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MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2015 - OCTOBER 18, 2015 - VOLUME 6, NO. 41
Animal Advocates Kick Off ‘Adopt a Shelter Dog’ Month With Protest at Downey Shelter
- Courtesy Photo
Australian Man, Who Was Fugitive for 24 Years, Pleads Guilty An Australian man, who ran the third largest car dealership in the United States before he fled the country 27 years ago, pleaded guilty late yesterday afternoon to federal charges for bank fraud and lying to banks. Eminiano “Jun” Reodica, Jr., 71, ran a fraud scheme that caused nearly $50 million in loss to the banks in the 1980s. At that time Reodica was the President of the Grand Wilshire Group of Companies, which included Grand Chevrolet, then the third largest car dealership in the country. The Grand Wilshire Group was headquartered in Glendora, California. In his guilty plea yesterday, Reodica admitted to en-
gaging in schemes to defraud and making false statements to at least five banks, including Union Bank, Imperial Savings, First Los Angeles Bank, Manilabank, and First Central Bank, from 1984 to 1988. Specifically, Reodica admitted to promising the same car contract as collateral to two different banks at the same time. This scheme involved directing employees to forge customer signatures on car contracts and then promising the forged contract to a second bank. The fraudulent conduct also involved repossessing and reselling cars without telling the banks. Reodica also admitted to hiding from the banks that customers were delinquent on their car
loans. Reodica admitted that he made his employees sign for car loans for cars that they were not really buying so that Reodica could put more money into his businesses. As a result of Reodica’s fraud and false statements, the Grand Wilshire Group and Grand Chevrolet collapsed into bankruptcy in August of 1988 while Reodica fled the United States to his native Philippines. He was missing for over 24 years until FBI agents arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport in November of 2012. At the time of his arrest, Reodica was traveling using an Australian SEE PG.16
Animal advocates protest inhumane treatment of animals at Los Angeles County shelters while the Department of Animal Care and Control continue to deny culpability in their latest report. More than 60 animal advocates and members of the public gathered in peaceful protest at Downey Animal Care Center during National “Adopt a Shelter Dog” Month, on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. Their message was firm: “Mistreatment no more! We want reform!” Demanding that the LA County Department of Animal Care and Control cleans up its act, the protesters took to the streets adorned with mops, brooms, pooper scoopers and cleaning products to drive the point home. Before and After photos of dogs rescued from shelters showing their remarkable transformation while signage included statements such as “End the suffering,” “Stop the neglect and wrongful killings.” There was even SEE PG.16
NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars A new study from the team behind NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity has confirmed that Mars was once, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended period of time. Using data from the Curiosity rover, the team has determined that, long ago, water helped deposit sediment into Gale Crater, where the rover landed more than three years ago. The sediment deposited as layers that formed the foundation for Mount Sharp, the mountain found in the middle of the crater today. "Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point
- Courtesy Photo
between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and co-author of the new Science article published Friday, Oct. 9.
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