Manheim and The Mob...I Don't Get It.
07/21/11 12:11
I am not trying to be a rabble-rouser (!), but I read the following two online pieces with some questions....
Article #1
Manheim, Renovo Services Partner to Move Repos Quicker
June 17, 2011 | ATLANTA
By Auto Remarketing Staff
Manheim announced a strategic partnership with Renovo Services to begin selling repossessed vehicles directly from secured storage facilities across the country.
The recent agreement means Renovo will list its repossessed vehicles directly on OVE.com, allowing dealers faster access to vehicle inventory.
Once a vehicle is purchased, it will be transported directly from one of Renovo’s secured storage facilities to the buyer’s lot.
“Manheim is pleased to begin this partnership with Renovo — they’re the best at what they do, and we believe they will provide our customers high-quality vehicles,” stated Manheim’s Nick Peluso, who is senior vice president of customer management.
“This alliance is another way Manheim will be able to offer our dealers an even larger selection of inventory further upstream in the remarketing cycle.”
This partnership comes on the heels of Renovo Services rolling out new brand strategies and company websites. Auto Remarketing previously reported these details here.
Kevin Flynn, Renovo’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Manheim is the leading remarketing company in the industry, so they are the ideal partner to help us expand our portfolio of services.
“Partnering with Manheim provides our lenders more convenient service, ensuring fewer days to sale and improved cost-savings on vehicle transportation,” Flynn added.
Article #2
“Waste Management, the trashy conglomerate with a long history of ties to organized crime, contributed $5,000 to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's campaign coffers on November 29, 2009. As explained in the following story from the current issue of the St. Louis Journalism Review, former WM exec Donald Flynn and his son, Kevin Flynn, were denied an Illinois license to operate the proposed Emerald Casino in Rosemont, Ill. because of ties to the Chicago mafia.
An investor in the Chicago Sun-Times also holds a stake in a Soviet-era military aircraft owned by Illinois powerbroker Gary Fears.
A bankruptcy case filed in St. Louis last fall on behalf of Air Support Systems LLC shows that former Illinois casino operator Kevin Flynn holds a $1.3 million stake in the corporation’s only asset – a gargantuan Soviet-era military aircraft worth millions of dollars.
Since securing an interest in the refueling tanker – which has been stranded for a year at a former Air Force base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – Flynn has made another investment.
He is now part owner of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Flynn, 42, was among ten co-investors who bought the financially troubled tabloid in October, according to the Chicago Tribune. Other investors include William and Robert Parrillo, whose father was an attorney for Al Capone. Flynn is alleged to have more recent ties to Chicago organized crime. In 2001, the Illinois Gaming Board yanked his long-dormant state license because two of his investors had ties to the Chicago mob.
At the time of the revocation, Flynn and his father, Donald Flynn, a former executive of Waste Management Inc., were seeking to transfer their gaming license from the shuttered Silver Eagle casino in East Dubuque, so they could operate the proposed Emerald Casino in Rosemont, a Chicago suburb. Investors in the casino deal included an aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Donald Flynn, 70, is CEO of LKQ Corp., a Chicago-based national auto salvage company. Kevin Flynn heads Renovo Services LLC, a multi-state vehicle repossession operation.
Gary Fears, the 64-year-old owner of Air Support Services, met the Flynns in the 1990s, when they operated the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Ind. Kevin Flynn and Fears were later involved in a failed Indian casino development in California.
Fears, who is the subject of an investigative series in the online journal FOCUS/Midwest, resides in Boca Raton, Fla. But his career is rooted in Madison County, Ill. politics, where he made his bones decades ago as an operative for then-Gov. Dan Walker. Since leaving public life, he has traded on his insider status to parlay a series of controversial deals into a financial empire”
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As the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comes online, it is surprising that Manheim would align itself with an entity with “ties to organized crime” to help liquidate its clients’ (largely FDIC-insured banks, and credit unions) collateral. Millions of dollars worth of collateral will be passing through the hands of Flynn’s business.
He also lost a $7m lawsuit late last year, a result of fiduciary irresponsibility. http://milawyersweekly.com/news/2010/12/03/shareholders-claim-improper-corporate-sale-at-fire-sale-price/
It strikes me as odd that Manheim would partner with an organization with such a reputation. Renovo was also named as being highly problematic in the recent publication (“Repo Madness”) by the National Consumer Law Center.
Several of us in the industry have met with the man in charge of the day-to-day operations at Renovo, a man named David Cowlbeck. Cowlbeck is highly intelligent and ver personable, and very knowledgeable about the repossession industry. However it seems to me that Renovo’s methodology of who and how they pay their field operators virtually guarantees that Renovo is partnered with a segment of the repossession industry that...well....is often more than a little on the sketchy side.
Article #1
Manheim, Renovo Services Partner to Move Repos Quicker
June 17, 2011 | ATLANTA
By Auto Remarketing Staff
Manheim announced a strategic partnership with Renovo Services to begin selling repossessed vehicles directly from secured storage facilities across the country.
The recent agreement means Renovo will list its repossessed vehicles directly on OVE.com, allowing dealers faster access to vehicle inventory.
Once a vehicle is purchased, it will be transported directly from one of Renovo’s secured storage facilities to the buyer’s lot.
“Manheim is pleased to begin this partnership with Renovo — they’re the best at what they do, and we believe they will provide our customers high-quality vehicles,” stated Manheim’s Nick Peluso, who is senior vice president of customer management.
“This alliance is another way Manheim will be able to offer our dealers an even larger selection of inventory further upstream in the remarketing cycle.”
This partnership comes on the heels of Renovo Services rolling out new brand strategies and company websites. Auto Remarketing previously reported these details here.
Kevin Flynn, Renovo’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Manheim is the leading remarketing company in the industry, so they are the ideal partner to help us expand our portfolio of services.
“Partnering with Manheim provides our lenders more convenient service, ensuring fewer days to sale and improved cost-savings on vehicle transportation,” Flynn added.
Article #2
“Waste Management, the trashy conglomerate with a long history of ties to organized crime, contributed $5,000 to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's campaign coffers on November 29, 2009. As explained in the following story from the current issue of the St. Louis Journalism Review, former WM exec Donald Flynn and his son, Kevin Flynn, were denied an Illinois license to operate the proposed Emerald Casino in Rosemont, Ill. because of ties to the Chicago mafia.
An investor in the Chicago Sun-Times also holds a stake in a Soviet-era military aircraft owned by Illinois powerbroker Gary Fears.
A bankruptcy case filed in St. Louis last fall on behalf of Air Support Systems LLC shows that former Illinois casino operator Kevin Flynn holds a $1.3 million stake in the corporation’s only asset – a gargantuan Soviet-era military aircraft worth millions of dollars.
Since securing an interest in the refueling tanker – which has been stranded for a year at a former Air Force base in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – Flynn has made another investment.
Flynn, 42, was among ten co-investors who bought the financially troubled tabloid in October, according to the Chicago Tribune. Other investors include William and Robert Parrillo, whose father was an attorney for Al Capone. Flynn is alleged to have more recent ties to Chicago organized crime. In 2001, the Illinois Gaming Board yanked his long-dormant state license because two of his investors had ties to the Chicago mob.
At the time of the revocation, Flynn and his father, Donald Flynn, a former executive of Waste Management Inc., were seeking to transfer their gaming license from the shuttered Silver Eagle casino in East Dubuque, so they could operate the proposed Emerald Casino in Rosemont, a Chicago suburb. Investors in the casino deal included an aide to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Donald Flynn, 70, is CEO of LKQ Corp., a Chicago-based national auto salvage company. Kevin Flynn heads Renovo Services LLC, a multi-state vehicle repossession operation.
Gary Fears, the 64-year-old owner of Air Support Services, met the Flynns in the 1990s, when they operated the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Ind. Kevin Flynn and Fears were later involved in a failed Indian casino development in California.
Fears, who is the subject of an investigative series in the online journal FOCUS/Midwest, resides in Boca Raton, Fla. But his career is rooted in Madison County, Ill. politics, where he made his bones decades ago as an operative for then-Gov. Dan Walker. Since leaving public life, he has traded on his insider status to parlay a series of controversial deals into a financial empire”
******************************
He also lost a $7m lawsuit late last year, a result of fiduciary irresponsibility. http://milawyersweekly.com/news/2010/12/03/shareholders-claim-improper-corporate-sale-at-fire-sale-price/
It strikes me as odd that Manheim would partner with an organization with such a reputation. Renovo was also named as being highly problematic in the recent publication (“Repo Madness”) by the National Consumer Law Center.
Several of us in the industry have met with the man in charge of the day-to-day operations at Renovo, a man named David Cowlbeck. Cowlbeck is highly intelligent and ver personable, and very knowledgeable about the repossession industry. However it seems to me that Renovo’s methodology of who and how they pay their field operators virtually guarantees that Renovo is partnered with a segment of the repossession industry that...well....is often more than a little on the sketchy side.
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