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For The Record  

FTR #672 Interview with Daniel Hopsicker: Talking about “Muthahs” on Mothers’ Day

MP3: Side 1 | Side 2
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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.

Discussion

2 comments for “FTR #672 Interview with Daniel Hopsicker: Talking about “Muthahs” on Mothers’ Day”

  1. Sev­er­al arti­cles have been post­ed as to the where abouts of Wal­ly Hilliard of Hoff­man Avation..fame and a few oth­ers.. Is know liv­ing in Eagle Riv­er Wi. An in the local Vilas Coun­ty paper. wed. sept 8th.. Is try­ing to form anoth­er form of an invest­ment group...% plus bank­rup com­pa­nys have fol­lowed him..

    Posted by Bob Wuytack | September 12, 2010, 3:25 pm
  2. mark shu­bin sick man..............

    Posted by William Card | January 23, 2011, 5:49 pm

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