America is a great country. One minute you’re paying $100 million to the US for racketeering. The next you’re sponsoring awards for vets at the Kennedy Center.
On Wednesday, the new Kennedy Center, under the direction of David Rubenstein, is hosting the Lincoln Awards. They’re brand new. And they’re using Bruce Springsteen as a lure. All the other honorees are deserving people, not celebrities. The show is being taped with lots of guest stars including Aloe Blacc, Arturo Sandoval, Gavin DeGraw, Harvey Keitel, Jerry Lewis, Rhiannon Giddens, and comedian Rob Riggle among others. It’s supposed air on March 4th, if Rubenstein can make a deal with a network or syndicator.
And who’s underwriting this thing? One Leonard Wilf, real estate magnate and co-owner and vice chairman of the Minnesota Vikings. Mr. Wilf and his cousins, Zygi and Mark, settled a 21 year old case in State Supreme Court in New Jersey only 16 months ago in September 2013. They were ordered to pay over $100 million to people they defrauded two decades ago– and kept up their defense for that long. (The Wilfs are appealing the judgment.)
Judge Deanne Wilson– of State Superior Court in Morristown NJ — ruled in August 2013 that the Wilfs blatantly cheated their partners, Josef Halpern of Brooklyn and Ada Reichmann of Toronto, out of more than 20 years of revenues from two apartment complexes in New Jersey.
Judge Wilson really despised the Wilfs, too. She cited their “bad faith and evil motive.” She declared in court that the trio “robbed their partners.” She added: “I do not believe I have seen one single financial statement [from the Wilfs] that is true and accurate.”
On the Wilfs’ website, www.skylinedevelopers.com, there are no bios on the About Us page. Just blank spaces underneath the names. President Lincoln would be so proud.
