So down in the land of SW Florida, we had a real estate boom a few years ago.  One of the most prolific brokerages in the area was D’Allesandro & Woodyard (D & W).  They were commercial gods and had their name everywhere.  Mr. Woodyard was more behind the scenes, however his partner Frank D’Allesandro was nationally reknown for making huge deals, selling Wal-Mart their first piece of land down here, and even having his own column in the real estate section of our local newspaper.

Back in the early 2000’s, Frank D hired a guy that was the son-in-law of his best friend.  From here a lucrative relationship followed and I can vouge that they wrote over 15-20 contracts per week at one time for real estate investors.  Additionally they sold almost every square foot of commercial and retail property under the Florida sun.

Fast forward to the infamous real estate crash and the wheels came off.  Rumors were circulating that D & W brokerage committed fraud on numerous occassions including predatory lending (Mr. D’Allesandro was also a hard money lender), theft by deception, forgery, laundering and about a thousand other mafia accusations.

All of a sudden hundreds of civil suits hit D & W and rumors of a federal indictment were now circulating.  At this point in 2007 we were hearing that they would buy and sell / flip land from one investor to another and capitalize on the hefty commissions, preying off gullible investment groups and individuals.  For the record, I do fault the investors to a certain degree for not doing their own due diligence. 

Some people I know, agents with D & W, close affiliates, and mortgage brokers were now being called into the federal building to meet with the FBI.  It only took one of the people to tell a boyfriend/girlfriend and in a town where gossip spreads like wildfire, it became the talk of the town that Frank and his company were feeling the heat and something was about to go down.

There are over a thousand theories as to what happens next.  What I will say is that what seemed like a day before the market crashed, Frank did a huge deal where he sold his preferred construction company to K. Hovnanian, a gigantic New Jersey developer.  K Hov’s books were always solid and this deal would inherit them about 400 homes.  I am not sure the price per home that was sold to KH, but if rumors are right, the price makes me scratch my head as to how smart KHov is. 

More and more pressure is being applied to affiliates for information and it is obvious that D & W are getting nervous.  In September 2007, Mr. D’Allesandro took a trip to Point Pleasant, New Jersey to visit his elderly mother.  Now, the strange thing…and I’m not insinuating anything…but the strange thing is that K Hovnanian whose headquarters are in Red Bank, NJ is only 20 miles from Point Pleasant, where Mr. D went to visit his mother.

I cannot recall the exact date, but one late late night, Mr. D’Allesandro went out for a kayak ride.  Now, Mr. D is an avid kayaker but myself being from New Jersey I was thinking what the hell was someone doing kayaking in the middle of the night in rough Atlantic Ocean waters?

That was the last day anyone ever saw Frank D.  A couple of days later, his body was found floating in the Atlantic, only identified by a tattoo and familiar wetsuit.  His blood alcohol level was .246, over 3 times the legal limit. 

His right hand man, whose name I will withhold was recently in indicted on massive fraud charges and was convicted of 11 counts of fraud in March 2009.  Sentencing comes up in a month and it looks like he is going to get 10 years give or take in federal lockup. 

My question is that how did the biggest real estate empire crash so hard, the owner and broker in charge die in a so-called kayak accident, and his right hand man going to jail?  Considering the company has been around for over 15 years, does it lead you to believe that their reputation, heavy marketing, and fast talking agents created the mess of our market?

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