Ned Warren Sr. (aka Nathan Waxman) (1914-1980) was a convicted swindler, known as the "godfather of land fraud" in
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
.
Warren was born Nathan Jacques Waxman in
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. He graduated from
Worcester Academy
Worcester Academy is a co-ed private boarding school in Worcester, Massachusetts serving grades 6-12. It is the oldest school founded in Worcester, Massachusetts, and one of the oldest day-boarding schools in the United States. A coeducation ...
and briefly attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
. He was convicted in 1949 of mail fraud for taking $39,000 from investors to produce a non-existent Broadway play "The Happiest Days," and served time in
Sing Sing
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison for men operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining (village), New York, Ossining, New York, United States. It is abou ...
prison. He also served time in 1959 for bankruptcy fraud.
Yavapai
The Yavapai ( ) are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Their Yavapai language belongs to the Upland Yuman branch of the proposed Hokan language family.
Today Yavapai people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes:
* Fort ...
Counties. They misrepresented the land to investors as being habitable, when the land parcels often lacked paved roads, other improvements or access to utilities. They would also sell the same parcel of land to multiple buyers and sell the same mortgages on these parcels to multiple lenders. The Arizona Attorney General brought suit to dissolve Consolidate Mortgage Corp. for its involvement in land fraud. The corporation was placed in receivership and was dissolved in 1982.
Several people associated with Warren were murdered. Accountant Ed Lazar was murdered in a Phoenix parking garage in February 1975 by two Chicago mafia hitmen (Nick D'Andrea and Robert Hardin) one day before Lazar was scheduled to testify before a grand jury about his dealings with Warren. He had previously testified to the same grand jury that Warren had bribed Arizona real estate commissioner J. Fred Talley. Tony Serra was the sales manager of Great Southwest Land and Cattle Company, a company believed to be controlled by Warren, and had been convicted of land fraud charges in 1974. Serra was brutally murdered in prison in January 1977.
In September 1975, Warren was convicted in Seattle of extortion, along with his son-in-law, Gale Nace. He was sentenced to 12-years in prison, but appealed the case and never served any time for the conviction.[ In 1978, Warren was convicted in Arizona on 20 counts of land fraud and two bribery charges, and was sentenced to 54 to 60 years in prison. He died in October 1980 while in prison.Data Released in Bolles' Death ''Tucson Citizen'' October 2, 1996]
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References
* The Arizona Project by Michael F. Wendlan
* Ex-Convict is Linked to Frauds in Arizona ''New York Times'' March 26, 197
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren Sr., Ned
American businesspeople convicted of crimes
American white-collar criminals
Finance fraud
1980 deaths