Las Vegas Sins and Scams: Book 13 - Vulture Funds and the Millionaire’s Prison

By Paul Wallace Winquist

This is the thirteenth book in the series Las Vegas Sins and Scams. The series started as the partners were kids and then got into the casino business in Las Vegas during the 1970s. Throughout the books, they have expanded the casinos worldwide and a chain of highly successful resorts. In the early days, they purchased farms to have very fresh crops for their restaurants; now, this has expanded to plantations worldwide.
The early books contained a lot of bizarre sex and violence. Now the original partners are in their upper sixties and have mellowed out. Now the kids and grandkids have taken over the corporations and a lot of the adventures. The old duffers do a lot of covert operations in the background to help the companies. They still have to deal with pesky FARC rebels in Colombia and Venezuela and screwball communists in Cuba.
The older generation has mellowed out and reversed their thinking; now they take down the drug smugglers, TV preachers, stock market scammers, and the white slave dealers; all for the benefit of their scholarship fund that has schools at all the plantations and resorts to educate the kids all the way through universities.
There are hundreds of pictures of scenery in the areas where the group is expanding into.
Green is the motto and the company color. They have built solar farms, windmills and make biodiesel for sales.
Some interesting architecture and infrastructure sketches are included.
They are making some interesting drones and robotics.
In the old days, they built submarines to smuggle things; now, they build them to smuggle passengers and freight in and out of Cuba.
They built two deluxe prisons for holding millionaires.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Wallace Winquist
• Release date: May 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9780463355398

Paul Wallace Winquist

Born 1945BS from Portland State University - Business Administration / Real Estate LawMany courses toward MS in Electronics EngineeringInstalled big satellite TV systems into casinos, race and sports books, and hotels in Las Vegas 20 years.Writing this series of books part time since 1990.

Book preview

Las Vegas Sins and Scams – Book 13 - Vulture Funds and the Millionaire’s Prison

Paul W. Winquist

Published by Paul W. Winquist at Smashwords

Copyright 2017

pwinquist.com

Distributed Through Smashwords(tm) http:///www.smashwords.com

ISBN: 9780463355398

E-books Version v. 2019.9.2

(c) 2017 Paul Wallace Winquist

Table of Contents

Chapter 217 – Malta Restoration, Chapter 218 – Vulture Funds, Chapter - 219 - The Japanese Surrender, Chapter 220 – Millionaire’s Prison, Chapter - 221 - The Botched Hanging, Chapter – 222 - Drones, 223 – White Slaves, Chapter 24 – Cuban Obelisk, 225 – It Floats, Chapter 226 - It Burns, Chapter 227A - Capitalist Rebellion in Cuba, Chapter 227B – Flying Saucers

Chapter 217 – Malta Restoration

Malta Night

Wikipedia

Malta

Wikipedia

(2/20/2013)

Armin Grossenbaucher, the 87-Year-Old Architect Died

Sheldon and Jeanne had been in Argentina for two months now, Joe and Sue had returned to Guyana, and Lori had long departed.

One evening Sheldon was looking over the financial charts and noticed that the new Malta casino was the most profitable one.

He told Jeanne, …Pack up, and plan a flight to the Playa tomorrow, then three days later let’s go to Malta. Sheldon was looking forward to three afternoons with Melissa, and two nights with Linda.

However, as soon as they were settled in, and he spent a couple hours with Melissa, he called the architect that had worked on the Malta and Albanian projects. He found out that Armin Grossenbaucher, the 87-year-old architect had died the night before, and the funeral is scheduled in two days, so he only got one good night with Linda before he and Jeanne flew up to Las Vegas.

Malta

Two days later, they loaded up a little crew and two fresh pilots for the long flight.

After they were settled into their hotel suite, Sheldon went to talk to Barney, the manager of the Malta operations, and talked about the very good profits there; and Sheldon gave him a 33% raise.

Barney suggested that Sheldon talk to the new real estate broker, Zeke who took over Sam’s, the stammering, jabbering, idiot’s business when he died.

The next morning Sheldon and Jeanne walked into the office that had been Sam’s. The new man, Zeke, recognized them from when he helped put together the deals a few years ago.

After Sheldon mentioned he was a little interested in expanding the casino business, Zeke Said, "…I have just the place for you; after seeing how you guys restored that old hotel, you may love this restoration project. It is exactly 200 feet by 400 feet (62 m by 122 m) inside (The Roman ‘foot’ measurement is still the foot standard today), perfect for a casino inside, and on the same street as your new one… We will go there…"

Five minutes later, they were about five blocks away from their new casino and antique hotel.

Zeke said, as they stood in the cool winter air, …It is over well 2000 years old; the shell and pillars are in perfect shape. During WW-1, the military built a new roof out of iron and wood; but then they did not use the building during WW-2. Around 1920, after WW-1, someone built the apartments and little market, and added a floor on top of the roof. All that iron and wood shit needs to get ripped out – or burnt out by Jewish lightning.

Sheldon replied, We need to do everything legally.

Zeke continued un-phased, It’s full of Muslims living there (both Joe Sheldon are of Jewish extraction); I lease it to Nassir, who rents it out to these pathetic people. We can walk through and go up to the roof.

It was indeed a grim place; the wiring for electricity being strung on nails, along the walls and ceiling, along with telephone and TV wires, a total mess. The stalls are selling various food items and apparel of the Muslim variety.

The crude lighting was put in around 1920, without much upgrading since. The walls and doors are in need of paint, or are painted some obnoxious colors. The apartments on the roof were even cruder, but at least they got some sunlight.

Sheldon could see the outer walls are made of 2’ by 2’ by 4’ (.6 m by .6 m by 1.2 m) solid limestone blocks, that would be good for another 2000 years, maybe 20,000 years, but it needed to be gutted inside. Sheldon asked, How are we going to get these folks moved out of here?

Malta - Old Area

Wikipedia

Sam replied, It’s Monday, we’ll tell them they have until Friday prayers; they’ll be out.

Isn’t it a 30 day eviction rule here, or something?

These ignorant people don’t know that; I guarantee they will be gone.

They made the deal that afternoon; then Zeke walked over to talk to Nassir, with Sheldon and Jeanne following along. Zeke told Nassir, …Tell them the place is sold; everything needs to be out by Friday prayers. They can take everything; the plumbing fixtures, electrical stuff, doors, all the wood, but leave all the iron and pillars…

Fifteen minutes later, there was a solid stream of stuff going out the doors. This continued as long as they watched, and then they went to dinner, as the flow continued.

Each morning Zeke, Sheldon, Jeanne, and Barney drove by the building; the flow was constant. By Friday morning, the big timbers were coming out, to a pair of trucks blocking the street.

Zeke said, Wow; I didn’t figure they would take the roof; should we stop them?

No let them have it; we’ll build a roof out of materials that can’t burn, and will last another 2000 years.

Saturday morning the group with a lot more curious people went into the shell of the building.

Zeke said, Wow, they took all the wood, even the little stuff; they must be going to use it as firewood.

Jeanne said, They sure left a lot of garbage.

Sheldon said, Yeah; Barney, can we get some guys from the hotel to haul off this stuff?

Ralph said, They can just push it to the center and light it on fire.

Sheldon replied, I don’t want any kind of damage to the floor or a pillar; they can get it cleaned up in a couple days…

Jeanne added, It is nice and bright in here now, wow, what a change from the dingy lighting.

Sheldon said, We’ll light it good with LEDs.

Merle, the kid architect said, ...Well there a lot of possibilities at this stage; I like the idea of a second story that looks like it has been there 1800 years…

Sheldon said, This is way bigger looking now that it is open; we need a hotel to go with it, but not on top... Zeke, we need some land across the street, one way, or another; what’s available?

Before he could answer, Jeanne said, "I think this might be your first big fuck-up Sheldon; this place isn’t worth 3 million Euros ($3.9 million).

Sheldon quickly replied, The land is worth €2 million; and the pillars would cost over a million to replace, even if they were faked with façade; and the walls would be over another two million Euros, even if they were faked with modern stuff…

Zeke confirmed, That’s true, this street is one of the most desirable for high rollers; then he added for Sheldon, I have a small piece across the street that could be torn down, very small...

Sheldon said, That’s a start; go line up some more land around it…

The architect said, ...I can’t get much done until I see what other land or buildings you line up… You should hire a pressure washer company to totally clean everything, so we can see clearly what the colors are and so on…

Sheldon said, The big doors are gone.

Zeke replied, They have been gone a long time; shit, the people took the aluminum doors too.

Malta 2000-Year-Old Building

Merle, the kid architect said, There is one of the bronze hinges; we can have new doors made, I have lots of drawings of the period, and we can copy that hinge with its crude blacksmith work.

Sheldon said, "Two 15-foot (4.5m) wide doors are too big to be practical."

Merle said, Hum, the big entry arch can be a trippy entryway with a big 2000 year old type oil chandeliered candelabrum; I’ll think of something...

The maintenance men returned with a very small loader and a rented truck, which they drove right into the center of the mess.

Sheldon had already discussed the situation of not putting in an elevator to whatever they build on the roof, if we can get some land across a street to put an arched bridge over to it.

The land that Zeke had is only about 40X80 feet, and has a tiny grocery store in it. As usual Sheldon went to the property next door, a cobbler (shoemaker and repairman), and quickly had a deal with the old man. The other side was some nice apartments built around 1920, in very good shape; the character did not want to sell, even at a very good price.

Meanwhile, Zeke lined up a small piece across the street/alley from the back of the 2000-year-old building. They figured this land would be good for the infrastructure equipment and the laundry, and possibly big food storage area, refrigerator, and freezer rooms.

Jeanne went to the property behind the grocery store and lined it up. It is just a house built during WW-2 out of wood; so, now they had a narrow piece just wide enough to build a little skinny hotel tower on, but a tower would look out of place in the antique neighborhood.

By 4:00, they were tired of walking and standing, so they headed to the wine cellar in the basement of the old hotel. As they were looking at the entrance to the tunnels, Jeanne said, "How about connecting all the sites with tunnels, that way the street can keep looking antique; wow, I mean super antique, 2000 years old."

Sheldon said, Good plan Girl! It’s time for your next raise; I’ll kick you up to $10,000 a month. She started at $500 a month as a chauffeur, then 7,500 when she got her airline transport rating, and now she is sort of an executive advisor too.

Sheldon got on the phone and scheduled the woman that owns the limestone quarry, to come over about 9:00 AM the next morning; Sheldon showed the quarry owner a crude computer sketch:

Tunnels for 2000-Year-old Building

Here is what we want to do; three tunnels, with three sets of elevator shafts and stairs; and a money vault, that we will mount a door to, so it doesn’t look like a vault. This is just a sketch, the architect will make it more exact later, or you can modify it to make it work. How accurate can you hit the bomb shelter?

"About 50 mm (2 inches) at that distance; we have good lasers to line it up accurately. If we come in low, we can shave a little ramp on the bomb shelter floor; if we come in high, we can shave the tunnel down…"

Can the tunnels look like the ones we already have?

Oh, no, unfortunately; our cutters only cut square corners; we have no way to do arched ceilings. You know you are looking at a half million Euros to do this project, and three or four months to do it?

Hum, it may be worth it. Let me get back to you in a few days after the architect makes a little progress…

Later the architect was saying, "…You know when that building was built there were probably beautiful grounds around it, so now the effect of the neat building is subdued by the shitty stuff around it now… Let’s change your tunnel so it has square corners, a perfect T, and a shorter stretch to the utilities building for the house cleaners to push carts and so on. Also let’s add a real high security door to the tunnel going to the bomb shelter. Are you sure you want to spend that much money on tunnels; the workers can push carts on the sidewalks around the block.

Fuck the maids; I want the vault, that’s the main reason for spending the money. The tunnel has been a real help moving money around unseen, and the security guards can move from place to place very quickly for emergencies. This way we can get clean water from the desalination plant, connect our fiberoptics and the pipes for the biodiesel for the generators in the new infrastructure building, so the only thing connected to the outside is the sewer… Hum, we could even move the generators to the new infrastructure building, and get them out of the bomb shelter; yeah, let’s plan on that, that concrete room has way too much echo in it…

Jeanne said, Yah, that’s the loudest room I have ever been in.

The architect added, …I have been thinking about the restaurants situation; we can put the cooking areas right above the tunnel so the smoke can be sucked down to the tunnel and then out from the utility building, and dumbwaiter elevators can be used for freight…

Sheldon said, "That’s perfect, the tunnel will be under the back wall so the ducts, pipes, and wiring can go straight down to it; we can make the tunnel wider to accommodate the ducting and so on… nothing in the whole restaurant area needs to be over 7 feet (2.1m) high so the big ceiling will be in view from everywhere. I like your idea of making the ceiling like the Sistine Chapel; we will find some artists… The ceiling will be beautiful above big stone walls; but no religious bullshit…"

The architect said, I’ve been thinking about your idea; we should build a footbridge from the top of the big building, to the hotel we build, for the customers of the hotel rooms we build above the casino; we can make an arch out of the exact same stone, so it looks like it’s been there 2000 years…

Good plan; that will attract attention to the place… If we can get it past the government clowns…

FARC Problems in Venezuela:

Torre Monumental, clock tower located in the barrio (district) of Retiro

Wikipedia

View of Iguazu Falls

Wikipedia

Interrupting the conversation was a phone call from George, the farm manager at the circle farms in Venezuela, …There is one rebel that is still a problem, and trying to recruit the good workers…

Okay; I’ll send a couple guys to look into the situation…

Sheldon immediately called Brad, …We have a problem at the circle farm, maybe you and Ted can go deal with the problem; sounds like an easy one…

Brad and Ted, ex-navy seals, were back at the Guyana project, so they just took Willie’s Kingair over to the farm, stopping at both international airports to clear customs and refuel. They were talking to the George, farm manager, by 4:30 PM the next afternoon.

They drove past the rabbit’s house, off the farm property a ways to the south, and scoped out the situation.

It’s a small house with a porch on the front, where the mutt is drinking beer, as the kids are playing in the yard. The smell of cooking was strong, even in the road as they drove by, in an old light blue pickup, with Ted riding in the bed, to look like farm workers. They went another mile and stopped to discuss the situation, then drove by again at a faster speed, and on to the manager’s house where they made their plans.

They flew back to Maracaibo to clear customs, and filed a flight plan to Cali Colombia. It took about two hours to get the clearance, but it was comfortable to kick back in the old Kingair drinking beer. (Kingairs have small bathrooms.)

Willie’s Kingair

Wikipedia Modified by Paul Winquist

Once they cleared customs, they flew down to Gomez’s plantation. Gomez was there, so he drove them on the back roads into Ecuador, where the company has a huge banana plantation. They went to dinner at the executive villa that was almost empty right now. Then during the night, they rounded up their night vision goggles, two M-16s with the silencers, and miscellaneous supplies.

Gomez spent the night there as they partied with three local girls.

In the morning, Gomez drove them back across the border, on the back roads. They filed a flight plan to the plantation on the Venezuela-Colombia border, but instead of landing on the Colombian side the crossed the Negro River very low to the Venezuelan plantation.

They unloaded the weapons and supplies at Howard’s, (the plantation manager) house, and then flew up to Cali Colombia to clear Colombian customs, and then over to the San Rafael airport in Venezuela.

Meanwhile Howard flew the weapons up to the circle farm, staying in Venezuela to avoid border inspections.

It was evening when they landed, so they took a cab to a cantina for some food and a few beers.

George dropped off the blue pickup in the parking lot of the cantina, with the weapons and supplies in it.

At 3:00 AM, they drove the pickup to about 1 mile (1.6 Km) from the fool’s house, and parked by a building that had some irrigation equipment in it, so it would look like it belonged there.

Then they walked with their night vision goggles in the woods around to the target’s house.

They casually walked, in the dark, to behind a big pile of firewood, where they waited for the rabbit to go to work. They didn’t want to kill him in front of the kids or wife.

At 5:11, the lights came on in the house/shack, and soon there was smoke coming from the kitchen chimney. They patiently waited for the rabbit to enjoy his last breakfast.

At 5:34, it was still dark when a porch light came on, and the mutt started walking toward his pickup truck.

Bead nailed him with the silenced M-16, in the chest, pushing him backward onto a kid’s tricycle, as he went down. Ted was waiting and then grabbed the hot spent shell with a plier. They ran to the woods and casually walked back to the blue pickup, then drove it to the all night café in San Rafael, where they ate some breakfast, and then went to the airport in a cab, to fly back to Guyana.

It was a half hour before the wife realized the pickup was still there, and discovered her dead husband laying there straddling the tricycle. She grabbed his 2-way radio and called the farm manager’s office.

George replied, Okay, I’ll send the nurses over there.

No! He is already dead!

"Oh, then I’ll send the army guys over there to investigate the matter. (There is about 20 Venezuelan solders there protecting the workers from the rebels.) Of course, those particular soldiers were happy to see him dead, so there was no investigation.

Brad called Sheldon later, …The score was one to zero…

Meanwhile on Malta:

Valetta_Harbour, Malta

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Bridge in Malta ---- Utility and Laundry Building on Malta

Painter of the burial chamber of Sennedjem

Wikipedia

Threshing of Grain in Ancient Egypt

Wikipedia

The architect loved the sketch Sheldon drew, so he took them to the woman on the government council that he was friendly with; she said, …No problem, we have liked how your brand new casino looks like it has been there 2000 years; they are happy to be looking at the future tax revenues from your new venture…

The next was their electrical contractor, he explained how everything is rock, so we need to drill a 4-inch (10cm) hole down the center of each pillar, and then we can drill in horizontally a 2-inch (5cm) hole to connect the two. For the kitchen, we can just drill down to the tunnel. No problem; just money…"

Sheldon said, "I want the same power receptacles as in the hotel on each pillar, so that there is a 200-volt @ 50-cycle European outlets, and the Western-117 volts @ 60-cycles.

After two days of loading junk and debris from the building, the workers announced that they are finished. Barney told them, …Hire three or four more laborers, and then rent a couple steam cleaning machines, and scaffolding, to wash both sides of the walls and the floor… Maybe hire eight more guys, so we can start patching the holes too…

Sheldon called the electrician, "It’s time to get started on the drilling, and put some temporary power and lighting all over the place.

By now, the site for the utilities and laundry building was bare land, so the gardeners are retrieving the valuable dirt. The quarry crew is chomping at the bit to start going down on the site.

Once the project looked like a Set Shot, Sheldon and Jeanne hopped over to the resort that Jeanne loves in Sicily, just a 50-mile (80Km) hop. The weather had cleared up to completely clear blue sky, but a chilly 65°F (18°C) in the afternoon.

Italian Art

Wikipedia

Frank Tenerelli, the farming manager on Sicily, had added four more vineyards in the hills, so they drove up to them, to check them out, seriously sampling the various wines for two days.

They went to the tree that Tony had wrapped his Lamborghini around; the tree still had deep cuts where the car hit. There still is gravel on the edge of the road where he slipped off.

They thought about flying around with the ultralight, but it is in Argentina, so Sheldon had Jeanne order a new one for keeping in the vulture.

After four days, they went up to Switzerland to stay at the big villa, so Jeanne could go skiing, and Sheldon could get a couple days of good sleep.

Problems on Isle de la Juventud Cuba (The Island of The Island of Youth)

Cuba Coronado Resort Location

Wikipedia

As Sheldon was looking at the financial reports, while Jeanne and the pilots were skiing, he noticed that the newly opened resort on the Isle de la Juventud Cuba was showing an expense of $10,000 a month for consulting fees, for each of the three months that it was open. Knowing someone was extorting the money on the Cuban island, they stopped by there on their way back to Costa Rica.

Everyone was surprised to see the big green vulture again, in the little resort with only 36 rooms open so far.

It is a balmy 85°F (29°C) day, as the golf cart tram met them. The resort manager, Ryan, came to meet them, and mentioned that the finished rooms are all full of Russian tourists.

Sheldon said, "We’ll just crash in the vulture then. (It is fixed up better then the best motorhome in the back half.)

As they were driving the 1.5-mile (2.4Km) trip, Sheldon got right to the point, "What’s with the $10,000 a month consulting fee? (That is what they call kickbacks and pay-off in some countries.)

The fucking government manager, Chester, is demanding it; he says you approved it.

Fucking liar; I’ll fix his ass. What’s with all the Russians?

They came from your advertising. They are pissing off all the workers; they don’t tip and they get drunk on the Albanian vodka, and become assholes…

"Okay; we’ll stop advertising in Russia for this resort, and switch to the Scandinavian countries, Canada, and Northwestern Europe too.

As Sheldon, Jeanne, the two pilots, and Ryan were eating dinner, in the only restaurant open so far, they noticed that the Russians were indeed stiffing the waitresses and being obnoxious. Sheldon told Ryan, Let’s raise all the prices 20% tomorrow; get the girls to print new menus…Write on the bottom 15% gratuity added to all bills automatically; that should help the moral problem: room rents, snorkeling, and scuba rental too…

Later Jeanne said, It sure looks good with all the shrubs, trees, and flowers the gardeners transplanted from the future farmland.

Yeah, there was a lot more trippy plants out there than I had anticipated; I was thinking we would have to import stuff.

Sheldon called Cynthia Anderson, the photographer, "…Come on down to Isle de la Juventud Cuba to get some fresh pictures; the gardeners have done a hell of a job, and the coral is prettier than Belize.

You forget that I am an American citizen, I can’t go there.

You should get a Panamanian or Costa Rican passport; nobody hates those countries. I’ll e-mail some shots tomorrow…

Later Ryan mentioned, ...The Russians expect there to be prostitutes here, but we only have one girl.

Fuck those Russians, they should be in Havana.

About 10:00PM, Sheldon drove a golf cart over to Chester, the government manager’s villa that the company had built for him, in return for expediting the paperwork for building the resort, including access to the airport and docks. (They didn’t have a golf course yet, but have the carts for the workers to get around with.)

Sheldon knocked on the door and a kid came; Tell Chester that Sheldon wants to talk to him.

A half a minute later Chester came to the door. Sheldon said, Let’s go for a walk on the beach, we need to discuss some matters away from the kids…

Soon, they were traveling along the beach until they came to a creek that they couldn’t cross with the cart.

Sheldon said, "We built a villa for you to use, for what I considered enough in the way of expediting, permanently"!

Yes, yes, no, that only covered the construction.

"Okay, we have had this kind of problem in Las Vegas, where there is a convenient desert, with lots of abandoned mineshafts to put idiots down. Of course, we are nice guys; we would never put a rabbit down there alive; they would already be dead."

Scrub hare in South Africa Bushhase

Wikipedia

Oh.

Now look how beautiful the ocean is with