March 28, 2025 • 32 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (03/28) - Attorney John Manly comes on the show to talk about the couple he is representing that got caught up in a timeshare fiasco that landed them in a Mexican jail. Michael Monks comes on the show to talk about a federal judge blasting LA officials for the city's wasteful homeless spending. More on LA officials being blasted for wasteful homeless spending.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Every day one to four o'clock we're here, and then
after four o'clock if you miss anything John Cobelt's show
on demand, that is the podcast, and you can catch
up on whatever you missed out on. We've got a
lot of good stuff. One thirty Michael Monks from CAFI
News coming on. The judge David Carter, federal judge who's
(00:26):
investigating all the corruption and failure in the homeless industry
here in La.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
He got mad. Karen Bass decided not to show up.
She was late.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And can you imagine that Karen Bass doesn't even respect
a federal judge when she's got a court hearing she's
required to attend to. We'll talk about that. Two o'clock,
we're gonna have Chad Bianco. He's one of the top
Republican candidates to run for governor in twenty twenty six,
and he said he becomes governor, he's going to work
(01:01):
to get rid of the income tax.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Whoo, yeah, how about that?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I love all right, Okay, I'm interested, so we will
we will talk to Chad Bianco at two o'clock and
we got two rounds of the moist line.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We got a hack at a dumbster. We haven't diden
that in a while.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
But first let's go to uh an attorney we've had
on many times. You're familiar with John Manley. He's been
a central figure defending many victims of pedophiles, especially children
who've been sexually assaulted by those in the Catholic Church
(01:42):
in school districts, you know, organized pedophilia, organized government sanction
or Catholic Church sanctioned pedophilia. And and Manly has is
involved in many of these cases and got huge settlements.
This is different, and this is a story we we've
talked about a couple of times already. Paul and Christie
(02:03):
a Ko. I think anybody who has ever gone to Mexico,
in the back of their mind worries that if somehow
they step out of line, maybe commit a traffic violation,
maybe driving down the wrong road, are you going to
end up.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
In a Mexican prison.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well that's what happened to Paul and Christie a Ko,
who are from Michigan, but apparently they have Southern California
ties as well, and they had a one hundred and
seventeen thousand dollars credit card charge dispute with the Palace Company,
a timeshare company. They used to go and use this
(02:37):
resort in Mexico, and American Express investigated and canceled nearly
all the transactions totally one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars,
but the Mexican company, or at least this palace company
in Mexico, didn't accept it and had them arrested when
(02:57):
they came off the plane on their last trip. And
they're both supposedly being held in a maximum security prison.
What is all this about. Well, John Manley, who's the
attorney for Paul and Christi Akeo, is coming on right now.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Paul, Hey, sorry, John, Hello you.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
On, John. That's okay. I've been called worse all right?
Can you?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Can you explain because there are a lot of news stories,
some of them are not so flattering to your clients.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, So let me explain how I'm involved with this.
The Ko's daughter, Lindsay Lempke, is one of the lead
plaintiffs in the Larry Nasser case where I represented the victims.
I've known this family for ten years. That the non
flattering articles are put out by the some public relations
(03:45):
firm in New York hired by Palace Resorts. My clients
have done nothing wrong. They spent half a million dollars
on this timeshare over ten years. And what happened is
the timeshare company began to cancel their reservations, and they
(04:09):
hired a lawyer and said, you can't do this. We
paid you all this money. You're canceling lawyer reservations. This
isn't fair. Please stop, and wrote them fifteen times to
try and get them to stop, and then they wouldn't.
They just kept on canceling the reservation so they couldn't
use it. So they did when anybody else would do.
Who is an American Express card member. They challenged the charges,
(04:31):
and American Express is a very detailed analysis. You don't
just challenge the charges and get them, you get them reversed.
They didn't cancel their card or anything like that. And
this was two years ago, and they hired a lawyer
that it seemed like the whole thing was done. They
sent them a notice of breach like they were supposed to,
(04:53):
and everything seemed fine. They had been to Mexico a
couple of times previously with no issues and that they
had no idea there was an arrest warrant. They flew
to Mexico on March fourth to go to a totally
different resort, and they were arrested and thrown in prison,
and they were charged with fraud, and the allegations of
(05:14):
the fraud are one that you know. They challenged the
charges of the American Express and won. And then secondly
that Christiako posted her her complaints against Palace on a
Facebook page that had eight thousand Palace members who are
disfrontled and are just saying, Hey, we're not going to
(05:37):
get We're not getting what we're supposed to get. Frankly, John,
I've gotten dozens and dozens of emails, and my clients
have gotten hundreds from people who have similar complaints. Now,
they weren't thrown in jail, but I think what happened
is Palace Resorts, which owns three fourths of the Mexican
I'm sorry of the Cancun waterfront, just the side of
the throne. In prison, they had one hearing in front
(05:59):
of a j They were forced to wear Palace Resort
slippers to the hearing in front of this judge by
the guards in the prison. So imagine you're being you know,
so that they're wearing these Palace Resort slippers. They have
to you know, shackled go into the courtroom. And the
judge ruled that, hey, there's not enough evidence to prove this,
but I'm going to give Palace Resort six months more
(06:21):
to prove their case. And oh, by the way, you
have to stay in prison. They asked for, hey, give us,
give us bail, give us, you know, house arrest. Nope,
And so they're sitting in a prison up until this
week when frankly, the White House in the State Department
got involved. They were being denied food, medical care, didn't
even have toilet paper. And this is this is not
(06:43):
a legitimate resort company, in my opinion. A legitimate resort
company settles civil disputes in civil ways.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
You don't.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
You don't have people thrown in jail. That's what thugs crooks.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And are they still in jail?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Are they still in jail right now?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
They're still in jail? Yeah, right. And Paula ko is
a twenty one year Navy veteran. He's employed by the
Michigan State Police. Let me assure you the Michigan State
police don't hire crooks. They're up in arms about it.
And you know, we've gotten a lot of Frankly, we've
(07:18):
gotten a lot of help from the Department of State
and others, and we've offered. I've offered to say, look,
if you think you're owed one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars,
we'll put that. We'll put that in escrow in Delaware
where Palace is incorporated, or in Florida where they have
their main office, and we'll stipulate we'll agree to jurisdiction there.
(07:39):
You can sue him there.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Wait, this is an American company. Oh, this is an American
company who's used what every connection is they have in
Mexico to throw the chaos in jail.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
It's a Mexican company that's also incorporated in the United States.
But essentially you're correct, that's right, right.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So does the US Does our government have any jurisdiction here,
any influence here?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They do, uh, and they're they're exerting it. And I
can tell you in the last week that the consulate
in in Cancun, I think at the urging of the
of folks at the White House, at the highest levels
of the government have been incredible and really, with the
exception of their congressman, no one else has been a
lot of help, with the exception of the Attorney General
of of of of Michigan. But you know, I mean
(08:27):
we've we've the other thing that. So here, here's where
this stands. There they're not this is really important. They're
not talking to the prosecutor. You know, when you get arrested, generally,
you know you've got to deal with the DA or
the prosecutor, even in Mexico, and they have Mexican lawyers.
They're the Mexican lawyers are dealing with the resort. So
(08:49):
the demand right now from the resort are you have
to pay? Originally it was you have to pay one
point six million dollars you.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Have to How did you get to one point six million?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Who knows? I mean, these are the are these are
people that are completely okay. Off the rest of.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
John hold On, I got to do news and then
we'll come back and we'll continue this for another segment.
John Manley, and he's representing Paul and Christy Ako. They're
the couple locked in a Mexican jail right now, and
they're going to be there quite some time in a
dispute with a timeshare company called the Palace Company. Uh,
they went to American Express and disputed the one hundred
(09:27):
and seventeen thousand dollars. Bill Amex sided with them and
Nick and then they took a trip to Mexico and
they were met at the airport and taking to jail.
And it seems like everybody in that everybody in the
Mexican justice system is a raid against the Akaos. We'll
tell you more with John Manley.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Michael Monks from KFI News coming up after one thirty.
There's a federal judge still interrogating and investigating all the
fraud that's gone on in the homeless industry here in
Los Angeles City and County. And he was pissed at
Karen Bass, who was late to show up at a hearing.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Can you imagine.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Michael Monks will explain all this coming up, continue with
the case of Paul and Christi at Keo. They are
from Michigan. They have times to California though, and they
have a southern California lawyer, John Many.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You may remember him.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
On our show many times with those pedophile cases with
the church and the school districts, the palace companies who
they're fighting. That's a timeshare company, and the Chaos had
a timeshare and they canceled nearly one hundred and seventeen
thousand dollars in credit card transactions, and American Express sided
(10:49):
with them. They didn't want to pay, and we'll get
into that in just a moment. They thought they had
it settled in a civil way, and then they came
off the plane recently and the Kios were arrested and
taken into a maximum security prison, and they were not
given much food or medical care, and they could not
(11:13):
visit much. With their Mexican lawyers, we have the US
government trying to help them out. We got John Manley
here to talk about it. Why why did the Kios
not want to pay one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars?
What was their objection? How did they feel they were wrong?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
They were paying? You know, they had paid half a
million bucks a year. They were paying what they sixty
two hundred dollars a month, which is what they were
talked into, and they weren't allowed to use the resort
they were breaching their promises. And they sent, like I said,
fifteen times to different people at Palace saying, please, you
know we like it here, Please don't do this, otherwise
(11:52):
we're going to have to cancel. They hired a lawyer
in Florida who specializes in time shares, and he sent
them a notice of breach and said, you know, stop this.
These people have paid you all this money.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Say every time they wanted to go, every time they
wanted to go, Palace canceled their reservation.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
After twenty twenty one or twenty correct so and they
joined in twenty sixteen. So they did what any American
Express cardholder has done, what I've done, probably what all
of us have done on the charges, and America Express
looked at it. Palace submitted evidence, They submitted evidence, and
they found with them. And then afterwards Christy Akeo posted
(12:29):
on a Facebook page exactly what happened. There was nothing fraudulent,
there was nothing criminal. Nobody canceled a credit card, nobody
tried to do anything untoured. And you know that when
they arrived in Mexico, there was a video crew waiting
for them, the police and the day before the Palace
(12:50):
Resorts convinced the prosecutor to put out a red notice
on inter Pol. Okay, now they can't get out of
Mexico and they can't get out of prison unless us.
Let's them because Palace is controlling this through this family
that a family there that owns this called the Japoor
family were a billionaire.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Let me ask you a question, because I don't have
a lot of time. No, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
They you know, I've always been a lot of people
are very suspicious to the Mexican government. I mean I
always assume that it's correct. Yeah, corrupt right to the bones.
The drug cartels actually run it. You're not going to
get justice in a Mexican court or from Mexican police.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Like you're screwed, right?
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So, uh are they just screwed now? Because I'll tell.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You why they're not. Because we decided to go public.
They tried to do this quietly because it's wrong. And
what you know, mister Ko is a veteran's they were imprisoned,
a veteran and a grandmother and they know that if
this doesn't stop, they're going to do this to every American.
No American, because you have a dispute a civil dispute
(14:00):
with some of your hotel should be thrown in a
prison cell, not given food, not given medical care. And frankly,
it's clear that the administration and the State Department agree
and they are working very hard. But what I think
is that there should be a do not travel to
Cancun advisory put out by the State Department. You are
(14:20):
not safe if you go to Cancun. These people did
nothing wrong. They're good people. They're middle class people who
just wanted to go on vacation and timeshares and are
notorious for ripping people off in the United States. Can
you imagine what it's like in Mexico. And these people
are brutal and frankly, Cancun is controlled. Everybody knows Cancun
(14:40):
is controlled by the cartels. I'm not saying the cartel
controls this company.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
No. I went to Knkun once and I don't have
time to get into the story, but it became very
clear that the cartels controlled the area. Let's say there
was a tremendous amount of security that the hotels and
resorts had in order to keep the cartels at.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, so Americans should not travel there, And I just
ask people to pray for my clients. They're good people
and they're suffering, and they're actually doing a tremendous service
by coming out and saying we're not going to sign
this non disclosure clause. And they could get out, they
could probably get out tomorrow if they signed an admission
of guilt and an NDA, and they're not going to
(15:22):
do it because it's wrong and they didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You can't trust, you can't sign it, and then hope
they're going to set you free. Maybe they won't.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, Yeah, And they insisted they take down the Facebook
page criticizing him. This is really really sort of Timeshares
meets the Sopranos. It's really rotten.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
John.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We'll stay in touch, Okay, as this case goes on, John,
all right. John Manley, the attorney for Paul and Christi Akale.
They're in a Mexican prison. They had a dispute with
the Palace Company timeshare company. They did not want to
pay one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars worth of billing
because the Palace kept canceling the reservations. American Express sided
(16:04):
with the Akios and then they took a trip to Mexico.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And got arrested at the airport and they're both in prisoned.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Coming up after two o'clock. You want to listen to this.
We got the Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. He's running
for governor as a Republican, and he announced today if
he's governor, he'd eliminate the state's income tax. And I
believe last time I mentioned this, Dever went woo. Who
that was that an opinion? I thought you weren't allowed
(16:37):
to have opinion.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Well, I mean I am not saying that. I I'm
not giving my well, am I supposed to interpre I'm
trying to figure this out. Well, who I don't want
to pay taxes?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I got to get John Nanley to interpret that.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
All right.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
We have Michael Monks here, who I'm sure doesn't want
to pay him to tax either.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I want Deborah Mark to pay my income taxes? You know,
so do I that's a good idea. I want John
Cobell to pay mine.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
US District Judge David Carter, he is investigating the all
the uh, the fraud, all right, the following is my opinion.
There's nothing but fraud going on. There's like criminal criminal
activity going on every day in the homeless industry in
Los Angeles, whether it's the City of the County, LASA,
that monster that they created, all these criminal non profits.
(17:31):
Uh and and David Carter's trying to figure it all out.
He demanded that there'd be a an audit, and Alvarez
and Marcel was the company that did the audit and
found there was about two point four billion dollars of
funding that nobody could account for, and among others, Mayor
Karen Bass was supposed to come in yesterday and explain things,
(17:55):
and when Carter looked for her, she wasn't around.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
What happened, It was quite a hearing. Okay, this is
federal court, so we can't record while we're in there,
or take pictures or anything like that. So I don't
have anything good to show you or play for you, unfortunately,
but this hearing was hours long. We talked weeks ago
when this new audit came out of the LA Homeless
Services Authority and the city and the way they spend money,
(18:19):
and it was not good right. They found poor accounting,
they found poor oversight. They could not determine whether the
contracts with these homeless services providers even did anything. How
do we measure what we were supposed to accomplish because
none of that was detailed. So it was a pretty
scathing audit. Not the first scathing audit of LASA. This one, however,
was mandated by this federal judge, David Carter. He's been
(18:40):
overseeing this federal case for a long time. The LA
Alliance for Human Rights a group of downtown business owners
who said seven years ago, six years ago, we're tired
of the way this homeless situation is going. You need
to do something about this. This is a civil case. It's
a civil case. They want the city to do something,
and the city has had to do things. They have
certain number of beds have to create every year because
(19:01):
of rulings in this very case. And now the judge
wants to know how some of this money has been
spent or not spent, or what type of results they're getting.
He wanted Mayor Karen Bass there. He wanted the CEO
from lass of there, he wanted the city council president there.
He wanted County Supervisor Lindsay horror Bath there, none of
these people showed up. This was not it was in
an order. It was a request for their presence. But still, yeah, yeah,
(19:24):
I mean, if judge requests your presence, you're showing up, right.
I mean, it just doesn't look good if you in
this crowd. So none of them show up. However, the
judge expressed his displeasure with their absence and did so
to one of the assistants serving Mayor Bass. And Mayor
Bass did scadaddle over to the Federal courthouse and stood
(19:46):
before the judge and heard a little bit of what
he had to say. She says, she agrees with some
of the stuff that came out in this audit.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Well, yeah, but how has it happened if she's in
charge of the city.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Well, that's what he would like to know. I think. Further,
because he's going to have another hearing on this, I
think he was He was pretty strong in his words
that he used for these folks and the way that
they need to get their act together as it relates
to the money. He was really upset that the loss
of CEO was not present. Vlicia kell Adams Adams Kellum,
(20:20):
she was in Boston, Okay, I don't know why she
was in Boston, But she was in Boston, and.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
They're always traveling. Everybody's always on a plane somewhere.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
He said, this should take president, and she wasn't there
to answer any questions.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
So this is so bad.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
It was not a good look, and he was certainly
he didn't hold back and what he had to say
to these officials. And I think even folks from the
LA Alliance have expressed a sort of a shock at
just how serious things got at this hearing.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well, you know, he's expressing how most normal people in
this city, in county feel this all.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
This is shocking.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean, just the amount of theft that's going on
here in broad daylight front of our eyes.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
They've not proven any fraud, you know, I think you're alleging.
I'm alleging, but it doesn't help their case to shoot
back at you when they can't really prove where the
money is gone or what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And that's what this audit found. Wait, this is not
a few dollars. This is two and almost two and
a half billion, right, two and a half billion. We're
talking about a lot of money that goes out the door,
and by the way. This audit wasn't free either. This
was more than two million dollars to pay this auditing
firm to come in and take a look and reach
inconclusive results.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
It has to be fraud and theft. There is no
other possibility. Well, what they're saying is there are data
systems that are used across the various agencies that are fragmented,
and it makes it difficult. Right, this is government bureaucracy
because there might be one system used at the city,
one a system used at the county, one system used
to laws. Maybe there's six systems.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
But when when when you send a payment out, whether
it's an automatic deposit payment or it's a check, you
write down how much you're paying and who the check
or the deposit is going to.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, it's real simple, that's right. And so the County Ledger,
the county itself has filed papers in this case and
wrote LASA does not know who it is paying and
for what. The city doesn't know how much it is
paying and for what. The system is disjointed, it's mismanaged,
with layers of redundancies and bureaucracy built on top of itself.
(22:26):
There is nearly zero financial oversight or accountability by the
City and County of Lasa or by LASSA of the
service providers with whom it contracts. That's from the government
that co created LASA. That's a report from the government.
That is the county's position, the county which is leaving,
which appears the county they helped create this thing. They
helped create it with the city years ago, years ago,
(22:49):
to try to combat this.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
But all these people who were called to speak before
the judge and who didn't show up, they all know
this has been going on for years, that's right, and
so what is the action?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Who's doing what right now to stop the bleeding and
figure out what they can do next. The county, for
their part, has decided, We're not so sure we're staying
in laws, so we're going to create our own department
here and that would pretty well cripple LASA. And the
city is We're going to go steal the money in
another department. Well, what they will be able to do
is they will not put their money into LASA and
(23:21):
when it's kept in the county. The way these governments
are audited is very strict, right, I mean, you really
are supposed to know where the dollars go, whereas can
I go to Alex Jones territory? Let's do it? Did
I put my tinfoil hat? Put your tinfoil hat? Ons on?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Is it possible there's another party that Karen Bass and
Lindsay Horvath and Marquise Harris Dauson.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
They don't want to offend.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Is there a larger criminal force, let's call it a
mafia type force, And they're expecting the money to be
funneled through these nonprofits and these agencies, and they're supposed
to get it in the end, and that that Bass
is going to say, gee, I don't know what happened,
because if she says what happened, off with her head.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'll tell you what was. What stood out the most
was how strong Judge Carter spoke against the way things
have been going, because the city and the county have
both had loss of in public forums to answer questions.
And I've been there, I've watched these or I have attended,
and the questions tend to be gentle, you know, I
(24:22):
think to your point, there is a certain gentleness to
the way folks have handled this for fear of offending
colleagues people that they work with closely, but also to
your point, because they're part of it. They're part of
the organization structurally they created that They're not necessarily writing
the checks, they're not necessarily casked with monitoring the progress
(24:43):
every day, but they should be getting these reports to
tell them.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Is not getting up in the morning and go, oh
my god, I had no idea. Of course she knew
what was going on. And all these other characters, some
have been there many years, no question about it. And
I definitely think that action taken by the count recently
and suggestions made at city Hall recently, we are probably
at the beginning of the end of loss as we
know it. How about a federal investigation it could out,
(25:10):
how about a US attorney getting involved in this. This
judge is not happy. There is going to be another hearing,
as I said, and we'll see what comes of that,
whether it proceeds into that territory. But right now they're
concerned about the amount of money that's been spent, so
much that they've spent more than two million more dollars
just to figure out where the dollars are going, and
did not like the response. All right, we will continue.
(25:34):
We will indeed all right, Michael Monks KFI News. There
is a story here, of course, if we had a
news media outside of Michael covering it. Michael needs some
help here.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
You're listening to John cobelts on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
The John coblt Show, and we're live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. You can follow us in John Cobelt Radio.
On social media. You follow us at John Cobelt Radio.
We have less than eight hundred followers that we need
to hit twenty five thousand dollars and then everybody gets
cupcakes here. All right, We just had Michael Monks on.
(26:13):
This is so outrageous. This is just so incredibly outrageous.
The there's a US district judge. His name's David o'carter.
He is about eighty years old. He's been around forever,
and he's the only judge that I'm aware of who
really mixes it up with the people involved in these
(26:33):
government cases and makes insistent demands. He forced Karen Bass
to show up in court yesterday. He'd requested Bass along
with a bunch of other political hacks, and nobody showed.
I go through the list again. He wanted Karen Bass,
she didn't show at first. Lindsey Horvath, who's the county
(26:55):
Supervisor chair, she didn't show. The President of the city,
Marquise Harris Dawson, he didn't show that had Alassa, that
homeless agency. Felicia Adams Kellum, she didn't show either. She's
in Boston, everybody you know. It's like Karen Bass is
in Africa, where Cardi Lara was in uh was in Bogota, Columbia.
(27:19):
Felicia Adams Kellum, she's the one who gave two million
dollars to her husband's nonprofit. Well, that doesn't smell bad, doesn't.
And this is where all the homeless money goes. And
you know something I saw a story today at Fox
News had it and it was about a Chicago alderman
(27:44):
alderman or city councilman in Chicago, and he said something
that really clicked with me about the police. There are
always getting short changed and funding. You know, the way
our fire department gets short changed. And he just said,
he goes, the reason they shortchange the police department is
(28:05):
because they want to steal the money. Like all the
politics about police is just is just to cover the
real reason they want to defund the police is they
want to steal the money and run it through homeless nonprofits.
In fact, that's why they fund the homeless agencies a
(28:30):
billion four million. It's a billion, four hundred million every
year for the City of Los Angeles. It's not to
get to the homeless off the street. It's to steal
the money and give it to their political friends and relatives.
It's a money laundering operation. It's organized crime. And I
(28:53):
really wonder who's at the top of the pyramid when
it comes to organized crime in Los Angeles and the
money that's in the budget. Because Karen Bass obviously doesn't care,
she didn't even want to show up for the hearing.
Lindsey Horvath runs the County Supervisor Board, she didn't care.
She didn't show up. Or Keith Harris Dauson runs the
(29:13):
city council. He didn't care, he didn't show up. This
is a federal judge saying, come here, you gotta explain,
because on the city side there's two and a half
billion dollars unaccounted for, unaccounted for, means stolen, and none
of these people are angry.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
None of them want to investigate. If they're pushed to
the wall.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
It's like, well, yeah, obviously something has to be done,
but they know what's been done. Vlici Adams kellum, Hey,
she got her husband two million. She doesn't have to
show up in court. That money's already put away somewhere.
So this is why they don't fund the police or
the fire department, or fix the sidewalks or whatever it is.
(29:54):
That's why they short change it. And then to distract
you with with politics, you start claiming that you know,
the police are brutal and racist. Nah, they don't believe that.
It's just a way to siphon off the money so
they could steal it. And when I read this little
this quote by the Chicago politician, I thought, you know,
(30:14):
that's what it really is.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
The question is who's in charge of all this?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Because either Bass and Horvath and Marquis harristas In and
Valicia are benefiting somehow, or there's somebody above them calling
the shots, so they make sure the system runs the
people who need to be enriched are enriched.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
And it looks like.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
They don't want to make any anyone unhappy. And David
o'corter is bagging his head saying what the hell is
going on here? Well, there is something going on, and
it's worse and it's deeper than anyone can imagine. And
because no, we don't, we don't. We ought to have
a state investigation by now by the attorney general. Right,
we don't have a federal investigation, and maybe Trumps crowd
(31:00):
will do one. We all have a media investigation, but
we know that story. They'd rather do twenty minutes on recipes.
It's not there really isn't a television news media, with
a few obvious exceptions, but much of it is just nonsense.
So who's the shot caller, who's the kingpin? Who helped
(31:26):
set up? And who's policing this network of money laundering
that's funneling through these nonprofits two and a half billion
dollars and there's no invoices, there's no receipts, and nobody
seems upset. Come on, yeah, they're stealing it, but who's
(31:50):
stealing it? Who's in charge of the machine. I mean,
this has gone on in places like Chicago and New
York and Philadelphia for years. So who's our guy? Who's
the guy pulling the strings? Some kind of panel of mobsters.
(32:12):
It's gotta be all right, we come back. Chad Bianco
and he's the Riverside County Sheriff. He's running as a
Republican candidate for governor in twenty twenty six and he
announced today he gets in charge. He's going to work
to abolish the income tax for all of us.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Whoo who, and we're gonna have.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Deborah Mark to do the news coming up in just
a moment right now. Hey, you've been listening to The
John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show
live on KFI Am six forty from one to four
pm every Monday through Friday, and of course, anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Every day one to four o'clock we're here, and then
after four o'clock if you miss anything John Cobelt's show
on demand, that is the podcast, and you can catch
up on whatever you missed out on. We've got a
lot of good stuff. One thirty Michael Monks from CAFI
News coming on. The judge David Carter, federal judge who's
(00:26):
investigating all the corruption and failure in the homeless industry
here in La.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
He got mad. Karen Bass decided not to show up.
She was late.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
And can you imagine that Karen Bass doesn't even respect
a federal judge when she's got a court hearing she's
required to attend to. We'll talk about that. Two o'clock,
we're gonna have Chad Bianco. He's one of the top
Republican candidates to run for governor in twenty twenty six,
and he said he becomes governor, he's going to work
(01:01):
to get rid of the income tax.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Whoo, yeah, how about that?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I love all right, Okay, I'm interested, so we will
we will talk to Chad Bianco at two o'clock and
we got two rounds of the moist line.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
We got a hack at a dumbster. We haven't diden
that in a while.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
But first let's go to uh an attorney we've had
on many times. You're familiar with John Manley. He's been
a central figure defending many victims of pedophiles, especially children
who've been sexually assaulted by those in the Catholic Church
(01:42):
in school districts, you know, organized pedophilia, organized government sanction
or Catholic Church sanctioned pedophilia. And and Manly has is
involved in many of these cases and got huge settlements.
This is different, and this is a story we we've
talked about a couple of times already. Paul and Christie
(02:03):
a Ko. I think anybody who has ever gone to Mexico,
in the back of their mind worries that if somehow
they step out of line, maybe commit a traffic violation,
maybe driving down the wrong road, are you going to
end up.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
In a Mexican prison.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well that's what happened to Paul and Christie a Ko,
who are from Michigan, but apparently they have Southern California
ties as well, and they had a one hundred and
seventeen thousand dollars credit card charge dispute with the Palace Company,
a timeshare company. They used to go and use this
(02:37):
resort in Mexico, and American Express investigated and canceled nearly
all the transactions totally one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars,
but the Mexican company, or at least this palace company
in Mexico, didn't accept it and had them arrested when
(02:57):
they came off the plane on their last trip. And
they're both supposedly being held in a maximum security prison.
What is all this about. Well, John Manley, who's the
attorney for Paul and Christi Akeo, is coming on right now.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Paul, Hey, sorry, John, Hello you.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
On, John. That's okay. I've been called worse all right?
Can you?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Can you explain because there are a lot of news stories,
some of them are not so flattering to your clients.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, So let me explain how I'm involved with this.
The Ko's daughter, Lindsay Lempke, is one of the lead
plaintiffs in the Larry Nasser case where I represented the victims.
I've known this family for ten years. That the non
flattering articles are put out by the some public relations
(03:45):
firm in New York hired by Palace Resorts. My clients
have done nothing wrong. They spent half a million dollars
on this timeshare over ten years. And what happened is
the timeshare company began to cancel their reservations, and they
(04:09):
hired a lawyer and said, you can't do this. We
paid you all this money. You're canceling lawyer reservations. This
isn't fair. Please stop, and wrote them fifteen times to
try and get them to stop, and then they wouldn't.
They just kept on canceling the reservation so they couldn't
use it. So they did when anybody else would do.
Who is an American Express card member. They challenged the charges,
(04:31):
and American Express is a very detailed analysis. You don't
just challenge the charges and get them, you get them reversed.
They didn't cancel their card or anything like that. And
this was two years ago, and they hired a lawyer
that it seemed like the whole thing was done. They
sent them a notice of breach like they were supposed to,
(04:53):
and everything seemed fine. They had been to Mexico a
couple of times previously with no issues and that they
had no idea there was an arrest warrant. They flew
to Mexico on March fourth to go to a totally
different resort, and they were arrested and thrown in prison,
and they were charged with fraud, and the allegations of
(05:14):
the fraud are one that you know. They challenged the
charges of the American Express and won. And then secondly
that Christiako posted her her complaints against Palace on a
Facebook page that had eight thousand Palace members who are
disfrontled and are just saying, Hey, we're not going to
(05:37):
get We're not getting what we're supposed to get. Frankly, John,
I've gotten dozens and dozens of emails, and my clients
have gotten hundreds from people who have similar complaints. Now,
they weren't thrown in jail, but I think what happened
is Palace Resorts, which owns three fourths of the Mexican
I'm sorry of the Cancun waterfront, just the side of
the throne. In prison, they had one hearing in front
(05:59):
of a j They were forced to wear Palace Resort
slippers to the hearing in front of this judge by
the guards in the prison. So imagine you're being you know,
so that they're wearing these Palace Resort slippers. They have
to you know, shackled go into the courtroom. And the
judge ruled that, hey, there's not enough evidence to prove this,
but I'm going to give Palace Resort six months more
(06:21):
to prove their case. And oh, by the way, you
have to stay in prison. They asked for, hey, give us,
give us bail, give us, you know, house arrest. Nope,
And so they're sitting in a prison up until this
week when frankly, the White House in the State Department
got involved. They were being denied food, medical care, didn't
even have toilet paper. And this is this is not
(06:43):
a legitimate resort company, in my opinion. A legitimate resort
company settles civil disputes in civil ways.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
You don't.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
You don't have people thrown in jail. That's what thugs crooks.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And are they still in jail?
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Are they still in jail right now?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
They're still in jail? Yeah, right. And Paula ko is
a twenty one year Navy veteran. He's employed by the
Michigan State Police. Let me assure you the Michigan State
police don't hire crooks. They're up in arms about it.
And you know, we've gotten a lot of Frankly, we've
(07:18):
gotten a lot of help from the Department of State
and others, and we've offered. I've offered to say, look,
if you think you're owed one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars,
we'll put that. We'll put that in escrow in Delaware
where Palace is incorporated, or in Florida where they have
their main office, and we'll stipulate we'll agree to jurisdiction there.
(07:39):
You can sue him there.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Wait, this is an American company. Oh, this is an American
company who's used what every connection is they have in
Mexico to throw the chaos in jail.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
It's a Mexican company that's also incorporated in the United States.
But essentially you're correct, that's right, right.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So does the US Does our government have any jurisdiction here,
any influence here?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They do, uh, and they're they're exerting it. And I
can tell you in the last week that the consulate
in in Cancun, I think at the urging of the
of folks at the White House, at the highest levels
of the government have been incredible and really, with the
exception of their congressman, no one else has been a
lot of help, with the exception of the Attorney General
of of of of Michigan. But you know, I mean
(08:27):
we've we've the other thing that. So here, here's where
this stands. There they're not this is really important. They're
not talking to the prosecutor. You know, when you get arrested, generally,
you know you've got to deal with the DA or
the prosecutor, even in Mexico, and they have Mexican lawyers.
They're the Mexican lawyers are dealing with the resort. So
(08:49):
the demand right now from the resort are you have
to pay? Originally it was you have to pay one
point six million dollars you.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Have to How did you get to one point six million?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Who knows? I mean, these are the are these are
people that are completely okay. Off the rest of.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
John hold On, I got to do news and then
we'll come back and we'll continue this for another segment.
John Manley, and he's representing Paul and Christy Ako. They're
the couple locked in a Mexican jail right now, and
they're going to be there quite some time in a
dispute with a timeshare company called the Palace Company. Uh,
they went to American Express and disputed the one hundred
(09:27):
and seventeen thousand dollars. Bill Amex sided with them and
Nick and then they took a trip to Mexico and
they were met at the airport and taking to jail.
And it seems like everybody in that everybody in the
Mexican justice system is a raid against the Akaos. We'll
tell you more with John Manley.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Michael Monks from KFI News coming up after one thirty.
There's a federal judge still interrogating and investigating all the
fraud that's gone on in the homeless industry here in
Los Angeles City and County. And he was pissed at
Karen Bass, who was late to show up at a hearing.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Can you imagine.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Michael Monks will explain all this coming up, continue with
the case of Paul and Christi at Keo. They are
from Michigan. They have times to California though, and they
have a southern California lawyer, John Many.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You may remember him.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
On our show many times with those pedophile cases with
the church and the school districts, the palace companies who
they're fighting. That's a timeshare company, and the Chaos had
a timeshare and they canceled nearly one hundred and seventeen
thousand dollars in credit card transactions, and American Express sided
(10:49):
with them. They didn't want to pay, and we'll get
into that in just a moment. They thought they had
it settled in a civil way, and then they came
off the plane recently and the Kios were arrested and
taken into a maximum security prison, and they were not
given much food or medical care, and they could not
(11:13):
visit much. With their Mexican lawyers, we have the US
government trying to help them out. We got John Manley
here to talk about it. Why why did the Kios
not want to pay one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars?
What was their objection? How did they feel they were wrong?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
They were paying? You know, they had paid half a
million bucks a year. They were paying what they sixty
two hundred dollars a month, which is what they were
talked into, and they weren't allowed to use the resort
they were breaching their promises. And they sent, like I said,
fifteen times to different people at Palace saying, please, you
know we like it here, Please don't do this, otherwise
(11:52):
we're going to have to cancel. They hired a lawyer
in Florida who specializes in time shares, and he sent
them a notice of breach and said, you know, stop this.
These people have paid you all this money.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Say every time they wanted to go, every time they
wanted to go, Palace canceled their reservation.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
After twenty twenty one or twenty correct so and they
joined in twenty sixteen. So they did what any American
Express cardholder has done, what I've done, probably what all
of us have done on the charges, and America Express
looked at it. Palace submitted evidence, They submitted evidence, and
they found with them. And then afterwards Christy Akeo posted
(12:29):
on a Facebook page exactly what happened. There was nothing fraudulent,
there was nothing criminal. Nobody canceled a credit card, nobody
tried to do anything untoured. And you know that when
they arrived in Mexico, there was a video crew waiting
for them, the police and the day before the Palace
(12:50):
Resorts convinced the prosecutor to put out a red notice
on inter Pol. Okay, now they can't get out of
Mexico and they can't get out of prison unless us.
Let's them because Palace is controlling this through this family
that a family there that owns this called the Japoor
family were a billionaire.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Let me ask you a question, because I don't have
a lot of time. No, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
They you know, I've always been a lot of people
are very suspicious to the Mexican government. I mean I
always assume that it's correct. Yeah, corrupt right to the bones.
The drug cartels actually run it. You're not going to
get justice in a Mexican court or from Mexican police.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Like you're screwed, right?
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:31):
So, uh are they just screwed now? Because I'll tell.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You why they're not. Because we decided to go public.
They tried to do this quietly because it's wrong. And
what you know, mister Ko is a veteran's they were imprisoned,
a veteran and a grandmother and they know that if
this doesn't stop, they're going to do this to every American.
No American, because you have a dispute a civil dispute
(14:00):
with some of your hotel should be thrown in a
prison cell, not given food, not given medical care. And frankly,
it's clear that the administration and the State Department agree
and they are working very hard. But what I think
is that there should be a do not travel to
Cancun advisory put out by the State Department. You are
(14:20):
not safe if you go to Cancun. These people did
nothing wrong. They're good people. They're middle class people who
just wanted to go on vacation and timeshares and are
notorious for ripping people off in the United States. Can
you imagine what it's like in Mexico. And these people
are brutal and frankly, Cancun is controlled. Everybody knows Cancun
(14:40):
is controlled by the cartels. I'm not saying the cartel
controls this company.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
No. I went to Knkun once and I don't have
time to get into the story, but it became very
clear that the cartels controlled the area. Let's say there
was a tremendous amount of security that the hotels and
resorts had in order to keep the cartels at.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, so Americans should not travel there, And I just
ask people to pray for my clients. They're good people
and they're suffering, and they're actually doing a tremendous service
by coming out and saying we're not going to sign
this non disclosure clause. And they could get out, they
could probably get out tomorrow if they signed an admission
of guilt and an NDA, and they're not going to
(15:22):
do it because it's wrong and they didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You can't trust, you can't sign it, and then hope
they're going to set you free. Maybe they won't.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, Yeah, And they insisted they take down the Facebook
page criticizing him. This is really really sort of Timeshares
meets the Sopranos. It's really rotten.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
John.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We'll stay in touch, Okay, as this case goes on, John,
all right. John Manley, the attorney for Paul and Christi Akale.
They're in a Mexican prison. They had a dispute with
the Palace Company timeshare company. They did not want to
pay one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars worth of billing
because the Palace kept canceling the reservations. American Express sided
(16:04):
with the Akios and then they took a trip to Mexico.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And got arrested at the airport and they're both in prisoned.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Coming up after two o'clock. You want to listen to this.
We got the Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. He's running
for governor as a Republican, and he announced today if
he's governor, he'd eliminate the state's income tax. And I
believe last time I mentioned this, Dever went woo. Who
that was that an opinion? I thought you weren't allowed
(16:37):
to have opinion.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Well, I mean I am not saying that. I I'm
not giving my well, am I supposed to interpre I'm
trying to figure this out. Well, who I don't want
to pay taxes?
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I got to get John Nanley to interpret that.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
All right.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
We have Michael Monks here, who I'm sure doesn't want
to pay him to tax either.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I want Deborah Mark to pay my income taxes? You know,
so do I that's a good idea. I want John
Cobell to pay mine.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
US District Judge David Carter, he is investigating the all
the uh, the fraud, all right, the following is my opinion.
There's nothing but fraud going on. There's like criminal criminal
activity going on every day in the homeless industry in
Los Angeles, whether it's the City of the County, LASA,
that monster that they created, all these criminal non profits.
(17:31):
Uh and and David Carter's trying to figure it all out.
He demanded that there'd be a an audit, and Alvarez
and Marcel was the company that did the audit and
found there was about two point four billion dollars of
funding that nobody could account for, and among others, Mayor
Karen Bass was supposed to come in yesterday and explain things,
(17:55):
and when Carter looked for her, she wasn't around.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
What happened, It was quite a hearing. Okay, this is
federal court, so we can't record while we're in there,
or take pictures or anything like that. So I don't
have anything good to show you or play for you, unfortunately,
but this hearing was hours long. We talked weeks ago
when this new audit came out of the LA Homeless
Services Authority and the city and the way they spend money,
(18:19):
and it was not good right. They found poor accounting,
they found poor oversight. They could not determine whether the
contracts with these homeless services providers even did anything. How
do we measure what we were supposed to accomplish because
none of that was detailed. So it was a pretty
scathing audit. Not the first scathing audit of LASA. This one, however,
was mandated by this federal judge, David Carter. He's been
(18:40):
overseeing this federal case for a long time. The LA
Alliance for Human Rights a group of downtown business owners
who said seven years ago, six years ago, we're tired
of the way this homeless situation is going. You need
to do something about this. This is a civil case. It's
a civil case. They want the city to do something,
and the city has had to do things. They have
certain number of beds have to create every year because
(19:01):
of rulings in this very case. And now the judge
wants to know how some of this money has been
spent or not spent, or what type of results they're getting.
He wanted Mayor Karen Bass there. He wanted the CEO
from lass of there, he wanted the city council president there.
He wanted County Supervisor Lindsay horror Bath there, none of
these people showed up. This was not it was in
an order. It was a request for their presence. But still, yeah, yeah,
(19:24):
I mean, if judge requests your presence, you're showing up, right.
I mean, it just doesn't look good if you in
this crowd. So none of them show up. However, the
judge expressed his displeasure with their absence and did so
to one of the assistants serving Mayor Bass. And Mayor
Bass did scadaddle over to the Federal courthouse and stood
(19:46):
before the judge and heard a little bit of what
he had to say. She says, she agrees with some
of the stuff that came out in this audit.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Well, yeah, but how has it happened if she's in
charge of the city.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Well, that's what he would like to know. I think. Further,
because he's going to have another hearing on this, I
think he was He was pretty strong in his words
that he used for these folks and the way that
they need to get their act together as it relates
to the money. He was really upset that the loss
of CEO was not present. Vlicia kell Adams Adams Kellum,
(20:20):
she was in Boston, Okay, I don't know why she
was in Boston, But she was in Boston, and.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
They're always traveling. Everybody's always on a plane somewhere.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
He said, this should take president, and she wasn't there
to answer any questions.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
So this is so bad.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
It was not a good look, and he was certainly
he didn't hold back and what he had to say
to these officials. And I think even folks from the
LA Alliance have expressed a sort of a shock at
just how serious things got at this hearing.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well, you know, he's expressing how most normal people in
this city, in county feel this all.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
This is shocking.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean, just the amount of theft that's going on
here in broad daylight front of our eyes.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
They've not proven any fraud, you know, I think you're alleging.
I'm alleging, but it doesn't help their case to shoot
back at you when they can't really prove where the
money is gone or what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And that's what this audit found. Wait, this is not
a few dollars. This is two and almost two and
a half billion, right, two and a half billion. We're
talking about a lot of money that goes out the door,
and by the way. This audit wasn't free either. This
was more than two million dollars to pay this auditing
firm to come in and take a look and reach
inconclusive results.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
It has to be fraud and theft. There is no
other possibility. Well, what they're saying is there are data
systems that are used across the various agencies that are fragmented,
and it makes it difficult. Right, this is government bureaucracy
because there might be one system used at the city,
one a system used at the county, one system used
to laws. Maybe there's six systems.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
But when when when you send a payment out, whether
it's an automatic deposit payment or it's a check, you
write down how much you're paying and who the check
or the deposit is going to.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, it's real simple, that's right. And so the County Ledger,
the county itself has filed papers in this case and
wrote LASA does not know who it is paying and
for what. The city doesn't know how much it is
paying and for what. The system is disjointed, it's mismanaged,
with layers of redundancies and bureaucracy built on top of itself.
(22:26):
There is nearly zero financial oversight or accountability by the
City and County of Lasa or by LASSA of the
service providers with whom it contracts. That's from the government
that co created LASA. That's a report from the government.
That is the county's position, the county which is leaving,
which appears the county they helped create this thing. They
helped create it with the city years ago, years ago,
(22:49):
to try to combat this.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
But all these people who were called to speak before
the judge and who didn't show up, they all know
this has been going on for years, that's right, and
so what is the action?
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Who's doing what right now to stop the bleeding and
figure out what they can do next. The county, for
their part, has decided, We're not so sure we're staying
in laws, so we're going to create our own department
here and that would pretty well cripple LASA. And the
city is We're going to go steal the money in
another department. Well, what they will be able to do
is they will not put their money into LASA and
(23:21):
when it's kept in the county. The way these governments
are audited is very strict, right, I mean, you really
are supposed to know where the dollars go, whereas can
I go to Alex Jones territory? Let's do it? Did
I put my tinfoil hat? Put your tinfoil hat? Ons on?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Is it possible there's another party that Karen Bass and
Lindsay Horvath and Marquise Harris Dauson.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
They don't want to offend.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Is there a larger criminal force, let's call it a
mafia type force, And they're expecting the money to be
funneled through these nonprofits and these agencies, and they're supposed
to get it in the end, and that that Bass
is going to say, gee, I don't know what happened,
because if she says what happened, off with her head.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'll tell you what was. What stood out the most
was how strong Judge Carter spoke against the way things
have been going, because the city and the county have
both had loss of in public forums to answer questions.
And I've been there, I've watched these or I have attended,
and the questions tend to be gentle, you know, I
(24:22):
think to your point, there is a certain gentleness to
the way folks have handled this for fear of offending
colleagues people that they work with closely, but also to
your point, because they're part of it. They're part of
the organization structurally they created that They're not necessarily writing
the checks, they're not necessarily casked with monitoring the progress
(24:43):
every day, but they should be getting these reports to
tell them.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Is not getting up in the morning and go, oh
my god, I had no idea. Of course she knew
what was going on. And all these other characters, some
have been there many years, no question about it. And
I definitely think that action taken by the count recently
and suggestions made at city Hall recently, we are probably
at the beginning of the end of loss as we
know it. How about a federal investigation it could out,
(25:10):
how about a US attorney getting involved in this. This
judge is not happy. There is going to be another hearing,
as I said, and we'll see what comes of that,
whether it proceeds into that territory. But right now they're
concerned about the amount of money that's been spent, so
much that they've spent more than two million more dollars
just to figure out where the dollars are going, and
did not like the response. All right, we will continue.
(25:34):
We will indeed all right, Michael Monks KFI News. There
is a story here, of course, if we had a
news media outside of Michael covering it. Michael needs some
help here.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
You're listening to John cobelts on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
The John coblt Show, and we're live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app. You can follow us in John Cobelt Radio.
On social media. You follow us at John Cobelt Radio.
We have less than eight hundred followers that we need
to hit twenty five thousand dollars and then everybody gets
cupcakes here. All right, We just had Michael Monks on.
(26:13):
This is so outrageous. This is just so incredibly outrageous.
The there's a US district judge. His name's David o'carter.
He is about eighty years old. He's been around forever,
and he's the only judge that I'm aware of who
really mixes it up with the people involved in these
(26:33):
government cases and makes insistent demands. He forced Karen Bass
to show up in court yesterday. He'd requested Bass along
with a bunch of other political hacks, and nobody showed.
I go through the list again. He wanted Karen Bass,
she didn't show at first. Lindsey Horvath, who's the county
(26:55):
Supervisor chair, she didn't show. The President of the city,
Marquise Harris Dawson, he didn't show that had Alassa, that
homeless agency. Felicia Adams Kellum, she didn't show either. She's
in Boston, everybody you know. It's like Karen Bass is
in Africa, where Cardi Lara was in uh was in Bogota, Columbia.
(27:19):
Felicia Adams Kellum, she's the one who gave two million
dollars to her husband's nonprofit. Well, that doesn't smell bad, doesn't.
And this is where all the homeless money goes. And
you know something I saw a story today at Fox
News had it and it was about a Chicago alderman
(27:44):
alderman or city councilman in Chicago, and he said something
that really clicked with me about the police. There are
always getting short changed and funding. You know, the way
our fire department gets short changed. And he just said,
he goes, the reason they shortchange the police department is
(28:05):
because they want to steal the money. Like all the
politics about police is just is just to cover the
real reason they want to defund the police is they
want to steal the money and run it through homeless nonprofits.
In fact, that's why they fund the homeless agencies a
(28:30):
billion four million. It's a billion, four hundred million every
year for the City of Los Angeles. It's not to
get to the homeless off the street. It's to steal
the money and give it to their political friends and relatives.
It's a money laundering operation. It's organized crime. And I
(28:53):
really wonder who's at the top of the pyramid when
it comes to organized crime in Los Angeles and the
money that's in the budget. Because Karen Bass obviously doesn't care,
she didn't even want to show up for the hearing.
Lindsey Horvath runs the County Supervisor Board, she didn't care.
She didn't show up. Or Keith Harris Dauson runs the
(29:13):
city council. He didn't care, he didn't show up. This
is a federal judge saying, come here, you gotta explain,
because on the city side there's two and a half
billion dollars unaccounted for, unaccounted for, means stolen, and none
of these people are angry.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
None of them want to investigate. If they're pushed to
the wall.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
It's like, well, yeah, obviously something has to be done,
but they know what's been done. Vlici Adams kellum, Hey,
she got her husband two million. She doesn't have to
show up in court. That money's already put away somewhere.
So this is why they don't fund the police or
the fire department, or fix the sidewalks or whatever it is.
(29:54):
That's why they short change it. And then to distract
you with with politics, you start claiming that you know,
the police are brutal and racist. Nah, they don't believe that.
It's just a way to siphon off the money so
they could steal it. And when I read this little
this quote by the Chicago politician, I thought, you know,
(30:14):
that's what it really is.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
The question is who's in charge of all this?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Because either Bass and Horvath and Marquis harristas In and
Valicia are benefiting somehow, or there's somebody above them calling
the shots, so they make sure the system runs the
people who need to be enriched are enriched.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
And it looks like.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
They don't want to make any anyone unhappy. And David
o'corter is bagging his head saying what the hell is
going on here? Well, there is something going on, and
it's worse and it's deeper than anyone can imagine. And
because no, we don't, we don't. We ought to have
a state investigation by now by the attorney general. Right,
we don't have a federal investigation, and maybe Trumps crowd
(31:00):
will do one. We all have a media investigation, but
we know that story. They'd rather do twenty minutes on recipes.
It's not there really isn't a television news media, with
a few obvious exceptions, but much of it is just nonsense.
So who's the shot caller, who's the kingpin? Who helped
(31:26):
set up? And who's policing this network of money laundering
that's funneling through these nonprofits two and a half billion
dollars and there's no invoices, there's no receipts, and nobody
seems upset. Come on, yeah, they're stealing it, but who's
(31:50):
stealing it? Who's in charge of the machine. I mean,
this has gone on in places like Chicago and New
York and Philadelphia for years. So who's our guy? Who's
the guy pulling the strings? Some kind of panel of mobsters.
(32:12):
It's gotta be all right, we come back. Chad Bianco
and he's the Riverside County Sheriff. He's running as a
Republican candidate for governor in twenty twenty six and he
announced today he gets in charge. He's going to work
to abolish the income tax for all of us.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Whoo who, and we're gonna have.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Deborah Mark to do the news coming up in just
a moment right now. Hey, you've been listening to The
John Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show
live on KFI Am six forty from one to four
pm every Monday through Friday, and of course, anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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