‘gust 21, 1986 ~ August 27, 1986 RUSSIAN RIVER NEWS Page 10
The man from Las Vegas
This July Mr. Guy Olano Jr, President and
Chairman of the Board of Alliance Savings and Loan
of Kenner, Louisiana was indicted by a federal grand
jury. He was charged with conspiracy to defraud his S
& L, misapplying funds and receiving kickbacks on
loans
Mr. Olano’s troubles might have gone unnoticed by
us had it not been for a single name in the complex
indictment. The indictment alleges that in June of 1984
Mr. Olano issued an unauthorized shortterm loan
commitment from Alliance to "The Convention
Center’ in Las Vegas. The loan commitment was for
$4 million. The indictment goes on to allege that Olano
had sent $500,000 directly to attorney Norman B.
Jenson, one of the Convention Center principals.
‘That same day, the indictment states, Mr. Olano
received a $50,000 kickback from Mr. Jenson for
providing the Alliance loan. The US Attorney states
that the $4 million loan is now in default and the
Project in bankruptey.
‘So what does ali this have to do with Centennial? To
understand one has to begin by leafing through county
real estate records beginning in 1979. During that year
the seafcher finds Norman B. Jenson entering into a
jpint venture agreement with Piombo Construction
Co. One will also find Jenson’s name associated on
deeds with then Piombo employee Sidharth Shah.
This was a full three years before Centennial would
move to purchase Piombo and Shah would join
Centennial.
‘Another name appears that same year in county
records, a mercurial little company, Clipper Land and
Cattle Co. Clipper is seen also transacting some real
estate deals with Sid Shah in 1979, but after 1981 all
reference to the company disappears from county
records. Clipper apparently ceased doing business.
in 1981 and 1982 the names Shah and Jenson can be
found on several county recordings involving Shah's
pet project in Windsor, Lakewood Hills But suddenly
in November of 1982’the two names stop appearing
together in county records, for no apparent reason.
‘What we do know is that just a month later in
December of 1982 Erwin Hansen dropped. the
bombshell announcement that little Centennial, with
net assets of only $13 million, was purchasing’ giant
Piombo Construction Ca. for $13 million, all cash. Sid
Shah had brokered the deal and would become
executive vice president of Centennial, president of
Piombo Corp, and the recipient ‘of 25% of
Centennial’s stock, as well asa six-figure annual salary.
All this came to pass less than 7 months after Shah had
to let his only employee at Lakewood Hills go because
he was out of funds. Broke.
‘Although the man from Las Vegas kept his name
off real estate transactions after 1982, he was not gone.
‘This reporter was shown photos of Hansen and Shah
in the company of Jenson at a gambling casino in Las
Vegas in 1984 and photos of Jenson and Hansen on
board the Centennial company plane. We were told by
reliable sources that on more than one ocassion Jenson
would. pick up Hansen and other Centennial
executives in his Jaguar sedan when they landed at the
Las Vegas airport.
Then eight months after the Centennial takeover
Jenson's and Clipper’s names suddenly reappear in
county records On April 21, 1986, Clipper Land and
Cattle president Stevenson files a notice at the county
designating Norman B. Jenson as Attorney in Fact for
Clipper. Right behind that document Clipper deeds
back to Sid Shah a 169 acre parcel he deeded to
Clipper in 1979. The parcel on Norton Road is
undeveloped and valued on the tax rolls at $133,812.00,
The igned by Norman B. Jenson for Clipper
Land and.Cattie Co.
But try as we did to get a fix on Clipper Land and
Cattle, we could not, The company gave its address in
1979 and 1980 as 50 Santa Rosa Avenue, the Crocker
Building But when we called the property manager