Liberty City Scammer in Jail for Fraud
Developer stole nearly $1 million from the city of Miami
By HANK TESTER
Updated 4:15 PM EST, Thu, Oct 29, 2009
A developer who promised to deliver affordable healthcare to impoverished Liberty City has been arrested for stealing public money and breaking that promise instead.
Dennis Stackhouse slipped out of jail Wednesday after posting a $40,000 bond and faces two counts of first-degree organized scheme to defraud and two counts of first-degree grand theft.
"He faces serious criminal charges," says Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. "It (the project) provided hope and dreams, upward to 3,500 jobs, revitalization and he stole all that from the public."
Stackhouse had promised to develop a huge medical complex in the middle of Liberty City. The promise of the Poinciana Park project also included an economic boost and would have employed 3,500 local residents. Those potential jobs sold neighbors on the idea in the economically-challenged area north of downtown Miami.
What got Stackhouse, 67, into trouble was how he financed the project. He secured funding from two separate agencies. He arranged for a $2.5 million loan from Boston-based Tremont Realty. At the same time Stackhouse generated a $3 million interest-free loan from the Empowerment trust.
According to information in the arrest warrant Stackhouse submitted fake invoices to both organizations billing for the same service and similar amounts. Security services to engineering studies were billed to both lenders.
Rundle said it took several years to work through a maze of bank accounts and to reconstruct the scant records Stackhouse kept. It appears that, according to investigators, the Boston-based developer detoured nearly a million dollar for his own use.
First Published: Oct 29, 2009 2:26 PM EST
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