Retiree hopes to salvage Pahrump investment

By Jeff German (contact)

Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Like hundreds of others, Dennis London thought he was set for life when he invested his life savings with Pahrump developer Hans Seibt.

But the 55-year-old retired computer programmer, like the others, wound up losing it all after Seibt and his investment companies filed for bankruptcy Sept. 25.

By investing $1.54 million with Seibt on undeveloped land in Pahrump, London became one of the largest individual creditors in Seibt’s bankruptcy proceedings. Another meeting is scheduled for noon today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for creditors looking to get their money back.

London is one of many who contacted the Sun with similar stories following the newspaper’s Nov. 28 article disclosing the collapse of Seibt’s financial empire, now the subject of an FBI investigation.

“I’m just devastated,” London said. “I feel angry and duped. I trusted the man.”

For that trust, London has nothing to show for his $1.54 million except for a small piece of land (where he lives) in the RV park Seibt created in Pahrump. A mortgage company has taken over the park.

London’s misfortune has forced him back into the gloomy job market, something he said he thought he never would have to do after the smooth-talking Seibt entered his life.

With promises that his money would be in good hands, London fell for Seibt’s pitch and moved to Pahrump from the San Francisco Bay area in 2005.

Slowly over the next couple of years, Seibt enticed London to invest all of his money in Pahrump. For a while, London said, he was receiving $5,100 a month from Seibt for his investments — until the checks stopped coming in August, a couple of weeks before Seibt sent out letters indicating he was filing for bankruptcy.

What really ticks off London is that Seibt knew his financial world was falling apart, but kept calling asking for more money right until the end.

London said he used to think Seibt was a caring fellow.

Today, he believes he’s nothing but a “fraud and a liar.”

•••

Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo’s trouble with the law is costing taxpayers a little extra cash.

Court officials are flying a Northern Nevada judge to Las Vegas this month to preside over Abbatangelo’s arraignment on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge to avoid any conflicts of interest with his colleagues on the bench here.

Abbatangelo has been summoned to appear in Justice Court at 9 a.m. Dec. 18 to answer the criminal charge. Lake Tahoe Justice of the Peace Richard Glasson will take the plea.

Court officials also have removed Abbatangelo, who’s being defended by attorney Thomas Pitaro, from hearing any domestic violence cases.

District Attorney David Roger filed a one-count complaint against Abbatangelo last month, accusing him of assaulting his wife, Sue, during an early morning argument on Nov. 12. Sue Abbatangelo is the sister of District Judge Michelle Leavitt.

The couple has been having marital problems.

•••

Sheldon Adelson has agreed in court to stop trying (at least for the moment) to evict from the Palazzo a nightclub owned by restaurateurs Marc Packer and Richard Wolf.

It’s a sign that Adelson has more important fights on his hands — such as trying to save his gaming empire.

The club, Lavo, opened a few months behind schedule in September but is said to be doing well. The same can’t be said about Adelson, whose Las Vegas Sands Corp. is facing a multibillion-dollar cash crunch.

Adelson had the locks changed at the club while it was under construction and sought to break its lease because of its failure to open on time.

Packer and Wolf got a preliminary injunction to stop Adelson from evicting them, and they’ve been battling him in court ever since.

The fight now, however, is over the mundane issues of rent and attorneys fees.