Eldorado Casino Don Carano, Ferrari-Carano, Raymond Poncia Fraud, Forgery, Income Tax Evasion, SEC & IRS fraud Reno, Nevada

Crystal Peak Golf Course is closed and those that invested have suffered great losses. www.verdi.us www.verdi.us/disaster/letter.pdf

Conventional wisdom would point to the project being a victim of circumstances like the economy or that there some bad decisions. But the project was not a victim of circumstances or bad judgement. What happen is literally criminal The root of the problems were not what the owners and investor did. It was just that they trusted the system and the information they had been given. But in Nevada trusting the system can be very dangerous. www.verdi.us/disaster/Story

In 2003 the Eldorado Casino sold their River Pines subdivision to Steve and Peggy Downing (or so the Downings most everybody else thought). The Downings were told that they were buying an approved subdivision that only needed the improvements put in place. There were two problems with the project.

The Downings started building the roads and with the help of Love Golf Design built the Crystal Peak Golf Course. The course opened in 2005 with limited play and the first lots at River Pines was sold.

By the beginning of 2008 more lots had been sold and the golf course was starting to make a profit. The Downings decided to finish the subdivision infrastructure which required installing the domestic water mains. When the water utility was contacted the first problem at Crystal Peak surfaced. The utility (owned by the Eldorado) refused to cooperate. The Downings had to take their remaining lots off the market and eventually filled for bankruptcy protection. That led to the second problem. The Eldorado manager that had arranged for the sale then claimed that he not the Downings owned half the golf course.

In an attempt to find out the cause of the water service problem and why Verdi Springs Water Company was refusing to honor its commitment. Steve Downing met with a staff of the Nevada Public Utility Commission. While that meeting was not fruitful it led Steve to review a PUC file on the creation of Verdi Mutual Water Company. The PUC file contained a staff report that stated that the original water company had divested itself of water service when it sold its water system. At the same time the water service commitment for the subdivision was cancelled. The Downings had been sold something that didnt exist.

In May 2010 the Steve and Peggy Downing sat in District two Court in Reno, Nevada and listened to a former friend and casino manager tell his story. They knew that if his story is believed it would destroy their lifes work and their future. The Judge believed the manager's story and Crystal Peak Golf Course was closed. But that story also meant the ex-friend and casino manager had skimmed and evaded income taxes. He had used the Downings to hide what he did. www.verdi.us/disaster/Land