Luck scorns a lady: LV woman one of many after seized property

Wednesday, April 25, 2001 | 10:23 a.m.

Lifelong Las Vegan Tonia Verma has a dream of one day building a custom home on prime real estate in her hometown.

At a government auction Tuesday, the MGM MIRAGE data systems employee came close several times to achieving that goal as she raised her No. 15 bidder's ticket on all 13-plus acres of northwest Las Vegas land confiscated by the government from a convicted tobacco smuggler.

But she did not register a winning bid.

After the auction at 8650 W. Washburn Road just southwest of Durango Drive and Ann Road, Verma was empty-handed but in good spirits, noting that she bid only what she thought the properties were worth.

"There'll be other opportunities," said Verma, a Clark High School and UNLV graduate. "These properties are in a good area for building a custom home.

"Auctions like this are good because they give the government a chance to get some of the money back (from convicted criminals)."

The noon poolside auction conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs Service/EG&G Technical Services and Phoenix auctioneer Paul Leiker, drew more than 100 bidders who had to put up cashier's checks ranging from $5,000 to $70,000 just to get a bid card. The auction raised $1,102,500.

It was the last of a number of auctions held nationwide to recoup ill-gotten gains of Las Vegan Larry Miller, who was convicted in upstate New York of smuggling cigarette shipments through the St. Regis Indian Reservation into Canada.

Because his former Las Vegas home on Washburn and the other three vacant lots have 30 days to close, EG&G, which in 1990 was contracted by the government to manage and dispose of the Treasury Department's seized property, did not immediately release a grand total from the sale of all of Miller's confiscated possessions.

Previously auctioned Miller property included a horse trailer, 1992 Cadillac, a house boat, a 5.6-carat diamond ring, Leroy Neiman serigraphs, a large mint coin and paper money collection, silver bars, another house and a Massena, N.Y., restaurant.

Miller worked his smuggling scheme with an affiliate of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco International, the government said, noting the tobacco company paid fines and forfeitures totaling $15 million. Miller and his associates were ordered to forfeit nearly $6 million in assets gained from the smuggling profits, the government said.

The real estate sold Tuesday included the 23-year-old, 2,900-square-foot, three-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath single-level house with two two-car garages, a kidney-shaped swimming pool and horse corral on 1.19 acres.

Also sold were a 1.05-acre residential lot on Ann Road, a 1.02-acre residential lot on El Capitan Way and a 10-plus acre residential parcel on El Campo Grande Way.

The house and land on Washburn sold for $285,000, with Verma giving up when the price topped her $225,000 bid. She said after the auction she was not too disappointed because the house with the wooden shingles "needs work."

The man who bought the property declined to give his name or be interviewed by a Sun reporter.

The Ann Road property sold for $72,500, while the El Capitan Way land sold for $137,500 to different bidders.

The 10-acre parcel at El Campo Grande initially was broken into four equal lots, and Verma actually won one of them for $142,000. However, she lost it via a complicated bidding system that allowed for each lot to be sold individually and then to be resold as one large parcel at a bid greater than the sum of the four individual parcels.

In the end, a single bidder won all four parcels for $603,500. He too declined to give his name and be interviewed.

Sean Fraley, a spokesman for EG&G, also declined to release the names of the winning bidders. He said, however, that he was pleased with the number of bidders.

The government paid all back taxes on the land and guaranteed clear title. The buyers used as down payments either their winning bids or 10 percent on amounts greater than $200,000. As Verma left the auction, a real estate agent handed her a business card, noting that she might have something for her. Verma might just get her dream home after all.