Free Republic

A Colorado company suing the owner of the exclusive Yellowstone Club to recoup a $13 million debt has asked a federal judge to issue a warrant for her arrest after she failed to appear at a scheduled court hearing. The U.S. District Court in Colorado issued a separate arrest warrant on Feb. 13 for owner Edra Blixseth's son, Matthew Crocker, the principal developer of Bozeman's stalled Story Mill Development. As of late Wednesday night, the judge had not issued a warrant for Blixseth, who had been ordered to appear earlier in the day for a hearing to determine the location...

BILLINGS, Mont. – Bankruptcy Court documents show Montana's exclusive Yellowstone Club resort for the ultra-rich owes more than $343 million to creditors ranging from banks to local contractors. The residential club, which includes a members-only ski hill on 13,400 acres in the Gallatin Mountains, filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, along with three related companies. The move followed what critics described as a spending spree in recent years by the club's founders, Tim and Edra Blixseth, even as the luxury real estate market stagnated. That included the purchase of at least four foreign estates and fleets of...

After invoking the Fifth Amendment 220 times under five hours of questioning Thursday, an investigator for Sheriff Joe Arpaio blurted out an impassioned tale that the sheriff's office investigated the federal judge overseeing Arpaio's contempt-of-court hearing because the judge was "a victim" of the federal government's illegal seizure of his bank and IRS records. The court heard a number of audio recordings Zullo made with his iPhone... In another recording, former billionaire Tim Blixseth tells Arpaio that then-Senator Barack Obama had hired computer hackers to doctor Obama's birth certificate and change Florida voting records to alter redistricting efforts. Blixseth said...

A Swiss bank that used its Cayman Islands’ branch to engage in what a US federal judge has branded “predatory lending practices” is being investigated by the US authorities. Senior officials of Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, are facing claims that they pocketed millions of dollars by dishing out loans that were impossible to repay. On Tuesday, 15 September, 31 of the bank’s officials received subpoenas demanding that they hand over internal documents that explain why they loaned $375 million to the now bankrupt Yellowstone Club in 2005. The Yellowstone Club, founded by American tycoon Tim Blixseth, was once...