Several claims and photographs disappeared from a bankrupt Las Vegas businessman’s websites this week after questions were raised about whether they were accurate and appropriate.
The sites promote Jean Marc El Jwaidi and his company Task Commercial Group.
Photos showing El Jwaidi posing with Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson were removed after VEGAS INC asked Wolfson about them. In particular, Wolfson was asked if El Jwaidi had a relationship with the district attorney’s office, since the photos identified Wolfson as the district attorney.
Prior to being appointed district attorney this year, Wolfson had represented El Jwaidi as a private attorney in a criminal case. El Jwaidi was charged with six counts of felony elder exploitation for allegedly using $400,000 from a man’s investment in one of his companies to fund his own lavish lifestyle. El Jwaidi was accused of failing to repay the elderly man, who suffered from diminished mental capacity.
The charges were dropped in 2010 when El Jwaidi paid $338,000 in restitution to the victim.
Wolfson said Monday that after learning the photos identifying him as the district attorney were being displayed on El Jwaidi’s websites, he called El Jwaidi and asked that the photos be removed.
''I didn’t think it was appropriate,'' Wolfson said.
Wolfson said the photos were taken last week when he stopped by El Jwaidi’s office to say hello.
''He’s an old client. I have an acquaintance relationship with him,'' Wolfson said.
El Jwaidi and his attorneys didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The exploitation charges against El Jwaidi were filed after he was arrested in 2009 by state Securities Division investigators in what they called a Ponzi scheme that could have involved as much as $80 million.
Investigators said El Jwaidi in the late 2000s had raised millions of dollars from investors, including the victim in the exploitation case, for development of a mixed-use project called PG Plaza at Russell Road and the Las Vegas Beltway.
The project was never built, land held by El Jwaidi’s company for the development was foreclosed on, El Jwaidi and his company were hit with lawsuits alleging fraud, and both ended up in bankruptcy.
One of El Jwaidi’s attorneys called El Jwaidi the real victim in the case because he had arranged to receive funding from a Connecticut man only to see the man go to prison for defrauding would-be borrowers like El Jwaidi.
El Jwaidi’s personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, involving $19.1 million in debt, remains open.
In the meantime, key pieces of information were removed or altered on El Jwaidi’s websites after VEGAS INC asked about them this week.
For instance, one site said ''Task Commercial Group is one of the largest commercial land development companies within the Las Vegas metropolitan area.''
But records indicate that Task Commercial Group has no business license in Las Vegas or Clark County and that it owns no property in Clark County.
The website was amended to say, ''Task Commercial Group is a commercial land development company within the Las Vegas metropolitan area.''
Another of El Jwaidi's websites had read: ''In 2008, Jean Marc was recognized by In Business Las Vegas Business Profiles, recognizing Jean Marc’s story as one of 'acumen, family loyalty and personal drive for success.'''
In Business Las Vegas is now VEGAS INC. The website’s claims were removed this week after it was pointed out that the ''Business Profiles'' piece was an advertisement, not a news story.
According to state securities investigators, El Jwaidi used the advertisement as a tool to raise money, showing it to potential investors. It was a prominent piece of evidence in a Securities Division cease and desist order issued against El Jwaidi in October 2009. The order barred him from selling unregistered securities, saying he and executives at his company been operating a ''fraudulent scheme.''
Other questionable information brought to the attention of El Jwaidi and his attorneys on Monday remained on at least one website as of Tuesday afternoon.
One site said El Jwaidi had ''successfully developed over 10 million square feet of commercial real estate'' and that he ''single-handedly introduced the urban village and mixed-use concepts to the Las Vegas area.''
The information contradicts files in El Jwaidi’s bankruptcy case in which the trustee of his estate called him ''a neophyte in real estate development'' who ''had no real 'A to Z' experience in the development of real property and had no completed projects on his resume.''
The trustee, William Leonard, said in a report to the court that El Jwaidi had been a manager at a Bernini clothing store before joining real estate development company Triple Five Nevada Development Co. in 2001. His job there included leasing space in several developments, including Boca Park and Village Square, that already had been built or were in the planning stages.