Religious Fla prep school a victim in $135M fraud (AP)

MIAMI ? A prominent businessman pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraud in a $135 million real estate scheme that fleeced hundreds of investors, including the Roman Catholic prep school he once attended.

Gaston Cantens, 73, faces up to five years behind bars after pleading guilty to a single count of wire and mail fraud conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams set sentencing for April 4.

Cantens also lured investors from Miami's close-knit Cuban-American community, many of them elderly and some Roman Catholic priests.

One victim, 80-year-old Eduardo Arango, said he lost about $800,000 investing with Cantens. He called the plea agreement "a sweet deal" because Cantens could have faced more charges and a longer prison sentence.

"Most of the victims were people who are very aged. They lost whatever their resources were. They have suffered," Arango said.

Federal prosecutors said Cantens operated his company, Royal West Properties Inc., like a Ponzi scheme in which he paid older investors with money raised from newer ones. The company sold real estate investments in southwest Florida since 1993 but fell on hard times beginning in 2002 and was eventually forced into bankruptcy in 2009, according to court documents.

Before it crashed, Royal West promised rates of return as high as 16 percent for investors who bought properties, which were marketed nationally on Spanish-language networks and through offices in Florida, New York, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

One investor was the Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, which traces its roots to Cuba and from which Cantens graduated when it was still located in Havana. Fidel Castro also is an alumnus from those days.

Eric Bustillo, chief of the SEC field office in Miami, called it a typical "affinity" scam in which the perpetrator uses a position of trust to prey on members of a specific group, in this case people connected to Belen and members of the larger Cuban-American community.

"The Cantens used their prominent standing in a close-knit Cuban-American community to ruthlessly exploit vulnerable elderly investors who trusted them with their life savings," Bustillo said.

Cantens' wife, 75-year-old Teresita Cantens, was named in a related U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint but was not charged in the criminal case.

Their son, former state Rep. Gaston I. Cantens, was also not implicated in the scheme, but he did co-sign documents allowing his father to remain free until sentencing on $100,000 bail. The younger Cantens is vice president at the Florida Crystals Corp. sugar company.

In all, prosecutors said more than 150 investors lost about $47 million between 2003 and 2008. Of the total, investigators said Cantens and his wife skimmed about $20 million for other business ventures, to pay themselves more than $5 million in salaries and to pay children and grandchildren $1 million in "consulting fees" even though they did no work for Royal West.

Cantens could be ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution, but it's doubtful that he has any means to do so. Royal West is being liquidated in the bankruptcy case and Cantens has been unable to pay a $5.3 million judgment in the SEC case.

Arango said most investors have gotten only about 3 cents on the dollar from the bankruptcy proceeding.

"The anguish, pain and suffering here has been immense," he said.

____

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_religious_school_fraud

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Plink Pays You Facebook Credits To Eat Out

Buy a hamburger and get rewarded with Facebook Credits to spend on a virtual cow. That's the mouth-watering promise of startup Plink, which is launching a virtual currency loyalty rewards system for restaurants. You register a credit card with Plink, and then when you make purchases at Taco Bell, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, or one of Plink's other clients you'll get Facebook Credits automatically deposited into your account.?As demand for Facebook Credits to spend on social games and media increases, expect more virtual currency incentive companies like Plink to pop up.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gEn7-YV62aA/

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SGP iPhone 4 / 4S Leather Wallet Case Valentinus Series Review

My iPhone 4 is always in a bumper case, and I carry it inside my Dooney and Bourke Multi-Function Zip Around wallet.? That wallet is small enough to fit in my purse, but it holds some cards and cash, so I can just grab it and go.? If you’d like an even smaller wallet plus [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/26/sgp-iphone-4-4s-leather-wallet-case-valentinus-series-review/

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Sony ST25i 'Kumquat' looks set to launch as 'Xperia U'

We got our first glimpse of the Sony ST25i "Kumquat" last week, and now it seems we may have the official name for the device, too. According to a new entry on the website of the Indonesian telecoms authority, the phone will launch as the Sony Xperia U. This continuing the lettered naming scheme used by the Xperia S, as well as last year's Tablet S and Tablet P.

The ST25i "Xperia U" is rumored to sport a 3.5-inch qHD (960x540) screen, a 1GHz dual-core CPU and 5MP camera, making for an attractive mid-range proposition. An unofficial, leaked roadmap lists the Xperia U around the €260 price point.

As Sony expands its 2012 line-up, we're looking forward to seeing more of the Xperia U, hopefully starting with an official introduction at Mobile World Congress next month.

Source: Postel.go.id; via: GSMArena

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/137yDtojrSk/story01.htm

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Cat Cora Calls Out Cynthia Nixon, View on Homosexuality as "Dangerous"

Following Cynthia Nixon's declaration that homosexuality - at least in her case - is a choice, the reaction within the gay community has been strong, swift and mixed.

The harshest rebuke of the Sex and the City star has likely come from celebrity chef Cat Cora, who appeared yesterday on The Talk and said:

"I'm gay, and I was born this way," adding of Nixon's view and how it could impact others: "I really feel like it was dangerous and irresponsible of Cynthia, especially in this environment today when so many young people are taking their lives."

Continued Cora, making a plea to the actress who is currently starring on Broadway:

"I know growing up as a young gay person how much you hate yourself, how much you already think you're different. And for someone to say, ‘It's a choice, you can be this way or that way,' I think it's dangerous and I ask Cynthia to please, reach out to the community and say - to all the people who do hate themselves right now, all the young kids who are impressionable - to say, ‘You're OK, take it one day at a time, it gets better.'"

Nixon has been in relationships with both men and women, but dismisses the classification of "bisexual."

"I completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men," she told The Daily Beast. "And then I met [girlfriend Christine Marinoni] and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt."

Finally, in a Huffington Post article, Tracy Baim - editor of the Chicag-based LGBT publication The Windy City Times - writes:

"The bottom line is that those who hate us, want to cure us, or even kill us don't really take the time to understand these nuances.

"Yes, there are some who advocate a 'nature made us this way' argument to help us accept ourselves. But others still try to get gays to suppress their sexuality, or transgender people to suppress their gender identity, no matter how they got that way."

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/cat-cora-calls-out-cynthia-nixon-view-on-homosexuality-as-danger/

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Bird Flu Scientists Agree to Pause H5N1 Research

[unable to retrieve full-text content]A national biosecurity panel in the United States had asked researchers who produced a more contagious form of the bird flu virus to keep some data secret.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=924347f31b0f4b2874a0134903f6877b

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Gadhafi loyalists seize Libyan city (AP)

BENGHAZI, Libya ? Moammar Gadhafi loyalists seized control of a Libyan mountain city in the most serious challenge to the central government since the strongman's fall, underlining the increasing weakness of Libya's Western-backed rulers as they try to unify the country under their authority.

The taking of Bani Walid, one of the last Gadhafi strongholds captured by the new leadership late last year, was the first such organized operation by armed remnants of Gadhafi's regime. A simultaneous outbreak of shootings in the capital and Libya's second largest city Benghazi raised authorities' concerned that other networks of loyalists were active elsewhere.

The security woes add to the difficulties of the ruling National Transitional Council, which is struggling to establish its authority and show Libyans progress in stability and good government. Bani Walid's fall comes after violent protests in Benghazi, where Libyans angry over lack of reform stormed the NTC headquarters and trashed offices.

In Bani Walid, hundreds of well-equipped and highly trained remnants of Gadhafi's forces battled for eight hours on Monday with the local pro-NTC revolutionary brigade, known as the May 28 Brigade, said Mubarak al-Fatmani, the head of Bani Walid local council. The brigade was driven out and Gadhafi loyalists then raised their old green flag over buildings in the western city.

Four revolutionary fighters were killed and 25 others were wounded in the fighting, al-Fatmani said.

There were no immediate signs that the uprising was part of some direct attempt to restore the family of Gadhafi, who was swept out of power in August and then killed in the nearby city of Sirte in October. His sons, daughter and wife have been killed, arrested or have fled to neighboring countries.

Instead, the fighting seemed to reflect a rejection of NTC control by a city that never deeply accepted its rule, highlighting the still unresolved tensions between those who benefited under Gadhafi's regime and those now in power. Those tensions are tightly wound up with tribal and regional rivalries around the country.

The May 28 Brigade had kept only a superficial control over the city, the head of Bani Walid's military council, Abdullah al-Khazmi, acknowledged.

"The only link between Bani Walid and the revolution was May 28, now it is gone and 99 percent of Bani Walid people are Gadhafi loyalists," he said.

He spoke to The Associated Press at a position on the eastern outskirts of Bani Walid, where hundreds of pro-NTC reinforcements from Benghazi were deployed with convoys of cars mounted with machine guns, though there was no immediate move to retake the city.

The fighters who captured the city Monday night belong to Brigade 93, a militia newly created by Gadhafi loyalists who reassembled after the fall of the regime, said al-Khazmi and al-Fatmani. The fighters, flush with cash and heavy weaponry including incendiary bombs, have been increasing in power in the city, they said.

There was no possibility to confirm their claims. However, there were no mass evacuations from the town after the clashes, an indication that the residents appear to accept the new arrangement, said Ali al-Fatmani, a revolutionary brigade commander in Bani Walid.

Authorities in Benghazi, where the NTC is centered, appeared concerned that the Bani Walid uprising could have sent a signal to other cells of Gadhafi forces.

An AP reporter who was present in the Benghazi operation room heard military commanders on Monday saying coordinated incidents of drive-by shootings in Tripoli and, to a lesser extent, Benghazi erupted as news of the Bani Walid takeover spread. In Tripoli, some shops closed, and fighters responsible for security in the capital were on a state of alert over the shootings.

Five months since the Gadhafi regime's fall and three months since his death, the National Transitional Council has so far made little progress in unifying its armed forces. Instead it relies largely on multiple "revolutionary brigades," militias made up of citizens-turned-fighters, usually all from a specific city or even neighborhood.

The militias were created during the months of civil war against Gadhafi's forces last year, and since the war ended in October, the various brigades remain in control of security affairs of each city they liberated. Though loyal to the NTC, they have also feuded among themselves and acted on their own initiative, and the council has been unable to control them.

A month ago, Gadhafi loyalists attacked another revolutionary brigade from Tripoli that entered Bani Walid, killing 13, said Mubarak al-Fatmani.

"The council (NTC) did absolutely nothing," said al-Fatmani, who resigned from his local council chief post to protest the NTC's failure to investigate the ambush. He still holds his position, since his resignation has not yet been accepted.

The council has faced increasing complaints that it is doing little to bring stability to the country. It faces a daunting task, since Gadhafi's regime stripped Libya of most institutions, and the civil war has stirred up widespread divisions, rivalries and resentments.

In the Benghazi unrest last Saturday, protesters broke into the NTC headquarters, smashed windows and carted off furniture and electronics, then threw bottles at NTC chief Mustafa Abdul-Jalil as he tried to address them and torched his car. The next day, Abdul-Jalil suspended the Benghazi representatives on the council in an apparent attempt to appease protesters. The deputy chief of the NTC resigned in protest over the suspension.

Bani Walid, a city of 100,000 located in the mountains 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, held out for weeks against revolutionary forces after Gadhafi's fall from power, with loyalist fighters dug into its formidable terrain of valleys and crevasses. Pro-NTC fighters finally took it in October.

The main tribe in Bani Walid is a branch of the Warfala tribal confederation, which stretches around the country with around 1 million members. The Bani Walid branch was one of the most privileged under Gadhafi, who gave them top positions and used their fighters to try to crush protests in the early months of last year's uprising against his rule.

That has left a deep enmity between the tribe and others. Ali al-Fatmani said Bani Walid loyalists were among Gadhafi troops that tried to march on Benghazi during the civil war and were used to in the siege of Zawiya, west of Tripoli. There were reports, he said, that Bani Walid fighters desecrated graves of fallen revolutionary fighters in Zawiya.

"The hatred and mistrust have been building up during the revolution," said al-Fatmani, himself a Warfala.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_libya

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