Thursday, August 20, 2015

Bajjali attorney: People of Joplin are not entitled to any explanations from my client

Costa Bajjali, former partner in Wallace-Bajjali Development Partners, was in Joplin Wednesday to fight the verdict against him in a civil suit filed by the City of Joplin after Bajjali and David Wallace closed shop here in January.

From the report by KOAM's Jordan Aubey:

Bajjali, according to his attorney, did nothing wrong and doesn't owe the city or residents of Joplin anything.

We asked if people are entitled to an explanation of what really happened with Wallace Bajjali.

"No, I do not think people are entitled to have an answer from my client. I think my client has the right to respond in court where it should be responded to," says Fleischaker.

Bajjali claims he was never told that the city was suing him. A judge will decide if he gets a new trial.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Jordan!

Anonymous said...

Jordan Aubey has been doing some excellent reporting on the audit. While or after Randy was doing his shoe leather reporting at the event, he wrote "Missouri state auditor issues scathing report of Joplin's dealings with Wallace Bajjali", which is the best immediate analysis of the detailed contents of the audit.

Or at least to page 18, where there's a nice bookend of a list of outrageous bills Wallace-Bajjali submitted to the city which it refused to pay, from $161 for pair of shoes to $155 for alcoholic drinks on November 15, 2012 when "Councilmember Mike Woolston, former City Manager Mark Rohr, CART Chairperson Jane Cage, and chamber employee [and future Wallace-Bajjali Joplin manager] Gary Box were in attendance" as well as Wallace and Bajjali.

Begrudging them their shoes and alcoholic entertainment clearly "kept Wallace-Bajjali from doing its job".

Anonymous said...

>>>I think my client has the right to respond in court where it should be responded to,"<<<

I'd rather hear him explain at his sentencing. He would have to be indicted first.

Anonymous said...

Well, Bill Fleischaker has defended some real sleazebags in the past, but this is a new low even for him. Is he doing it pro bono--because they are both broke, right?

Anonymous said...

The thug should of googled his name. He'd a found out he was being sued by joplin. Moron. He owes it, pay it! He also owe Prime their $5 million! PAY IT! Stole from investors over $11 million. Poor people left them all hanging.

Anonymous said...

Here is the deal.

Google them before you sign on the dotted line.

Otherwise you are a sheeple and will soon be sheared.

Anonymous said...

Google them before you sign on the dotted line.

Otherwise you are a sheeple and will soon be sheared.


Depends on who actually gets sheared and to who's benefit.

Hiring Wallace-Bajjali allowed "tornado mayor" and current city councilman Woolston and his cronies to buy 16 properties and flip them to the Joplin Redevelopment Corporation (JRC) for a cool 39% $377,444 profit, a total of $675,424 over their appraised value, and with $11,436 in commissions going "to the realtor/broker firm for which he worked." By comparison, the JRC bought 20 properties for 5 times as much money, but paid $601,540 less than their appraised value.

The JRC did this because Wallace-Bajjali promised, cross their hearts and hope to die, that they would then buy these properties and develop them. Which of course they didn't, although they did collect a 5.75% transfer fee, in one case twice. What, if not for this in progress fleecing of the taxpayers, did Wallace, Bajjali, Woolston, Rohr, "CART Chairperson Jane Cage, and chamber employee [and future Wallace-Bajjali Joplin Project Manager] Gary Box" have to celebrate about with $155 worth of alcohol on November 15, 2012?

How could anyone possibly guess that Wallace-Bajjali would fail to keep their commitments to buy these properties? At the same time they payed that $1.5 million dollars settlement to those Texas investors they'd previously fleeced? I'm sure Woolston and company were shocked by this development (it's not like they were gambling their own money).

Anonymous said...

It's too bad that none of the cheated investors from Houston came to Joplin to warn us about the thieves that Joplin was getting ready to get involved with. It could of saved this city so much.