EXCLUSIVE: Attorney general candidate leaves trail of debt, feuds with ex-clients, lenders
These are among the allegations against
Among his critics are a man serving time in federal prison for running one of the largest pill mill operations in
And amid it all, Siskind is running for
The man whose wife is a
Yet he views himself as above the fray.
He denies all allegations against him and sees no reason why voters won't view him as a perfectly acceptable choice to be the state's top legal officer.
"Believe me, there are solid defenses to every one of their baseless claims," Siskind told
The oxy kingpin's house
The two-story, 4,400-square-foot home has six bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms on a quarter acre in a gated community.
In
There he lived with his wife, Dianna, until Chris and twin brother
Four years after their arrests, the Georges say,
Here's how he did it, according to interviews with the Georges and court and property records:
Initially,
He borrowed the money from the girlfriend of real estate investor and onetime strip club owner
Fearing the federal government would go after their home, George said he took Siskind's advice and transferred the home into a trust in
Nine months later, he said, he paid off the
But the Georges say Watson didn't sign the document she expected to sign, a Satisfaction of Mortgage that would indicate the loan had been repaid.
Instead, Watson signed a form transferring the mortgage from her to
Around that time,
Later, she concluded there was no buyer, and she said it was a ruse to get her out of the house so Siskind's father, William, could move in.
After she moved out, Siskind foreclosed in
The Georges said they had paid. Fiore, who spoke to
Siskind argued that
KEY PLAYERS
Siskind served as the lawyer foreclosing on the Georges' trust even though he had represented the Georges earlier.
Siskind never served the trust with foreclosure papers,
Court records from
Siskind obtained a second key document by trickery, she said.
So the document trail shows clean transfers to Siskind's ownership, all now disputed by the Georges.
In court documents, Siskind attempts to discredit the Georges because of their criminal convictions.
View note
Shortly after taking control of the house, Siskind's father, under Sovereign Gaming, took out a
About nine months later, lenders foreclosed. Sovereign had made no payments, they said.
In addition to losing their home, the Georges said Siskind misappropriated some of the
Chris and
In court documents, Siskind called the
View note
The notes were made through one company, Sovereign Gaming, while the money went somewhere else -- the Siskind law firm's trust account. One note, for
A bankruptcy court attorney has called Siskind's "admitted ... commingling" of attorney trust account assets "troubling" in court filings.
Siskind disputed the notion of commingling accounts but conceded he does treat his trust account as a transfer account. For instance, he said, money from one investor in a project went through a corporate account while others went through the trust account.
Frustrated by Siskind's inability to produce financial reports, the trustee in a bankruptcy of one of Siskind's companies in August subpoenaed the trust account's bank records, a move Siskind is fighting.
View note
Commingling trust accounts is prohibited by the
Several people, including Fiore and
The Bar website lists Siskind as an attorney in good standing.
Looks like
Siskind, 63, grew up in homes in
Siskind is tall, with a sweep of receding gray hair and a smile several of his accusers call disarming. He's been compared in appearance to former Vice President
He attended the exclusive
Siskind opened his law practice, Siskind Legal, in 1997. For years he operated from a shared office with his father on
He moved to
Siskind has a penchant for things that fly. A licensed pilot, he maintains a helipad behind his home. Public photos on his personal Facebook page show him commuting to and from downtown
Siskind declared personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. He listed two reasons for filing: A drop in business and an unresolved dispute over his shares in a
On
He continues to operate his law firm even though it has been listed as inactive in
Some of the Georges'
Siskind made his first foray into medical marijuana in
Siskind tried again in
In
Over the next few months, Siskind and CannaMED President and CEO
In
'Project house'
One of the major investors in CannaMED, Chance & Anthem, paid
The seven-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bath house at
Siskind pitched its potential to be flipped to a few longtime business partners. Instead, it ended up in foreclosure and was sold at auction. Now those business partners say Siskind made off with their cash, along with more than
Two investors, Fiore and
"I've flipped hundreds of homes," Fiore said, adding that the investment was supposed to be secured in
Fiore said he brought potential buyers to Siskind in 2016 with the hope of selling the property, but Siskind declined, saying he had a more lucrative offer, which Fiore said never materialized.
Another investor,
In
The property records also show Chance & Anthem in
Chance & Anthem took out another mortgage on the project house in
Neff said in court filings that Siskind came back to him between receiving the second and third mortgages to ask for another
In total, Siskind's company collected at least
Hands-off claim disproved
When the house sold for
The foreclosure spurred two lawsuits: One from Neff seeking to recoup his money, and one from Fiore and Stone, who sought reimbursement but also accused Siskind of fraud.
Both lawsuits were put on hold when Chance & Anthem declared bankruptcy in
Even though his friend ended up with the house, Siskind told
But village records obtained by
--When
--Zokaites has included Siskind and wife, Tanya -- at her town council account -- on emails to the building department regarding permits.
--
Siskind has attended six meetings regarding the property since losing it in foreclosure,
"He has dealt with us on this project from the beginning," Tomasik said. Siskind also has been involved in obtaining permits and negotiating fees for work on the house, which "needs significant repairs," Tomasik said.
'Bad faith litigation tactic'
Initially, Siskind filed Chance & Anthem's bankruptcy in
The attorney representing the creditors, Steven Newburgh, accused Siskind of using the bankruptcy filing to keep investors from getting their money back. He represented not only lenders on the project house but the Georges as well.
"So what he has done effectively was to file this up in
View note
In arguing to keep the case in
"The court questions whether the filing of this case in
Debts pile up
In various filings, Siskind put Chance & Anthem's assets at
Creditors claimed Chance & Anthem owed more than
--An estimated
--
--A
--
--A
--
--About
SISKIND COMPANIES
Siskind Legal Services: Company through which Siskind practices law.
Sovereign Gaming: Siskind's father, William, is the sole officer of the company that owns the house that once belonged to pill-mill kingpin
Missing or stolen files?
One reason for the wildly fluctuating calculations: Siskind said all his files had been stolen.
His critics say he never kept some records, particularly those for Chance & Anthem.
In Chance & Anthem's
Siskind told bankruptcy trustee Furr that when Siskind was moving from his former
Siskind claimed Gibson instead made off with all the files, although he didn't report the matter to police. Gibson disputes the allegations and a filing from the bankruptcy trustee's outside counsel seems to cast doubt on Siskind's claim.
"
View note
Gibson said the reason there may not be any files is simple: Siskind likely didn't keep any. "I don't think there's ever been any records or books on Chance & Anthem," Gibson told
Gibson, who worked for Siskind's legal practice for about seven years, sued Siskind for legal malpractice in May, four years after Siskind represented Gibson in a criminal matter. It revolved around Gibson's 2009 arrest in
Gibson's false arrest lawsuit was dismissed in 2014. Gibson kept working for Siskind but, four years later, he sued Siskind, saying his longtime employer did not respond in a timely manner to a 2014 court order.
Gibson, who is among Siskind's most vocal critics, said he held off on filing suit until Siskind's personal bankruptcy closed.
'It was zeroed out!'
Among files Siskind said were taken: A ledger where he accounted for money spent for investor
Volkwein is another onetime ally who now says the man who wants to be
In a January affidavit, Volkwein detailed the outstanding loans and investments he made to Siskind from 2007 to 2017.
The total: about
View note
Volkwein said he began to suspect something was amiss in
After asking several times for an accounting, Volkwein said Siskind gave him an undated handwritten "recap" in
Volkwein particularly objected to Siskind's accounting that said he invested
"I never consented to either transaction," Volkwein wrote. "I was shocked and angry that according to Siskind's recap, there was no money left in the attorney escrow account. It was zeroed out!"
In
That nearly
The
Celebrities including
Family home foreclosed
While Siskind has faced numerous foreclosures over the years, he now faces the loss of his own home.
Siskind paid
He and his wife used the home as collateral to borrow
The
The couple owed nearly
View note
Siskind declared a net worth of
However, he listed only
The state requires candidates to describe all their liabilities. In 2014, his bankruptcy plan of repayment listed liabilities of about
Another discrepancy on Siskind's campaign finance form: He lists an initial
As of
Why run now?
With the weight of their allegations against him, some of Siskind's detractors said they don't know why he would run for attorney general.
Asked why he wouldn't wait for litigation to resolve, Siskind issued this statement: "Pending litigation matters are largely nuisance lawsuits related (to) Chance & Anthem's business transactions, and will not affect this candidate's ability to fulfill the requirements of office. ... All of these cases should be resolved by mid-December, well before newly elected officials take office."
"It's complete insanity," Fiore said.
Speaking from a federal prison in
"He's really good ..." he said. "He's very convincing and he's believable even though he's lying.
"It took everybody a while to realize it."
___
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