Including information about his associates
November 9, 2001
Legion for the Survival of Freedom, parent corporation of the Institute for Historical Review, yesterday was served with a new lawsuit, in another bizarre twist in Willis Carto’s continuing attacks on IHR. This lawsuit, allegedly filed by Hereford Corporation in Panama and Hans-Dirk Oldemeier in Germany, names LSF and Willis and Elisabeth Carto as defendants. However, Hereford Corporation is an alter ego
of the Cartos (Elisabeth Carto was born in Herford, Germany), and David Stroud, the attorney who filed the suit, shares office space with Brian Urtnowski, long-time Carto and Liberty Lobby attorney in California.
Hereford Corporation is listed on property tax records as the owner of Carto’s hillside mansion in Escondido, California. For years, Carto claimed that he was simply renting the house, and had nothing to do with Hereford. Later, during a deposition in the Cartos’ failed lawsuit against the city of Costa Mesa for its part in the April 1995 SWAT team raid on his home, Carto acknowledged under oath that he had formed Hereford Corporation as a holding entity for his California property, and that it was under his control. (This transfer was part of Carto’s extensive efforts to make himself judgment-proof by retaining control of assets that seemed not to be in has name.) For years after making this admission, the Cartos challenged any assertion that they controlled Hereford or the property. Once Carto even appeared in court claiming to be J. W. Young,
in the capacity of agent for Hereford, during an easement dispute.
After it was established that Carto did indeed control Hereford, Judge Runston Maino ruled that Hereford was an alter ego
of Carto, and that the house could be seized and sold in partial satisfaction of Carto’s multi-million dollar debt to LSF/IHR. As a result, Carto again began claiming in bankruptcy court and elsewhere that the property really did belong to him, so he would get the homeowner’s exemption when the house was sold at sheriff’s auction. This exemption was granted in Federal bankruptcy court in April 1999.
Now, however, Hereford
has come forward to claim in effect that Carto has been lying about owning the property, alleging that the Cartos gave the mansion to Elisabeth’s nephew, Hans-Dirk Oldemeier, who now supposedly controls Hereford Corporation.
This suit apparently is Carto’s latest attempt to delay the court-ordered sale of his house, now set for sometime after January 21, 2001.