On a philosophical level, it's almost heartening that The
Herald has discovered a landlord of federally subsidized housing who
actually lives in federal housing himself notoriously rough
federal housing at that.
>
> Certainly Ivory McCutcheon challenges the usual stereotype of
the Section 8 landlord, living far from his rental properties in a gated
community behind a guardhouse.
>
> Though, come to think it, Ivory Dania's most infamous
absentee landlord certainly lives far from his property in a gated
community behind several guardhouses.
>
> McCutcheon, 65, is a federal prisoner serving a 22year
sentence. Which makes him and the $200,000 in federal housing subsidies he
has
received since 1991 an embarrassment to the Dania Housing Authority.
>
> Worse, McCutcheon was convicted of drug trafficking. Which
raises the subsidies embarrassment to a likely violation of federal law.
>
> Two years ago, drug trafficking was moved into a superheinou
s
category in connection with federal housing. If McCutcheon was serving out
a conviction for murder, rape, child molestation or terrorism, no problem.
A
drug trafficker, however, (apart from other convicts) cannot live in federa
l
housing. And he cannot rent apartments to folks receiving federal housing

subsidies. >
> The mystery, however, is that Ivory has property to rent. In
1991, the feds scarfed up 27 pieces of his property in Broward County,
31 in Indian River and Palm Beach counties, including federally
subsidized apartments, his office (furnished with a kingsize bed) and
homes where McCutcheon housed his various girlfriends, one furnished
with 24karat goldinlaid furniture.
> Lots of loot
>
> The cops took in addition to houses and warehouses and
apartments cars, motor homes, vans, dump trucks, construction equipment
and
boats. Stuff worth more than $5 million. It made for great splashy news.
Good TV. Grand quotes from law enforcement honchos. ``This cuts off the
head of the organization.''
>
> Dania officials explained, after the embarrassing revelation
in The Herald Sunday that its Housing Authority was unwittingly paying
gobs of subsidies to a jailbird, that they had sort of assumed that the
property still belonged to the feds.
>
> Usually, they'd be right. The feds employ Draconian powers
under the civil forfeiture statutes. The U.S. government can seize property
purchased with drug money or property it thinks was used or intended to
be used in a crime.
>
> Broad seizure powers
>
> It can seize whole estates, great yachts if only a single
joint is discovered. The Atlantic Monthly reported in its April issue
that in 80 percent of the $1.5 billion worth of seizures in 1994,
property owners were never even charged with a crime.
>
> Yet, here was old coke kingpin Ivory, charged, convicted,
jailed. But in 1994, the government returned twothirds of his real
estate, including his subsidized rental apartments. Plus they write him a

check for $293,944.98 for rent collected since the seizure.
>
> That transactions was so odd, so mysterious, so utterly
unthinkable, it's easy to understand why the folks in Dania were confused

about who owned what.
> Though, someone ought to have noticed that the monthly subsid
y
checks were made out to ``the benefit of Ivory McCutcheon.'' Not the FBI.
>
> Of course, the only persons really affected in the mess are
the halfdozen poor tenants who've got to find other digs. Some place,
perhaps, where the landlord lacks Ivory McCutcheon's inside experience.
>
>
>
> Copyright A9 1997 The Miami Herald
>
>Bill & or Ginger Warbis
>WebMaster@Fornits.com http://fornits.com/
>"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
>Tacitus, Roman senator and historian (A.D. c.56 c.115)
>
Mark Greer
Media Awareness Project (MAP)
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.mapinc.org/