ALBERT SEENO JR. owns an undeveloped 528-acre parcel of land in northern Benicia. File photo
Developer accused of death threats, extortion, racketeering
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
After Nevada companies owned by Albert Seeno Jr. and his brother, Thomas, sued a manager, F. Harvey Whittemore, and his wife in January, accusing them of embezzling tens of millions of dollars, the Whittemores filed their own suit Feb. 1, accusing the Seenos of racketeering, extortion and making threats of bodily harm and death.
Both lawsuits ask for jury trials.
The Seeno family owns property on the north side of Benicia, but has withdrawn its application to develop a business park there, citing the economic downturn and saying conditions placed on the development made it financially impossible to build.
“I actually have no comment,” Mayor Elizabeth Patterson said Monday about the suits. “The lawsuits speak for themselves.”
Patterson said the dispute between the developers does impact Benicia in that the city’s residents have expressed a desire for trustworthy developments.
City Manager Brad Kilger said, “At this time, I don’t see the two are related,” referring to the Nevada suits and the potential Benicia business park.
“The city is not in contact with Seeno, nor has the Council asked for a renewed effort,” he said, though he foresaw eventual development on the 500-plus acres currently owned by the Seeno family.
“It’s too early to tell,” Councilmember Mark Hughes said about the suits’ impact. “I saw a couple of articles. I need to find out a little more.
“Obviously, I’m concerned. It’s a lawsuit. We’ll see how it plays out.”
“I did read the articles about the Seenos and the recent charges against them,” Councilmember Christina Strawbridge said Monday.
“I have no idea how this may impact the development of the business park, since they have not expressed any interest in revisiting the development in Benicia for quite a while.
“At some time we will have to deal with the Seenos as long as they own the 500 acres north of the Industrial Park.
“One is innocent until proven guilty,” she added, “but I am concerned with these allegations.”
The first lawsuit was filed Jan. 27 in Clark County, Nev., Business Court, in which Wingfield Nevada Group Holding Company, Tuffy Ranch Properties and the Foothills at Wingfield — all Seeno interests — said the Whittemores misappropriated millions of dollars for unauthorized personal use.
Whittemore, a Nevada attorney and businessman said to be close to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, sold half of the ownership interest in a variety of companies in 2004 to Thomas Seeno’s company, TNSS, or to the Thomas A. Seeno and Norine E. Seeno 1999 Living Trust, the 41-page suit alleges.
At the time, Whittemore was in charge of the developer of Coyote Springs, a southern Nevada golf course community.
By 2005, Whittemore and TNSS transferred their ownership interests in some companies to the combined entity Wingfield; other ownerships were transferred to Foothills.
The transactions made Wingfield (WNG) the sole or majority owner of a number of companies, including Coyote Springs Investments, Red Hawk Land Company, Western Electronics and Wingfield Springs Realty.
Albert D. Seeno Jr., on behalf of his company Alsan Nevada, bought part of Whittemore’s interest in Wingfield in 2007.
Whittemore, Thomas Seeno and Albert Seeno Jr. changed the company’s operating agreement, deleting a section that limited members’ voting rights.
Two years later, the three changed the operating agreement again, adding Albert Seeno Jr. as a Wingfield manager; listing him, his brother Thomas and Whittemore as joint managers of the company; and defining actions that required unanimous consent of the parties, including spending $5,000 or more in a single or recurring transaction, and redefining “Capital Members” and “Members.”
The Wingfield suit said the Seenos noticed discrepancies in the company’s financial records about May 2010, and started an investigation.
They confronted Whittemore with their suspicions about September of that year, the suit claims, saying that Whittemore confessed to multiple acts covering years of theft, conversion, asset misappropriation and breach of fiduciary duties (particularly money caretaking) to Wingfield.
The suit claims Whittemore confessed to misappropriating funds for unauthorized personal matters; making political donations for Whittemore’s advantage rather than that of the company or the Seenos; embezzlement and diversion of Wingfield money for personal use, including subsidizing political parties for personal benefit and sponsoring sports players; improper personal use of Wingfield aircraft, equipment and other assets without consent; and using company money to furnish Whittemore’s children’s homes.
“The full extent of Whittemore’s misdeeds is not yet fully known and new acts of misconduct are still being uncovered,” said the suit, filed by attorney James J. Pisanelli, of Pisanelli Bice of Las Vegas.
The suit said Whittemore kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees that should have gone to the Wingfield and Foothills companies, and that he withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from Wingfield accounts without consulting the Seenos.
It accused Whittemore of using Wingfield-owned properties without reimbursement, even when those properties were losing money, and of using Wingfield-related business deals to benefit himself personally, without declaring any conflict of interest when making business arrangements with his long-time personal friends.
The suit said Whittemore has defaulted on loans it said he obtained through his association with Wingfield. It said in 2009 and 2010, Thomas Seeno loaned nearly $1.5 million personally to Whittemore.
“The egregious acts of Whittemore as alleged in this Complaint have cost Wingfield, its affiliates, and the Seenos tens of millions of dollars,” the suit said.
Whittemore and his wife responded Feb. 1 with a suit of their own, filed on their behalf by attorney Dan C. Bowen and Ann O. Hall, of Bowen Hall of Reno.
This suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, claims Albert Seeno Jr., his son, Albert Seeno III and his brother, Thomas Seeno, were involved in a conspiracy to defraud both the Whittemores and the federal government.
It described the Seenos as worth collectively in excess of $4 billion, and said Albert Seeno and his son “are associated with organized crime networks” and known felons, and are being investigated by the FBI and the IRS.
The FBI and the Secret Service executed search warrants Feb. 18, 2010, on the offices of Albert D. Seeno Construction Company, Concord, and its affiliate, Discovery Builders, but the federal agencies haven’t commented on their investigation.
Whittemore’s suit claims he and his wife bought an interest in Loeb Enterprises, a development company owned by David Loeb and his wife, Heidi.
The Whittemores and the Loebs invested in the Coyote Springs property for a golfing resort and community, and the Whittemores had the right to purchase Loeb’s interest after his death in 2003.
The suit agreed that Thomas Seeno bought a half interest in the company some time after Loeb’s death. But unlike the earlier suit, Whittemore claims Seeno had access to the company’s books, including a computer link so they could be studied remotely from Concord.
Whittemore said in his suit that Tom Seeno convinced Whittemore to let his brother, Albert Seeno Jr., buy into the company, saying the brothers had been fighting for years and they saw the investment as a way to “bring the brothers back together.”
The Whittemore suit said the couple put some of Seeno Jr.’s investment back into the company as loans for operating capital.
“The company books and records currently show that WNG (Wingfield Nevada Group) is indebted to Whittemore in the sum of approximately $30 million.”
The suit said in February, 2009, Albert Seeno Jr. and Thomas Seeno told Whittemore they needed help on their income tax obligations, and that the IRS was seeking payment of taxes exceeding $500 million. Without Whittemore’s help, the suit said, the Seenos said all of the companies “would go down.”
The suit said Whittemore performed more than a thousand hours of consulting work on the tax issues that let them defer the taxes, improve their cash flow and renegotiate new credit lines with creditors.
However, when the economy faltered, the suit said, Albert Seeno Jr. “became disgruntled about his investment in WNG,” and falsely accused Whittemore of embezzlement, fraud and other criminal activity, and threatened to go to the FBI.
The suit said Seeno Jr. threatened to “personally bring down every member of the political ‘machine’ in Nevada including references to U.S. senators,” and that “when he was through with Mr. Whittemore, he would be disbarred and behind bars,” and that the Seenos “would spend Mr. Whittemore into the ground.”
In addition, the suit said, Seeno Jr. “reminded Mr. Whittemore of the threats he had made about murdering his own brother, Thomas Seeno, with his own bare hands and then threatened Mr. Whittemore’s life and the lives of his entire family … ”
Those threats, the suit said, were made August 2010 at meetings at the Seeno-owned Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nev.
The suit also claims that Albert Seeno III told Brad Mamer, a WNG employee, on or about Feb. 5, 2011, to call Whittemore and say if the Seenos didn’t get their money from a company called BrightSource Energy, Seeno III would fly to Reno to break Whittemore’s legs.
“At the direction of Albert Seeno III, Mamer called Mr. Whittemore and relayed the threats of bodily harm,” the suit said. At that point, Whittemore reported the threats to police, and Mamer told his fellow employees as well as WNG attorneys about the threats.
In a Sept. 18, 2011 email, Mamer pointed out conflicts the Seeno family would have with the Nevada Gaming Control Board through its association with a convict and apparent Hell’s Angels associate, whose duties included being Albert Seeno Jr.’s personal driver.
Mamer wrote “that I not be asked to participate in any criminal activity,” including the installation of septic tanks on Coyote Springs land that may have been placed within federally protected waters.
The suit said Whittemore investments were turned over to the Seenos under threats of physical harm, and that the Seenos sent an associate to Whittemore’s home, ordered them to open a safe, then took its contents and other belongings, leaving behind only Mrs. Whittemore’s passport.
In addition, the suit claims the Seenos forced the Whittemores out of Wingfield Nevada Group and evicted Whittemore from his office.
“For over a full year now, the Whittemores have been living under the threat of death, serious bodily injury and/or criminal and civil prosecution because of actions threatened by the Seenos,” the suit said.
The suit repeatedly claims Whittemore “has been damaged in an amount in excess of $60 million.”
Sharing is caring!
I do like the way the Mayor says she has no comment and then makes one. City Manager Kilger made the right comment.
The whole affair stinks, and the charges against the Seenos are entirely believable. Of course, innocent until proven guilty, but the Seenos have a long history of being shown guilty. Apart from the legal outcome, the tenor of these nasty lawsuits only serves to confirm the shady style we have observed repeatedly in their dealings with Benicia. It sounds like a West Coast version of the East Coast underworld.
It really makes no difference how I feel [or anyone else for that matter] in regard to the SEENO affair. What we have here is a pure case of property rights. The Seeno’s own nearly 500 acres of land near the industrial park. It is their land to do with as they please provided that those action are legal. As far as I can see, they have done nothing but try to excercise those property rights afforded them by the constitution of the United States. Should they attempt to do something illegal with that property then we shut them down. All of this has the smell of gang rule and the PC flavor is unmistakable. There is no doubt that this particular family has not been the epitimy of the ALL AMERICAN family of the “leave it to beaver” genre. But……..they own that property and unless we change the constitution, they have the right to do with it as they please as long as they do not break any laws. To overrule the constitution is going to take a little more than a super hyper PC gang in Benica. All of this is a rediculous.
I also think you are also correct. But they still have to follow the City of Benicia rules, planning and any other rules that might stop it. The project was approved at one time. You are right as I have said many times there is a group of Enviro Greenies in this town that are very vocal and seem to get more attention than they should get..
I would like to remind people that think that there has been a loss of opportunity with respect to possible Seeno Companies’ development of Seeno family owned land, that all such developments are subject to rules of the local entities that have jurisdiction, and that Albert Seeno, no matter how grand he is in your eyes, and how potentially large his proposed development might be is not exception to this situation. Another side to this is that opportunity granted for a particular party to develop according to a particular plan tends to negate future alternatives by the very nature of contracts, and then the nature of initiated developments. …and I read in these reponses that there was an approved project at one time…I don’t read the history as informing me that the Albert Seeno-proposed project was “approved.”
Lastly, i think that Bob Livesay does not improve his position by ad hominem statements.
I see that a couple of the folk who think that we should aggressively pursue development (in the name of jobs ASAP, the economy, or whatever business-first sort of position) have taken a rather partisan position on “development” for Benicia. I would remind all of these people, that a poor choice or poor plan can harm the future by hindering higher return developments. I would remind these people that development that only increases residential property tax base or only does that plus provides a spike in local construction jobs has the potential to raise costs of service for the citizens of Benicia, adversely affect local quality of life, give longer term tax increases not offset by increase in the tax base, etc. Let’s be very cautious and seek the best opportunities for all development around Benicia and not be lunging for the carrot on the string.
Paul
Jeff what you are saying may well be true. It still may not have anything to do with the property being developed. There is a group in this town that want that poperty developed their way or no way. If the residents say Ok I am fine with that. This just gives that group a little more leverage in their goal. If Seeno does not sell this property the city will have a big decision to make. The anti Seeno group will use this against any development unless it is their way or no way. Just watch.
The Mayor, once again, is completely over her head. The is on course to destroy this once great city. RECALL HER NOW!
40 / 1,735 = Words related to comments made by the mayor within this article / Words not related to comments made by the mayor within this article.
The city approved over 200 conditions that Seeno was going to go forward with. Then he wrote a letter to the city and pulled out. The city did approve the project to go forward. It just did not happen and come to a final decision.
Bob, those 200 conditions do not constitute a contract, I think. Rather, they are just what you described, over 200 conditions set by the council, presumably with the agreement of Mr. Seeno, to proceed with negotiating a contract. Perhaps I err in this, but that’s how I see it, and from what I read in statements from the develper’s lawyer and quotes from Albert S., that’s how they saw them, too.
I would not disagree with what you said. But when moving forward on an issue conditions are part of the final signing of a contract. do believe planning would have been issuing permits in the event Seeno had not pulled out. This was a long drawn out issue that was a stroke of the pen away from being a done deal. I do agree it is not over till it is over. So in that case I would say you are right. We must remember Seeno pulled not the city.