The money trail???

This is the latest update. See replies below for the first 4 articles:
http://www.bloggernews.net/120765
Caylee Anthony – The Money Trail – Friends In Low Places

Posted on May 6th, 2009
by Simon Barrett in All News, Op-ed, Society and Culture
Read 1,235 times.

This is just one piece of a fascinating puzzle. In my previous articles I have talked about a number of the other folks who are involved. If you have not read the articles I recommend you do, part1, part2, part3, part4.
The Caylee Anthony case is without doubt a terrible tragedy, and we know that our justice system is created on the premise of innocent until proved guilty. There are few people though that have any doubts that the authorities have the right suspect in Casey Anthony. I also believe that she acted alone and that Caylee’s death was likely accidental.
What surprises me though are the number of colorful and somewhat shady people that are involved in the case. The question that I, and a few other people keep asking is the Why? Why are these people involved, there has to be a reason, and it has to be a financial reason.
One of the names that keeps cropping up in all the wrong places is Mark NeJame. Initially the attorney representing the senior Anthony’s, NeJame was riding the crest of a wave at first, everyone initially fell for the grieving grandparents, however both George and Cindy were making enemies faster than a speeding bullet. NeJame, at least in my opinion, didn’t like the fact that he was being drawn into the Anthony camp, and becoming a bit of a target himself. It was time to rehabilitate his image. He dumped the Anthony’s, and for a short while it looked like NeJame was out of the picture. Not so, like so many of the background characters they keep appearing whenever you turn a rock over. NeJame suddenly buddied up with Tim Miller of Equusearch. Tim Miller seemed like the perfect choice, while the Anthony’s were mired in financial accusations, Tim Miller represented salvation.
Lets take a closer look at our knight in shining armor, Mark NeJame. Here is what we know about the guy, he is a high powered attorney, he has bags of money, has a majority share in the Tabu nightclub, and likes to appear as a supporter of the little guy. A real hero. Oh and of course like almost everyone else involved in this case he mostly works for free. In fact I have come to the conclusion that the only people not working for free are Jan and I. I’d guess that we make about 25 cents an article for following the story!
Mark NeJame is not quite what he seems. He has lots of friends in low places. There are some business links that we are still researching, but I will share what I have so far.
Reach for the Advil and Tums, you will need it by the end of this article.
Lets start with a really interesting aside, remember Lou Pearlman? He was the music promoter of ‘N Sync, and Backstreet Boys that last year fell foul of the law for some fraudulent investments. Oh, its chump change in comparison with Bernie Madoff, Pearlman is only on the hook for 300 million.
Did you know that Lou Pearlman and Mark NeJame are buddies? Lou was a guest at NeJame’s wedding, and NeJame has even represented him.
Actually it was quite the wedding. Not like when Jan and I tied the knot, we caught a city bus downtown, picked up our witness, borrowed a digital camera, caught a cab to the Pastors house, caught another cab to the bar. The reception consisted of a couple of pints of draft beer, a bottle of Baby Duck and some stale Pretzels. Total outlay under $100.
The NeJame’s on the other hand had a slightly more upscale wedding. It has been reported that Josie NeJame flew from Orlando to New York just to get a Hair do for the big event!
One has to wonder if NeJame had any other business dealings with Pearlman?
The one thing that is clear to me is that we are dealing with some slick operators. One of my favorite Authors is John LeCarre, in 1972 he penned a classic book ‘Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy’. The main character is George Smiley, and he is on the quest to find the truth. It does not take Smiley long to realize that the path he is on is one that his mentor had traveled before his death.
I feel a little like George Smiley, the path I am on has been traveled before. My good friend Sean Krause was the pilgrim, and the more I dig, the more I realize that Sean was indeed very close to unlocking the devious knot before Cancer stole him from us.
I sense that Sean was on the same quest, and I share his belief that something smells bad. I have spent countless hours deviling in the paperwork, the trail is there, but it is complex. There are some common themes whichever direction I take. There are names and concepts that keep reoccurring. One of the concepts is money, and lots of it. I doubt that Casey Anthony had any involvement, she was too busy being a party girl to have anything to do with the sharp end. However, there is some speculation that Casey Anthony may have been involved in some sex and drug activity.
As I mentioned before, there are names that crop up again and again, shell companies, inactive companies, and strange associations. What bothers me is that one of those names is Mark NeJame.
The other name that keeps popping up is Peter Benevides. While I cannot find a direct link between them (yet) there are several indirect links. And you can bet I am hunting hard. While I am not sure how much credibility I have in this, but read this article.
I am sure that Sean was working on this same connection. It is way too hot for the MSM (Main Stream Media). Some information surfaced today that I found interesting. Sean had a heart of gold and a mouth that needed washing out! Obviously Jan and I loved the guy! Sean was ready to launch a story about NeJame, but was talked out of it. Sean was a dog, he loved to dig, and he would not launch a story unless he was 150% certain he was right. I am walking in his shoes, I think the story he had put Casey Anthony as a bit player, someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact she is just an unfortunate inconvenience. But, there is that old saying ‘Honor amongst thieves’.
I smell the cleaning of George Washington’s! There is big money involved. I am sure that Sean could smell the same thing. What I do not know is how NeJame talked Sean out of publishing. It is not clear that it was a threat, in fact it seems that it was a tease for some personal help. Of course that help never materialized, and Sean is now dead.
I am reasonably certain that Mark NeJame will read this article. So, Mark drop me a line, and we will be happy talk to you. (Just click on the big black box on the right of the screen, that is the email link).
Simon Barrett

Here's part 1:
Caylee Anthony – The Money Trail (part 1)

Posted on April 24th, 2009
by Simon Barrett in Society and Culture
Read 8,149 times.

Before Sean Krause passed away he made some comments to me concerning the Caylee Anthony case. At the time they were somewhat cryptic, and I did not understand what he was referring to. But there is one thing that I do know and that is fiscal forensics are a very powerful tool. The money trail reveals as much as a fingerprint. In fact I have a friend who is a fiscal forensics expert. I am now beginning to see what Sean was talking about. It is a complex puzzle, and I am still working on unraveling one last complex knot.
Much has been made of the computer data, and Nancy Grace loves to have David Lucich on her show. David is a supposed computer forensics expert. Personally I think his book (which I did review) is a pile of doggy do, and we followed up with a less than satisfying interview. Essentially he told me that if I delete files and traces from my own computer I would potentially be breaking the Law! What a crock!
Data on your own computer can be fiddled with. Hell, I reformat my hard drives more often than most people eat out. But financial data is a different beast. It is stored in multiple locations, none of which are available for tinkering with.
The money trail tells the story as eloquently as Shakespeare.
Jose Baez and for that matter, the whole Anthony family have been ducking the awkward financial questions. Everyone seems to be living the high life, yet no one is fessing up to who is footing the bills. Neither George or Cindy Anthony have worked in months, suspected tot killer Casey sits quietly in jail eating Twinkies or whatever else she can order from the commissary.
There is one name that keeps cropping up, connections that certainly gave me pause for thought. We have foot soldiers working on it, and this is going to be big!
Money is a drug, and indeed this link is a drug. Lets take a look at the ‘interested’ parties. Obviously that would include Casey Anthony and her parents George and Cindy Anthony. There is also the question about who is paying Jose Baez and his merry band of people.
I am pretty certain that I know the name of the Money Guy, but I am waiting for some verification.
What I do not understand is why he would keep throwing money at the problem.
Oh and this same one name keeps cropping up. I am not ready to announce it, but I will share this, he has more money than sense, and is linked to the drug trade, likely Jan and I should move when we launch this article and will need to change our names!
Simon Barrett
http://www.bloggernews.net/120612

Part 2:
Caylee Anthony – The Money Trail (part 2)

Posted on April 25th, 2009
by Simon Barrett in All News, Society and Culture
Read 3,878 times.

I will say right now, this is not the big story, this is something that fell out from hours and hours of research and needs to be published. Most of this information has already been published, just not in one single place.
The more I look at the Caylee Anthony case the stranger things get. Lets take a look at one of the organizations playing in the sand box, Kidfinders. The founders of this organization are Dennis and Sherri Milstead. Dennis seems to have a fairly colorful past having been arrested for the felony of impersonating a police officer, although he did mange to bargain it down to a misdemeanor, then seven months later he was arrested for assault.
On the civil side he has a pretty impressive list of court cases against him, Ford Credit was on his case, presumably for an auto loan, and a couple of landscaping companies for non payment of invoices, oh non trivial invoices, from the court records they were over $3000 each.
Mr Milstead certainly has a fiery temper that was seen when he took umbrage at a TV reporter.
Now lets turn our attention to their latest endeavor Kidfinders. What does this organization do? Well, to the best of anyones knowledge they have yet to actually find anyone, they raise money and sell T-shirts, moving billboards they call it. They are registered as a charity and as such one would suspect that it would be hard to make a whole lot of cash from an operation like this. One thing is clear, they do have a knack for fund raising. They proved that with the Caylee Anthony T-shirts that George and Cindy Anthony were so proudly wearing day in and day out.
I spent some quality time on the Florida Department Of State – Division Of Corporations web site www.sunbiz.org. Actually I have spent hours on this site, too many to even think about. Investigative reporting is not glamorous, it it hours of running down one way streets.
There is not a lot of information about Dennis Milstead but there are some interesting records about his wife and co-founder of Kidfinders Sherri Milstead.
Three companies in particular (oh they have lots!) caught my eye Gotcha Billboards, The Sign Store, and American Graphics And Sign Shop. I would put a link in to the page, but the site (www.sunbiz.org ) offers only database look ups, but if you search for ‘Milstead, Sherri’ you will find the lovely details. Now, before anyone leaps to any conclusions, I will point out that all of these entities are marked as inactive. However, it does not seem to stretch my imagination much that the Milstead’s likely have the knowledge and equipment to stick images on a T-shirt in a ‘for profit’ fashion. I will let you draw your own conclusions. I have drawn mine.
The Milstead’s are at best bit players in this saga, but they are part of it. They form part of an interesting interrelationship with some bigger fish.
Simon Barrett
http://zzsimonb.blogspot.com
http://www.bloggernews.net/120622

Part 3:
Caylee Anthony – The Money Trail (part 3)

Posted on April 26th, 2009
by Simon Barrett in All News, Society and Culture
Read 1,922 times.

In part 2 we took a look at Kidfinders, they are just bit players. A much more interesting outfit to examine is The Never Lose Hope Foundation. These folks have some interesting connections, and indeed by connecting the dots we can come to some interesting conclusions. But for now lets just concentrate on Never Lose Hope’s key players.
At center stage, at least as portrayed to the public is William Rivera, his business interests are varied, but among his endeavors he is involved with a telemarketing operation Florida Telemarketing Associations Inc. Also listed as an officer of that company is Parrish Mateo, Mateo in turn owns a number of companies registered in the names Parrish and Parrisch. One of those companies is Resolutions Corporation Center. I found this lovely advertisement for the company. They seem like really nice people to avoid like the plague. In fact a Google on this company reveals quite a trail of upset customers. It is also rumored, and I am trying to verify this, Parrish may have some business interests with another very key player in the Anthony case.
The truly strange thing about Never Lose Hope Foundation is that virtually nothing is known about it. Some serious Googling really told me nothing, the corporation is almost a ghost, there seem to be no recipients of NLHF’s largess other than the Anthony family. Equally unclear is where their revenue stream.
It was apparently this organization that provided the money to Kidfinders to build the famous Bat Boat aka the S.S. Caylee Marie. A bigger waste of $30,000 I cannot conceive of.
William Rivera is touted as the head honcho of NLHF, yet digging around on my current favorite website www.sunbiz.org shows a different story. The principals listed are Richard Wade, Joseph Rossi, And Mike Harris. Richard Wade incidentally is also named as an officer of the Florida Telemarketing Associations Inc, the company owned by the esteemed William Rivera.
All in all the Never Lose Hope Foundation creates a very curious paper trail. One wonders what possible link there can be between a charitable organization and a telemarketing operation? Of course if I was a cynic I might think fund raising. Certainly they have the infrastructure. And could conceivably contract themselves to do the fund raising. This would be an interesting and creative way of turning a ‘Not For Profit’ into a profit center.
That also leads us on to the next level of the money trail. In the next article we are going to take a guided tour of a small downtown area of Orlando. There sure are some interesting folks who hang out in small geographic area.
Simon and Jan Barrett
http://www.bloggernews.net/120628

Part 4:
Caylee Anthony – The Money Trail (part 4)

Posted on April 28th, 2009
by Simon Barrett in All News, Society and Culture
Read 4,606 times.

It is up to you to draw your own conclusions. As soon as I have more, I will publish.
I am going to take you back to events that happened last year. Suddenly the reward was bumped by $100,000 for Caylee’s safe return by a quote ‘Florida businessman’, some organizations even named him. The name mentioned was one Peter Benevides.
Peter Benevides is an interesting character. Worth a reported $380 million dollars, he is a big dog.

There are some interesting things about this guy. His business interests include an exotic car rental firm, and several aircraft leasing and selling ones.
Let me tell you a story. Lets say someone was selling raffle tickets at $25 each. The prize was an exotic sports car, actually lets say there was a plan to offer three different drawings. The problem is… no one has been verified as winning. That company was Skyview Exotic Cars. The owner of this company is Peter (Pedro) Benevides.
Oh, and the best part about this is that a portion of the proceeds were supposedly going to charity. In fact the tickets actually mention the Never Lose Hope Foundation.
The car (if it exists) was going to be coming from Peter Benevides’ stable. He has quite the stable of exotic cars. Check out the ones he has for rent.
Mentioning the name Peter Benevides seems to be a real conversation killer. Several folks that I know quite well headed for the hills at the mention of the name. Benevides is so hot, people melt. Rumors are wonderful things, I’ll share what I have been told, his folks pack heat, and you basically do not want to mess with Mr Benevides.
Planes and Cars are his main schtick, and a wander around www.sunbiz.org shows that. Peter owns several lucrative operations. At the forefront is the car rental, but the big one is the business jets.
When you play around in the jet interests some really interesting things start to emerge. Peter Benevides is open about being from Venezuela. And there is anecdotal evidence that Pedro is the Spanish spelling of Peter. Indeed there are a couple of corporations registered at the same location as Pedro Benevides.
Is this the same guy that is mentioned here?
So here are some questions, and think long and hard before you answer:
What is in it for Peter?
What has Mark NeJame got to do in this?
Yes i know that I have left NeJame out until this point, but my little friends tell me he has more to say.
No. none of these people were involved in killing Caylee Anthony. They were not the folks responsible for ‘dead body odor’. But what does amaze me is how strange this case has become. A look at South Orange Avenue should excite everyone. Who lives there? Who hangs out there?
There is little doubt in my mind that Peter Benevides is the money guy.
Never Lose Hope Foundation and Kidfinders are saying that the ‘Bat Boat’ was funded by an anonymous source. It would not surprise me to find that Peter Benevides was the person.
Of course the question I have is why would he want to? People do not get rich being nice?
I will add a new element, why would Mark NeJame be involved? NeJame is a class act, he has a great resume. Why would he want to play in this sand box? That is another story.
I will say this, Pedro Benevides has a resume that scares me. More than one person has suggested that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle I should find a new hobby.
By no means am I done with this story. But for the doubters, I have now named the name!
I can not verify this, but, no one is willing to deny it. Read this, is this the same guy?
Simon Barrett
http://www.bloggernews.net/120671