' official site.  September 26 Discrepancies in Ilitch contributions to President Bush's 2004 re-election committeeTVT has discovered discrepancies in federal campaign contributions made to President Bush's 2004 re-election committee by the Ilitch Family and an associate.
These contributions were made for the 2004 election cycle to President George W. Bush's re-election committee on June 30 & 31, 2003 by Ilitch Family members and their associate Michael J. Malik, Sr.
All five of them provided the address for Ilitch Holdings, Inc. as required under federal election disclosure laws but none of them lists "Ilitch Holdings, Inc." as their "employer."
Scalici is Denise Ilitch's husband. While not an Ilitch Holdings, Inc. executive the address he provides is the Ilitch Holdings, Inc. headquarters not the offices of American Construction Engineers, LLC; raising questions about who really wrote or authorized the $2,000 check on his behalf.
During the same 2004 election cycle, Michael Malik reported to 18 other campaign committees that he was an executive at Ilitch Holdings, Inc. but not to the President's re-election committee.
Mike Ilitch is chairman of Ilitch Holdings, Inc.
Marian Ilitch plays games by listing her occupation as "homemaker" although she's vice chairwoman of Ilitch Holdings, Inc. and holds other corporate titles for various Ilitch Holdings subsidiaries. At the time Marian owned 25% of MotorCity Casino and was on the management committee. Rather than list the homemaker's "home address," she provides the President Bush's fundraising committee with the corporate address for Ilitch Holdings, Inc.
Denise Ilitch at the time was co-president of Ilitch Holdings, Inc. sharing the title with her brother Christopher Ilitch, also a donor along with his wife Kelle Ilitch to President Bush's committee on the same day(s) but listing his home address in Birmingham, MI 48009 rather than the Ilitch Holdings, Inc. corporate headquarters in the Fox Theater Office Building as the other five had. Christopher Ilitch indicates he's an "Ilitch Holdings/Executive." One week earlier (6.23.03) FEC records indicate Denise Ilitch gave $1,000 to Kilpatrick for United States Congress, listed her employer/occupation as "Ilitch Holdings, Inc./President." She disclosed she was an executive at Ilitch Holdings when she made a $1,000 contribution to Candice Miller for Congress on 4.18.03 as well.
Sources: these records were first reviewed at http://www.googlerace.com/ and confirmed using FEC records and Web resources available at www.politcalmoneyline.com and www.opensecrets.org. Detroit-based developers delivered political funds to Don Young and then got favors Complete article can be retrieved from the NY Times Archive or is available for review here.
Alaskan Gets Campaign Cash; Florida Road Gets U.S. Funds
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
(NYT); National Desk Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 1, Column 1, 1209 words
Rep. Don Young, Alaska Republican whose constituents are far from Florida, nevertheless earmarked $10 million in federal transportation funds to link Coconut Road near Fort Myers to Interstate 75; Young is also congressman who steered more than $200 million to so-called bridge to nowhere in Alaska; Rep Connie Mack, who represents district, says he did not request money and Lee County officials twice refused to use it, but project would benefit Daniel Aronoff, developer who helped raise $40,000 for Young and owns up to 4,000 acres along Coconut Road; consultant Joe Mazurkiewicz credits 'very good impression' they made with getting Young's help on interchange funds and $81 million for work on interstate; Young's role escalates objections to project as environmental threat to wetlands and example of corruption and improper earmarking; Young was transportation committee chairman until Democrats won majority; Aronoffs gave more than $200,000 to Republicans in 2006.
* * * Since 2003, Daniel J. Aronoff's Detroit-based Landon Companies have been represented in Washington D.C. by lobbyist Richard Alcalde. In 2004, Alcalde formed his own lobbying firm, Potomac Partners D.C. In addition to his ties to Rep. Don Young, Alcalde came under fire last summer when the Washington Post reported a $50,000 "consulting" realtionship Alcalde had with the daughter of Rep. Jerry Lewis. At the time Alcalde had clients with interests before the House Appropriations Committee which was chaired then by Rep. Lewis.
Since 2005, Alcalde has also represented Michael J. Malik's Detroit-based MJM Enterprises & Development. Malik is a syndicator of Indian casinos and his primary business partners are members of Detroit's billionaire Ilitch Family (owners of Little Caesars Pizza, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit's MotorCity Casino, etc.).
According to Opensecrets.org for the Center for Responsive Politics, the family of Mike Ilitch and Marian Ilitch through Ilitch Holdings, Inc. (Detroit, MI) ranked #6 on Young's list of overall contributors for the 2006 election cycle. MJM Enterprises paid Alcalde's firm $300,000 for representation during that same period. Further, Malik/Ilitch controlled entities fronted more than $13,000 in private aircraft travel for Rep. Don Young in 2005.
As the New York Times notes above, Rep. Young held leadership positions on the House Transportation Committee (chariman); and he was a senior members and former chair of the House Natural Resources Committee. Both committees have been critical to he success of Malik/Ilitch casino ventures -- namely plans by Malik/Ilitch to relocate an off-reservation Indian casino in Port Huron, Michigan more than 300 miles away from the Bay Mills Indian Community's reservation.
Rep. Young backs the Malik/Ilitch plan for Michigan and has helped advance the plans in Congress several times. Proponents of the Malik/Ilitch backed casino convinced Rep. Young to bury approval of their plans in a Transportation spending bill during the 109th Congress but that attempt was thwarted.
September 25 Daniel Aronoff and Mike Malik have similar relationships with Rep. Don Young 6.20.07by David D. Kirkpatrick
WASHINGTON -- Campaign contributions sometimes lead to lucrative official favors, but seldom are the tradeoffs as obvious as in the case of Coconut Road. The road, a stretch of pavement near Fort Myers, Fla., that touches five golf clubs on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, is the target of a $10 million earmark that appeared mysteriously in a 2006 transportation bill written by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
The Coconut Road money is a boon, however, to Daniel J. Aronoff, a Bloomfield Hills real estate developer who helped raise $40,000 for Young at the nearby Hyatt Coconut Point hotel days before he introduced the measure.
Aronoff owns as much as 4,000 acres along Coconut Road.
The $10 million in federal money would pay for the first steps to connect the road to Interstate 75, exponentially increasing the value of Aronoff's land.
A Republican commissioner of Lee County, Ray Judah, is campaigning against the interchange, calling it an example of congressional corruption that is "a cancer on the federal government."
Aronoff and Michael J. Malik share the same D.C. political operative: Richard Alcalde, founder of the lobbying firm Potomac Partners D.C. Young may have first learned of Coconut Road on Feb. 17, 2005. That is when he flew to the region on a plane owned by a Waterford, Mich., charter company that is associated with the Aronoff family, which is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
The Aronoffs are among the company's biggest clients, its general manager, Tom Hector, said.
Young's re-election campaign reimbursed the company $3,422 for the flight, according to his campaign filings.
At the invitation of Mack, Young visited Florida Gulf Coast University for a meeting on the Interstate and other transportation questions. Afterward, Young went directly to the fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut Point. His campaign records show that he received more than $40,000 in contributions on one day around that time, mostly from southwestern Florida developers and builders.
Aronoff, whose family is a major contributor to Republicans, gave $500 to Young's campaign and later gave $2,500 to Young's Midnight Sun political action committee.
The Aronoffs gave more than $200,000 to Republican candidates and political committees in 2006.
Their business, the Landon Cos., is best known for building mobile-home parks. But it also operates a real estate development business in Florida. Daniel Aronoff has taken over management of the company from his father, Arnold Y. Aronoff, who had a checkered career in Florida real estate.
In 1979, Arnold Aronoff was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud in a scheme to sell Florida swampland at an inflated price.
NOTE: The Aronoff owned Landon Companies and Michael J. Malik's MJM Enterprises & Development share the same D.C. political operative, Richard Alcalde. Alcalde owns the Potomac Partners D.C. lobbying firm. MJM Enterprises is one of the entities Malik uses in syndicating various Indian Casino proposals backed by members of the Ilitch Family (his partners).
But the similarities don't stop there:
Barwest Agent Tom Shields still carrying nearly $150k debt for Barstow political committee's June 2006 campaign tsunamiSworn court depositions indicate, agents for Michael Malik and Marian Ilitch -- namely Tom Shields (Marketing Resource Group) and attorney Michae
 l Yaki -- formed Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development and recruited a couple of locals to front for them during the 2006 Primary and General Elections. Lansing-based Tom Shields ran Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development.
The committee bombarded the small Barstow community with a $200,000 political advertising tsunami during the June 2006 primary election in order to bury a local ballot measure and keep control of the Barstow City Council. (NOTE: That's likely much more than the sum of all Barstow's local political campaigns over the last quarter of a century.)
What's interesting is the Barwest driven campaign spent $200,000 or more primarily in the June 2006 election; however, more than a year later the Barwest controlled committee still carries a debt of more than $147,000. That's how much money campaign manager Tom Shields advanced in payments to vendors, campaign committee workers, etc. during the June primary election.
The committee reports Shields' Marketing Resource Group has yet to be reimbursed for $147,055.93.
In advancing payments of nearly 75% of the campaigns total costs and carrying that burden for more than a year, Shields has operated as a lendor/major donor.
Shields' firm represents numerous other affiliates of Barwest principals Marian Ilitch and Michael Malik including the Detroit Tigers, Little Caesars Pizza, MotorCity Casino and the Detroit Red Wings as well as several other off-reservation casino efforts in Michigan and New York.
The Committee has been carrying a deficit since June 30, 2006. It spent another $6,000+ during the November 2006 General Election campaign; however, the committee has not raised any additional funds since the week before the June 2006 Primary Election.
On May 18, 2006, Barwest principal Marian Ilitch contributed $20,000 as did her partner Michael J. Malik's affiliate MJM Manistee, Inc.; approximately $8,000 in misc. cash and in-kind contributions was raised from other sources including Tom Shields.
The committee raised a total of just $47,937, less than 25% of what the committee likely spent (with more than 83% of that coming from Malik & Ilitch). The committee carries a cash balance of $3,947.29 as of June 30, 2007.
So how will (did) Tom Shields get paid?
Why haven't Marian Ilitch and Mike Malik covered the debt? Or is someone else expected to pay?
Who funded Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development?
Certainly a seasoned campaign manager like Tom Shields certainly isn't going to put his company out on the line and lose almost $150,000 in payments to vendors he made on behalf of the Barstow Citizens for Real Economic Development political committee? |
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