The high profile suspect in a $56.8 million money-laundering scheme has run out of time to clean up his debris-strewn home in a plush northeast Phoenix neighborhood.
Phoenix officials have hired a crew to clear off vegetation and garbage, fill up an excavation site, remove an unsound fence, and board up his house. The work is expected to be completed by Monday.
Bruce D. Love, a suspect in the money-laundering scheme, was to have done the work on his home by May.
"He is long past the 35-day notice," said Christy Blake, a code enforcement supervisor in Phoenix.
The slow place of the clean up has angered residents of the exclusive multi-million-dollar neighborhood at the base of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. The front yard is ringed with a chain-link fence. But the easily accessible back yard is lined with two-feet-deep trenches.
The city is using a so-called abatement procedure to guarantee payment for the estimated $13,000 clean up work, Blake said.
The procedure allows the city to place an assessment, similar to a lien, against the property. If the property is sold, the city will be second in line to get its money after any unpaid taxes are settled, Blake said.
The $13,000 clean up is a break for Love. When he was cited in April with multiple violations, city officials estimated the cost of repairs at $45,000.
The assessment against his house is only one of Love's litany of troubles.
Love and two alleged partners have been indicted on multiple counts of money laundering, conspiracy and other charges for allegedly using their Western Union locations in Phoenix and Mesa to cater to human smugglers, also known as coyotes.
The smugglers allegedly told families awaiting undocumented relatives to wire money for their passage to the suspects' Western Union operations.
Those high volume transactions over the last four years increased their commissions, turning the scheme into a multi-million dollar operation.
The scheme was unveiled in a two-year investigation conducted by the Arizona Financial Crimes Task Force led by Phoenix police.
Love, a physician, also has been banned from direct contact with patients. In 1999, he was described by the Board of Medical Examiners (now Arizona Medical Board) as having a "mental impairment." As a result, the board banned him from personal contact with patients, and prescribing medications. They did not lift his license to practice, and Love operated an "MD by Phone" business for a short time.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0130sr-debris0131-ON.html
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