Ponzi Schemes and a Notorious Slumlord Intersect at Problem Property

Post, photo, and image by the Hawthorne Hawkman.

When a few concerned NoMi residents got together this week to pick up trash and note potential problem properties along 4th St N, one place that stuck out was 2520 4th St N.  According to the city's website, this house is owned by a mysterious-sounding entity called Entrust Midwest LLC.  Now why is it, I thought, that this name rings a bell for me?  What's significant about Entrust Midwest?  So of course I Googled "Entrust Midwest LLC," but before I could even finish typing, this autopopulated:

"Entrust Midwest lawsuit" is the second item that comes up automatically.

Now, before we start to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes, I'm giving you all a fair warning.  When we start to scratch the surface of such topics, we generally have the same experience as watching a plumber work on your house, or going on a third date with someone who has unresolved daddy issues.  Finding out unwanted, unpleasant information is pretty much a given.  So don't say I didn't warn you about Entrust Midwest, which has been caught up in the infamous...

Picking Up Trash and Watching 4th Street

Post and second photo by the Hawthorne Hawkman.  First photo contributed anonymously.

Earlier this week, two neighbors and I took time out of our day to pick up trash along 4th Street North from 26th Street down to 24th.  We brought along 3 heavy-duty garbage bags usually reserved for Clean Sweep events.  Two of the three bags started to rip from the collective weight of liquor bottles we picked up.  This, unfortunately, is not an exaggeration.  But a funny thing happens when you walk around picking up garbage.  You have a convenient excuse to spend a fair amount of time watching a block and gathering details.  Heck, some of the people hanging out on the streets just assume that if we're picking up garbage we must be with Sentence to Serve or some such agency.  Since the only conceivable reason to pick up litter is getting caught breaking the law, then maybe, in the eyes of the thugs, we're all right.

In the top photo, we see a crowd gathered at 326 25th Ave N, which seems to bolster the claim by Michael Bell that people at that address are part of the problem too.  That contributed photo, however, was not taken during the time of the garbage pick-up.  I just like the juxtaposition of the squad car in the rearview mirror.

What we did see was a slew of problem properties, owned by some familiar faces - starting with...