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Return­ing to our air­waves for another of his many vis­its, inves­tiga­tive reporter Daniel Hop­sicker dis­cusses some of the many “Muthahs” on which his work focuses, this on Moth­ers’ Day, 2009. The pro­gram begins by not­ing that for­mer Huff­man Avi­a­tion owner Wally Hilliard was arrested for allegedly assault­ing his step­daugh­ter. As dis­cussed in many past broad­casts with Hop­sicker, Huff­man Avi­a­tion in Florida was one of two flight schools at which 9/11 hijack­ers Mohamed Atta & co. trained.

The new owner of the flight school has been busted for run­ning a smaller ver­sion of Bernie Madoff’s oper­a­tion. Arthur Nadel–a “cock­tail pianist”–appears to have been the front man for a much larger and more pow­er­ful entity, much like Mad­off. Nadel (“Mini-M”) also has some ties with a bil­lion­aire “waste man­age­ment” pro­fes­sional.

As with many of our pre­vi­ous vis­its with Daniel, major ele­ment of dis­cus­sion con­cerned the evi­den­tiary trib­u­taries that run through, and con­nect, his work–his books Barry and the Boys and Wel­come to Ter­ror­land, as well as his var­i­ous inves­tiga­tive pieces, assem­bled over the years and posted on his web­site.

1. Keep­ing with the “family-themed” title of the pro­gram (recorded on Moth­ers’ Day of 2009), the pro­gram notes that for­mer Huff­man Avi­a­tion owner Wally Hilliard was arrested for allegedly assault­ing his step­daugh­ter. As dis­cussed in many past broad­casts with Hop­sicker, Huff­man Avi­a­tion in Florida was one of two flight schools at which 9/11 hijack­ers Mohamed Atta & co. trained.

“The owner of the flight school in Venice FL where the two hijack­ers who crashed air­lin­ers into the World Trade Cen­ter took flight lessons, was arrested last May after assault­ing his 17-yr old step-daughter out­side a sports bar in Naples, Florida.

78-year old Wal­lace J. Hilliard of Naples FL was charged with mis­de­meanor bat­tery on May 28 2008, accord­ing to Col­lier County, FL arrest records.

‘The vic­tim was sit­ting on  the side­walk cry­ing,’ stated Naples Police offi­cer Melvin Payne, first to arrive at the scene.

Hilliard stopped his car behind the girl as she walked down a street out­side the ‘Sports Clip’ bar in Naples, the police report states, and became phys­i­cally abusive.

He began push­ing her, the step-daughter reported. She stated she asked him, ‘Are you going to push me again like when I was a lit­tle kid?’

‘That’s when Hilliard smacked her in the face,  stated the police report.

Hilliard and the girl (we’ll pro­tect her name) had been job-hunting.

‘He stopped his car behind her as she was walk­ing,’ an eye­wit­ness told police. ‘Then he walked up behind her and hit her twice in the back of the head.’

The wit­ness told Hilliard to stop hit­ting the girl.

Hilliard’s reply was, ‘Do you really want to get involved in my per­sonal life?’

‘I do if you’re going to hit girls,’ said the good Samar­i­tan.  Then he called the cops. . . .“

“Venice ‘Ter­ror’ Flight School Owner Arrested Abus­ing Step-Daughter Out­side Naples Bar” by Daniel Hop­sicker; Mad­Cow­Morn­ingNews; 3/5/2009.

2. The new owner of the flight school has been busted for run­ning a smaller ver­sion of Bernie Madoff’s oper­a­tion. Arthur Nadel–a “cock­tail pianist”–appears to have been the front man for a much larger and more pow­er­ful entity, much like Madoff.

“Another owner of the flight school in Venice Florida that trained Mohamed Atta and Mar­wan Al-Shehhi to fly is in trou­ble with the law; cur­rent owner Arthur G. Nadel, 75, was arrested recently for run­ning a Ponzi scheme which method­i­cally looted investors in his Sarasota-based hedge funds of more than $300 million.

Nadel’s arrest marks the sec­ond time in recent years that the owner of Huff­man Avi­a­tion, the FBO (fixed base of oper­a­tions) at the Venice Air­port has been involved in crimes tra­di­tion­ally asso­ci­ated with the Mob.

Ponzi schemes, of course, are a trade­mark Mafia spe­cialty. So, too, is the crime of heroin traf­fick­ing in which pre­vi­ous owner Wally Hilliard was implicated.

Nadel may have stolen as much as $350 mil­lion from his hedge fund investors, many of them middle-class retirees who do not  fit the typ­i­cal hedge fund investor pro­file of wealthy peo­ple will­ing to risk their entire invest­ment.

New York tabloids, already in over­drive on the story of Bernard Mad­off,  instantly dubbed Nadel Mini-M, for Mini-Madoff.

Before turn­ing him­self in late Jan­u­ary,  Nadel spent sev­eral weeks on the lam. Rumors spread that Nadel was already dead.

He wasn’t... Instead he was fly­ing above the clouds on a sleek lux­ury jet, from Sara­sota to San Anto­nio to Los Ange­les, San Fran­cisco, and New Orleans. His high-end Lear­jet 31-A offers per­for­mance matched by few other civil­ian air­planes; it cruises com­fort­ably at 500 miles an hour, and at an alti­tude of 51,000 feet. . . .”

“Bernie Mad­off, ‘Mini-M,’ and Mohamed Atta” by Daniel Hop­sicker; Mad­Cow­Morn­ingNews; 3/20/2009.

3. Arthur Nadel (“Mini-M”) also has some ties with a bil­lion­aire “waste man­age­ment” pro­fes­sional. [NOTE: Mr. Paolino has allegedly been threat­en­ing to sue Daniel Hopsicker–I can­not inde­pen­dently con­firm Hopsicker’s alle­ga­tions about Mr. Paolino. I’ve never heard of Mr. Paolino before Hopsicker’s men­tion of him.–D.E.]

“An investor claim­ing a nearly six mil­lion dol­lar loss in hedge funds of the accused Sara­sota Florida Ponzi artist who is also the cur­rent owner of flight school Huff­man Avi­a­tion fig­ured in the story of the St. Peters­burg DC9  busted in Mexico’s Yucatan with 5.5 tons of cocaine aboard.

Louis D. Paolino, once known as the “Garbage King of New Jer­sey,” was one of only a hand­ful of enti­ties ever funded by Texas  “invest­ment bank” Argyll Equity LLC,  the major investor in the com­pany whose DC9 was busted on April 11, 2006 in Mexico’s Yucatan, car­ry­ing 5.5 tons of cocaine.

Ter­ror­ist ring­leader Mohamed Atta prob­a­bly never met any­one named “Fat Pete” or “Joey Cakes” while learn­ing to fly  at Huff­man Avi­a­tion at the Venice Airport.

But ever-mounting evi­dence points to the con­clu­sion that the men who owned the flight school—both then and now—have more than a pass­ing acquain­tance with orga­nized crime. . . .“

“Accused Ponzi Fraud­ster Linked to Texas ‘Invest­ment Bank’ Behind DC9 5-Ton Coke Bust” by Daniel Hop­sicker; Mad­Cow­Morn­ingNews; 4/2/2009.

4. A major ele­ment of dis­cus­sion con­cerned the evi­den­tiary trib­u­taries that run through, and con­nect, Daniel’s work–his books Barry and the Boys and Wel­come to Ter­ror­land, as well as his var­i­ous inves­tiga­tive pieces, assem­bled over the years and posted on his web­site.