HOA investigation about as relentless as the Las Vegas heat

One moment you almost feel the season start to loosen its grip. The sweet promise of relief whispers in the humid air even as heat waves rise from distant sidewalks. Then someone reopens the door on the blast furnace of summer, and you’re reminded that some things can’t be rushed.

The ongoing investigation into corruption inside local homeowners associations and the construction defect litigation racket is like that. It grinds on like summer itself, slowly turning up the heat.

“Is it over?” an interested party asked the other day when the subject of the investigation entered the conversation. “Nothing seems to be happening. It has to be over soon, don’t you think? It feels like it’s winding down.”

That’s hard to say with dead certainty. The usual confidential silences that surround an investigation by the FBI, IRS and Metro apply. And Department of Justice attorneys Charles La Bella and Mary Ann McCarthy have let their court filings and the mounting toll of guilty pleas do their talking.

But it would be wishful thinking in the extreme to believe prosecutors will close their files with such obviously unfinished business on the table. For now, the future of former Silver Lining Construction boss Leon Benzer remains the biggest unanswered question associated with the investigation.

As yet uncharged publicly, Benzer has emerged as a central figure in a complex conspiracy that led to more than two-dozen guilty pleas. The pressure-cooker case has also seen the suspected suicide deaths of four of its players, including attorneys Nancy Quon and David Amesbury.

Co-conspirators, several once in Benzer’s employ, have fallen as the government has turned up the heat. There’s Michelle DeLuca, a former Silver Lining office worker, who admitted becoming a straw buyer of a condominium to further the conspiracy. There’s Benzer’s pal – and former Republican Party operative – Steve Wark, who admitted helping fix homeowners board elections and became a straw buyer. There are former Metro veterans Frank Sutton, Morris Mattingly and Christopher Van Cleef, all of whom had connections to Benzer. The first two accepted felony conspiracy pleas, the latter committed suicide.

Although his attorney has maintained his client’s innocence, the list of Benzer-associated defendants goes on. Disbarred attorney Jeanne Winkler worked for Benzer. Lisa Kim, a Platinum Community Services condominium association management company official, landed contracts at developments where Benzer’s company held construction defect jobs. Kim’s husband, former Metro cop Ben Kim, accepted a guilty plea in an interrelated bank loan fraud case in which Benzer is considered a key figure.

Benzer has been an integral part of the conversation from the start of the investigation. Last October, former condominium development property manager Mary Ann Watts pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to a single charge of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. At that time, Watts admitted to U.S. District Judge James Mahan that it was part of a conspiracy that involved Benzer.

No one can blame any of the investigation’s defendants for fading in the unrelenting heat. These days, I’m wondering what Leon Benzer is thinking as he weighs his options.

In seeking a sentencing delay for a minor defendant in the case back in June, prosecutors La Bella and McCarthy wrote, “The United States anticipates future pleas, indictments and the possibility of one or more trials of co-conspirators and targets. These events may allow the defendant the opportunity to provide further cooperation as a witness, including the possibility of testifying at trial.”

All wishful thinking aside, the heat remains on in the HOA investigation, with little relief in sight.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.