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news:
Former professor
may face more charges
By Jeanne Hoffa
On-line Forty-Niner
A former Cal State
Long Beach professor has federal officials on her trail.
Elena Zagustin,
who arguably achieved infamy when she lost her garbage-packed
home after a 15-year court battle, then fled the state and
abandoned her career rather than face a 30-day jail sentence,
is now being investigated for bankruptcy fraud.
U.S Customs officials
said the Stanford-educated civil-engineering expert was detained
by customs officials at LAX while trying to board an international
flight with undeclared cash in excess of $10,000, around the
time her house was put on the auction block.
International transfers
of money outside the country in excess of a certain amount
must be declared, according to LAX customs officials. When
someone gets caught leaving the county without declaring money,
officials usually seize the cash, then conduct an investigation.
If the person has no other charges, they usually return most
of the money, minus a small fine of usually five to 10 percent.
If there is any evidence of a suspicious background, even
a misdemeanor drug charge, the money is rarely returned.
Customs declined
to press charges at that time, mostly because the money did
not appear to be stolen or drug related.
However, a routine
investigation by the agents into the professor's background
opened the proverbial can of worms that is Elena Zagustin's
life.
The now 64-year-old
had filed for multiple bankruptcies -- not only in California
but in Nevada and Texas as well -- so attempts to transport
large amounts of undeclared cash out of the country might
amount to evidence of bankruptcy fraud.
While the investigation
is ongoing and charges have yet to be filed, a Los Angeles
Customs special agent, who asked not to be identified, called
the cash-smuggling incident "the tip of the iceberg."
Zagustin's 69 misdemeanor
convictions piled up over the years after frustrated neighbors,
unable to convince her to clean up her home, turned to the
courts.
The house was more
than just messy. Trash was jammed so high and so thick that
inspection officers could barely walk through the rooms, reports
stated. Neighbors complained of insects, maggots and rats.
County health officials found the water and electricity had
been shut off for over a year. The result was buckets of human
waste, which were periodically emptied into the front yard.
Neighbors collected 500 pages of code-enforcement violations,
including excessive rubbish accumulation and hazardous electrical
wiring.
Brian Simon, an
attorney representing some of Zagustin's neighbors, said repeated
offers to help clean up her house -- even at the neighbor's
expense -- were unwelcome.
Orange County marshals
last saw Zagustin in October of 1999 when they drafted her
a $50,000 check which represented money left over from the
court-ordered sale of her $301,500 Huntington Harbour home.
But Orange County
Sheriff Lt. Cherry May said Zagustin felt the amount was inadequate.
Zagustin stormed into their office, snatched up the check,
crumpled it up, threw it on the floor and refused to take
it, she said.
Zagustin has phoned
the Orange County Clerk's office several times since then
to inquire about the money. May said that the check must be
picked up in person and appropriate documents must be notarized.
However, the warrant
for her arrest is still outstanding and carries a jail sentence
for misdemeanor charges.
Two opinions exist
about her present whereabouts. While sheriffs have followed
a series of possible addresses for Zagustin, including a mail-drop
place and somewhere in Nevada, they currently think she is
in Bulls Head, Ariz., which is beyond their jurisdiction.
Customs officials
suspect she is in Henderson, Nev. While customs officials
say their investigation is on the back burner, they have not
washed their hands of the case.
An LAX Customs
investigator, who asked that his name not be used, said the
government takes bankruptcy fraud very seriously.
"When you
hide your assets in a bankruptcy, you're denying your creditors
access to what they are due," he said
Since her convictions
involve relatively insignificant misdemeanor charges, such
as trash accumulation and health code violations, the state
of California is not investing a great deal of resources into
the case, May said.
Attorney Simon
said anyone who comes across Zagustin has to be careful, because
she retaliates.
"She takes
pictures... and threatens to kill us," Simon said, noting
that neighbors had received threats from a militia group who
thought her rights as a property owner were being abused.
He added that Zagustin has a fierce temper and screams at
everybody, even at judges, which might explain her contempt
of court convictions.
Zagustin has sued
Simon eight times. She has sued many of the judges who have
presided over her cases, which date as far back as 1988, and
then has asked that they be excused from those cases due to
a conflict of interest.
"I met her
[for the first time] in Las Vegas [at a bankruptcy hearing]
and like an idiot I tried to talk to her," Simon said.
"She's brilliant. Her IQ is off the scale. She understands
everything. She picks up law books and understands the whole
thing. In another life, she would have made a great lawyer."
While customs officials
say their investigation in on the back burner, they have not
washed their hands of the case.
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