Libya PM freed after several hours held by militiamen - Yahoo News
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reoprts:
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was seized by gunmen Thursday and held for several hours before being freed, in the latest example of the lawlessness prevailing since Moamer Kadhafi's overthrow.
The premier appeared in good health when he arrived at government headquarters after his ordeal at the hands of former rebel militiamen, waving to waiting well-wishers as he climbed out of an armoured car.
"I hope this problem will be resolved with reason and wisdom" and without any "escalation," Zeidan later said in comments broadcast by state television as he left a cabinet meeting.
The pre-dawn seizure of Zeidan came five days after US commandos embarrassed and angered the government by capturing senior Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Libi on the streets of Tripoli and whisking him away to a warship in the Mediterranean.
Witnesses said Zeidan was held at a police station south of the capital, and that his captors released him after armed residents surrounded the building and demanded he be let go.
Government spokesman Mohamed Kaabar told state news agency LANA the premier had been "freed, not released," without providing further details.
An employee at the hotel -- where Zeidan had taken up residence for security reasons -- told AFP a "large number of armed men" had entered the building but that the staff did not know what was happening.
A government statement said Zeidan had been taken "to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group" of men believed to be former rebels.
Moments before news broke that Zeidan had been freed, Deputy Prime Minister Al-Seddik Abdelkarim vowed that the government would not give into the demands of the perpetrators of a "criminal act."
"The government will not give in to blackmail by anyone," he said.
After being freed, Zeidan met with his ministers and members of the General National Congress (GNC) -- Libya's highest political authority.
Ministers had already met in his absence earlier in the day for an emergency session.
The Operations Cell of Libyan Revolutionaries, former rebels who had roundly denounced Libi's abduction and blamed Zeidan's government for it, said it had "arrested" the premier under orders from the public prosecutor.
But the cabinet said on its Facebook page that ministers were "unaware of immunity being lifted or of any arrest warrant" for him.
Later, the Brigade for the Fight against Crime, a police division made up of former rebels, said it was holding Zeidan, according to the official LANA news agency.
The government said it suspected both groups of being behind the abduction.
The two groups fall under the control of the defence and interior ministries but largely operate autonomously.
A country awash with weapons
Two years after the revolution that toppled Kadhafi, Libya's new authorities are still struggling to rein in tribal militias and groups of former rebels.
Many Libyans blame political rivalries for the problems plaguing a country awash with militias and weaponry left over from the 2011 NATO-backed rebellion.
Zeidan, who was named premier a year ago, had condemned the US capture of Libi and insisted that all Libyans should be tried on home soil.
The GNC has demanded that Washington "immediately" hand Libi back, claiming his capture was a flagrant violation of Libyan sovereignty.
Libi -- whose real name is Nazih Abdul Hamed al-Raghie -- was on the FBI's most wanted list with a $5 million (3.7 million euro) bounty on his head for his alleged role in the 1998 twin bombings of US embassies in East Africa.
US Secretary of State John Kerry denounced Zeidan's abduction as "thuggery," while UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned it "in the strongest possible terms."
Britain, which along with France had led the creation of a NATO no-fly zone in Libya at the start of the uprising, had earlier condemned the kidnapping and called for Zeidan's "immediate release."
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed Zeidan's release but said "the situation in the country is a matter of concern" and that the international community has the "responsibility to help Libyan authorities."
Public anger in Libya is growing as widespread violence -- including political assassinations -- proliferates, particularly in the east of the country.
A number of foreign missions have come under attack in Tripoli and in the eastern city of Benghazi, the cradle of the 2011 revolution.
On September 11, 2012, four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed when militants swarmed into the US consulate in Benghazi.
Outsiders come to buy liens
Liens are generally sold the year after a homeowner fails to pay a tax bill, for the same amount as the debt. Homeowners receive several warnings before their liens are put up at annual auctions.
Once a lien is sold, owners have six months to repay the investor with interest. If that does not happen, the investor can move to foreclose.
For years, the auctions came and went with little fanfare, drawing local investors who would plunk down a few hundred dollars to buy up liens in neighborhoods they knew well. Most were looking to earn the interest, and if there was a foreclosure, it was handled by the tax office.
But the work overwhelmed the agency, and in 2001, city leaders made a critical change: They told investors to head directly to court to file a foreclosure case.
The move empowered investors to start charging legal fees and court costs — a game changer that allowed them to turn minor delinquencies into insurmountable debts.
Companies from Florida, Illinois, Maryland and New York came to town, prepared to spend millions.
In 2007, more than 150 purchasers spent five days competing for 2,000 liens, first on properties downtown near the Capitol, then Georgetown, followed by Dupont Circle, Chinatown and finally the neighborhoods near the Anacostia River, long stricken by poverty.
Once a lien is sold, owners have six months to repay the investor with interest. If that does not happen, the investor can move to foreclose.
For years, the auctions came and went with little fanfare, drawing local investors who would plunk down a few hundred dollars to buy up liens in neighborhoods they knew well. Most were looking to earn the interest, and if there was a foreclosure, it was handled by the tax office.
But the work overwhelmed the agency, and in 2001, city leaders made a critical change: They told investors to head directly to court to file a foreclosure case.
The move empowered investors to start charging legal fees and court costs — a game changer that allowed them to turn minor delinquencies into insurmountable debts.
Companies from Florida, Illinois, Maryland and New York came to town, prepared to spend millions.
In 2007, more than 150 purchasers spent five days competing for 2,000 liens, first on properties downtown near the Capitol, then Georgetown, followed by Dupont Circle, Chinatown and finally the neighborhoods near the Anacostia River, long stricken by poverty.
Where tax lien foreclosures occur in the District
Dots on the map show foreclosures that followed tax liens since 2005, and the shading represents number of pending foreclosure cases.
Minorities are hit the hardest
72%
of pending foreclosures are in neighborhoods where less than 20% of the population is white.
Areas with the most pending foreclosures
149
Deanwood, Burrville, Grant Park, Lincoln Heights, Fairmont Heights
141
Congress Heights, Bellevue, Washington Highlands
Foreclosures since 2005
- Residential
- Vacant
- Commercial and other
Pending foreclosures
4 20 50 100+
In the District of Columbia:
509
foreclosures since 2005
1,598
open cases in court
Source: Post analysis of data from D.C. Superior Court, D.C. Recorder of Deeds, U.S. Census.
When it was over, just six companies had swept the bidding, snaring two-thirds of the liens, which totaled $5 million, on properties worth more than $666 million.
One of those purchasers was under federal investigation at the time for rigging tax auctions in Maryland, where he was suspected of scheming to win liens — then demanding excessive fees from homeowners. Lawyers for a second firm would also come under investigation in the same case.
Their companies and others bought into every ward of the District in 2007, including Deanwood, one of the city’s oldest predominantly African American neighborhoods. On long stretches of Dix Street, where the recession hit hard and lingered, 33 liens were sold between 2005 and 2008, on properties scattered amid food banks and “Cash 4 Gold” signs.
Across the city, the rate of foreclosure cases has nearly doubled in the past five years — in a single week in January, tax lien companies filed more than 180 cases. Of the 13,000 liens sold since 2005, more than half have ended up in court.
One of those purchasers was under federal investigation at the time for rigging tax auctions in Maryland, where he was suspected of scheming to win liens — then demanding excessive fees from homeowners. Lawyers for a second firm would also come under investigation in the same case.
Their companies and others bought into every ward of the District in 2007, including Deanwood, one of the city’s oldest predominantly African American neighborhoods. On long stretches of Dix Street, where the recession hit hard and lingered, 33 liens were sold between 2005 and 2008, on properties scattered amid food banks and “Cash 4 Gold” signs.
Across the city, the rate of foreclosure cases has nearly doubled in the past five years — in a single week in January, tax lien companies filed more than 180 cases. Of the 13,000 liens sold since 2005, more than half have ended up in court.
With no caps on fees, families have paid a steep price, facing bills for legal fees and court costs often more than triple their original tax debts, The Post found. Rates for the attorneys hired by the tax lien companies have reached $450 an hour.
Even the smallest expenses have been passed on — including the paper that ordered property owners to court at 25 cents per page. One attorney billed for preparing the bill itself — $25.
Time and again, the bills came without receipts or breakdowns justifying the costs.
“I just don’t know what he’s trying to charge me for,” said longtime community activist Barbara Morgan, 80, standing outside the courtroom earlier this year with a $2,700 legal bill that doubled the tax debt on her home of 50 years. “It’s ridiculous.”
Local judges have taken purchasers to task. One was so critical of the fees charged by Aeon Financial of Chicago, he slashed them in half last year. Aeon wanted $6,300 in fees for a $1,680 tax lien.
A senior attorney billed at $450 an hour. A junior attorney charged $325. Legal assistants tacked on $110 an hour. Plus, there was $800 in expenses, including $27.60 for “dismissal costs.”
“Unreasonable,” Judge Joseph E. Beshouri said in his ruling.
In 2009, D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles also stepped in, seeking an injunction against Aeon over fees that he called “unlawful” and “predatory.”
“Aeon’s excessive attorney’s fee demands are likely to result in at least some homeowners not being able to redeem homes,” according to the motion.
In one case, Steve Segears, who lives in the house his father bought after World War II, was charged $5,500 in fees by Aeon, nearly double his $2,900 tax bill.
Even the smallest expenses have been passed on — including the paper that ordered property owners to court at 25 cents per page. One attorney billed for preparing the bill itself — $25.
Time and again, the bills came without receipts or breakdowns justifying the costs.
“I just don’t know what he’s trying to charge me for,” said longtime community activist Barbara Morgan, 80, standing outside the courtroom earlier this year with a $2,700 legal bill that doubled the tax debt on her home of 50 years. “It’s ridiculous.”
Local judges have taken purchasers to task. One was so critical of the fees charged by Aeon Financial of Chicago, he slashed them in half last year. Aeon wanted $6,300 in fees for a $1,680 tax lien.
A senior attorney billed at $450 an hour. A junior attorney charged $325. Legal assistants tacked on $110 an hour. Plus, there was $800 in expenses, including $27.60 for “dismissal costs.”
“Unreasonable,” Judge Joseph E. Beshouri said in his ruling.
In 2009, D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles also stepped in, seeking an injunction against Aeon over fees that he called “unlawful” and “predatory.”
“Aeon’s excessive attorney’s fee demands are likely to result in at least some homeowners not being able to redeem homes,” according to the motion.
In one case, Steve Segears, who lives in the house his father bought after World War II, was charged $5,500 in fees by Aeon, nearly double his $2,900 tax bill.
“Enough is enough,” Michael J. Wilson, Segears’s attorney, wrote to the court. “The Aeon juggernaut keeps rolling along by demanding payment of unreasonable and extortionate attorneys’ fees and other alleged expenses, including those which have not actually been ‘incurred.’ ”
Aeon did not respond to repeated calls and letters seeking comment.
Other places acknowledged abuses years ago and took steps to guard against them. New York City won’t allow tax liens to be sold on homes owned by low-income seniors and the disabled, as well as veterans. Some counties in Michigan have scrapped tax lien sales altogether and collect the money themselves. Maryland, fearing that taxpayers were being gouged, limits the legal fees to $1,500.
Most homeowners are in no position to fight and rely on the government to protect them from unfair practices, said Howard Liggett, former director of the National Tax Lien Association, who has spoken out nationally against excessive fees.
But D.C. leaders have not provided key protections, including caps on fees.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Liggett, who is familiar with the District’s tax auctions and bidders. “You’re always going to have unscrupulous [investors]. You’ve got to self-police.”
Aeon did not respond to repeated calls and letters seeking comment.
Other places acknowledged abuses years ago and took steps to guard against them. New York City won’t allow tax liens to be sold on homes owned by low-income seniors and the disabled, as well as veterans. Some counties in Michigan have scrapped tax lien sales altogether and collect the money themselves. Maryland, fearing that taxpayers were being gouged, limits the legal fees to $1,500.
Most homeowners are in no position to fight and rely on the government to protect them from unfair practices, said Howard Liggett, former director of the National Tax Lien Association, who has spoken out nationally against excessive fees.
But D.C. leaders have not provided key protections, including caps on fees.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Liggett, who is familiar with the District’s tax auctions and bidders. “You’re always going to have unscrupulous [investors]. You’ve got to self-police.”
Threatened with mounting fees, some families simply gave up. In court files and interviews, they described large bills and long battles with lawyers while interest grew on their tax debts.
“We just didn’t have the money to fight these people,” said Michael McRae, who tried unsuccessfully to save his brother’s house from a tax-lien firm from Florida.
In the past eight years, investors have foreclosed on a condominium just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol and another just down the street from the Embassy of Peru, a single-family home near Rock Creek Park and dozens of houses in poor neighborhoods along the Anacostia River.
The Post found investors have taken nearly 200 homes since 2005, assessed at $39 million. They sold most of them, sometimes within weeks, after paying off any back taxes or city fines.
“We just didn’t have the money to fight these people,” said Michael McRae, who tried unsuccessfully to save his brother’s house from a tax-lien firm from Florida.
In the past eight years, investors have foreclosed on a condominium just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol and another just down the street from the Embassy of Peru, a single-family home near Rock Creek Park and dozens of houses in poor neighborhoods along the Anacostia River.
The Post found investors have taken nearly 200 homes since 2005, assessed at $39 million. They sold most of them, sometimes within weeks, after paying off any back taxes or city fines.
One of the most aggressive investors was Heartwood, whose lawyers were investigated and disbarred as a result of Maryland’s criminal bid-rigging case. Formerly a subsidiary of Florida’s BankAtlantic Bancorp, Heartwood has taken more than 20 houses through foreclosure and sold them all, including a brick duplex in Northeast Washington with a $535 lien for $169,610.
One of the houses was owned by Michael McRae’s brother, Thomas, a flower-shop owner, who was in and out of a coma and under hospice care while Heartwood was pressing to take his house over what began as a $1,025 tax debt. Thomas McRae died in June 2006 — three months after a judge approved the foreclosure.
Family members found out and fought back, saying no one told them about the lien or foreclosure.
Heartwood eventually paid the family $80,000 to settle the case and quickly sold the brick house on a bustling corner of Sherman Avenue NW for $175,000. Longtime neighbors still recall how Thomas McRae had filled the sidewalk with flowers.
“We’re just regular people, and we don’t have $200,000 to fight a big organization from Florida,” his brother said.
In a written statement, the tax office said the $1,025 tax bill was “not a small debt.” A spokesperson for Heartwood declined to discuss the foreclosure cases but said the company is no longer buying tax liens in the District and Maryland.
One of the houses was owned by Michael McRae’s brother, Thomas, a flower-shop owner, who was in and out of a coma and under hospice care while Heartwood was pressing to take his house over what began as a $1,025 tax debt. Thomas McRae died in June 2006 — three months after a judge approved the foreclosure.
Family members found out and fought back, saying no one told them about the lien or foreclosure.
Heartwood eventually paid the family $80,000 to settle the case and quickly sold the brick house on a bustling corner of Sherman Avenue NW for $175,000. Longtime neighbors still recall how Thomas McRae had filled the sidewalk with flowers.
“We’re just regular people, and we don’t have $200,000 to fight a big organization from Florida,” his brother said.
In a written statement, the tax office said the $1,025 tax bill was “not a small debt.” A spokesperson for Heartwood declined to discuss the foreclosure cases but said the company is no longer buying tax liens in the District and Maryland.
Bennie Coleman was ousted from his house two years ago in a flurry of foreclosures that swept the poor neighborhoods of Ward 7.
The retired Vietnam veteran bought the tidy brick duplex in Northeast for $57,500 with life insurance money that he received when his wife died of breast cancer in 1988.
Known in his working-class neighborhood as “Tops,” he spent two decades in the house without a mortgage. But in recent years, Coleman began showing signs of dementia — he would forget to pay bills or buy food. His next-door neighbor would often bring him plates of chicken and carrots.
In 2006, he forgot to pay a $134 tax bill, prompting the city to place a lien on the home and add $183 in interest and penalties. His son paid the $317 bill in 2009, records show, but that wasn’t enough.
The Maryland company that had bought the lien had already gone to court to put a foreclosure in motion. To lift the lien, the company’s lawyer was demanding steep legal fees and expenses— $4,999.
The retired Vietnam veteran bought the tidy brick duplex in Northeast for $57,500 with life insurance money that he received when his wife died of breast cancer in 1988.
Known in his working-class neighborhood as “Tops,” he spent two decades in the house without a mortgage. But in recent years, Coleman began showing signs of dementia — he would forget to pay bills or buy food. His next-door neighbor would often bring him plates of chicken and carrots.
In 2006, he forgot to pay a $134 tax bill, prompting the city to place a lien on the home and add $183 in interest and penalties. His son paid the $317 bill in 2009, records show, but that wasn’t enough.
The Maryland company that had bought the lien had already gone to court to put a foreclosure in motion. To lift the lien, the company’s lawyer was demanding steep legal fees and expenses— $4,999.
Coleman’s son couldn’t pay and wrote to the court for help: “I would hate for him at his age to lose his home.” One payment was made for $700 in 2009, but when no additional payments followed, the court approved the foreclosure in June 2010.
His son couldn’t be reached for comment. In the summer of 2011, federal marshals showed up at the door when Coleman refused to leave.
“He had no clue what was going on,” said neighbor Patricia Johnson. “I went over and told my mom, ‘Looks like they are going to get Tops out.’ ”
That night, he slept in a chair on the front porch.
The court later appointed a conservator, who told The Post that Coleman was incapable of responding to the emergency unfolding in his life, including showing up in court to fight for his house.
“He had no chance,” said attorney Robert Bunn. “He has dementia. He did not understand the ramifications of what was going to happen to him.”
The Maryland company that took Coleman’s house sold it for $71,000 two months after evicting him. The company was owned by Steven Berman, who was convicted in 2008 in the Maryland bid-rigging case. He declined to comment. The law firm for Berman’s company said it was willing to reduce Coleman’s bill to $3,500 but could not reach him.
The tax office would not comment on the case, saying only that the lien would “not have been sold if the tax sale were today” because it was less than $1,000, the agency’s current threshold.
Coleman said he thought he would stay in his house for many more years, sipping cold drinks on the porch and talking to neighbors over the fence. Now, he’s in a group home one mile from the home that is no longer his.
On an overcast morning earlier this year, he walked past the old house, now boarded up, on the way to the corner store to buy margarine and a bag of sugar. He looked back briefly, then turned away.
“I have nothing,” he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/08/left-with-nothing/
His son couldn’t be reached for comment. In the summer of 2011, federal marshals showed up at the door when Coleman refused to leave.
“He had no clue what was going on,” said neighbor Patricia Johnson. “I went over and told my mom, ‘Looks like they are going to get Tops out.’ ”
That night, he slept in a chair on the front porch.
The court later appointed a conservator, who told The Post that Coleman was incapable of responding to the emergency unfolding in his life, including showing up in court to fight for his house.
“He had no chance,” said attorney Robert Bunn. “He has dementia. He did not understand the ramifications of what was going to happen to him.”
The Maryland company that took Coleman’s house sold it for $71,000 two months after evicting him. The company was owned by Steven Berman, who was convicted in 2008 in the Maryland bid-rigging case. He declined to comment. The law firm for Berman’s company said it was willing to reduce Coleman’s bill to $3,500 but could not reach him.
The tax office would not comment on the case, saying only that the lien would “not have been sold if the tax sale were today” because it was less than $1,000, the agency’s current threshold.
Coleman said he thought he would stay in his house for many more years, sipping cold drinks on the porch and talking to neighbors over the fence. Now, he’s in a group home one mile from the home that is no longer his.
On an overcast morning earlier this year, he walked past the old house, now boarded up, on the way to the corner store to buy margarine and a bag of sugar. He looked back briefly, then turned away.
“I have nothing,” he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/09/08/left-with-nothing/