It’s Pro-Little Napoleon Dan Gilbert Corporate Media Vs. Independent Media In Detroit
Former sports bookie and Little Napoleon Dan Gilbert has huddled the leaders of his boiler operation into an office at The Cube. Gilbert renamed the old Chase Building in Detroit, “The Cube” when he bought it.
He held a desperate conference call with Detroit media to stop the avalanche of negative media Quicken Loans was receiving from around the world. He worried the False Claims lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice would destroy his empire.
Little Napoleon Dan Gilbert cranked up his gift of being able to spin bullshit into cotton. He convinced reporters from WXYZ, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, that the lawsuit was a witch hunt. All three rent studio and office space from Gilbert.
In addition, Gilbert told Keith Crain from Crain’s that this was nothing but a mass conspiracy against Quicken Loans. In other words, as with everything shady or illegal Gilbert gets caught doing, it is always someone else’s fault.
The conference call seemed to work. Gilbert had everyone believing he was once again the Messiah of Detroit. That was until the next morning when word starting spreading around Detroit about an altercation between the owner of American Coney Island and an employee of Bedrock Real Estate. Bedrock Real estate is owned by Dan Gilbert. Yes, Gilbert actually named his company after the town from the TV show, The Flintstones.
Little Napoleon Dan Gilbert Is Watching You In Downtown Detroit
Bedrock Real Estate has bought nearly 60 commercial buildings in Detroit since 2010. Gilbert bought the properties at depressed prices and along with those purchases, he installed hundreds of surveillance cameras. Many of the cameras are on properties Gilbert and his partners don’t own.
Many of these building owners concede their property rights to Gilbert. They allow Bedrock to place the cameras on their building because they know the City of Detroit won’t stop Gilbert. They also concede out of fear of reprisals from Gilbert and his allies.
People in Detroit still remember the stories of Gilbert having people roughed up operating a college sports betting ring when he was a student at Michigan State. They also fear Gilbert will litigate them into bankruptcy if they sue Bedrock or remove the cameras.
Gilbert Messes With The Wrong Woman
One lesson in life Gilbert apparently never learned was you don’t mess with Greek women. Greek women will hunt you down and cut off your balls. Especially if it is the Keros family who has owned a family business in Detroit institution for almost 100 years.
The story goes something like this. On Friday, Grace Keros discovered a Bedrock crew had surreptitiously erected a transmitter on top of her family’s downtown building without her permission, not far from a camera that Bedrock was operating without her knowledge.
According to Investigative Reporter Steve Neavling of the website, Motor City Muckraker:
Bedrock dispatched a top executive, Ron Gresens in a pickup truck, a security guard in a golf cart and a crew in an aerial lift. They blocked one lane of traffic in front of the entrance of American Coney Island. This was to bully Keros to let them keep it on the building. Eventually, Keros, who was fed up with a clueless Gresens told him:
You don’t fucking own me. I want this off my building.
The Everpresent Eye Of Little Napoleon Dan Gilbert
This led to Detroit News reporter, Louis Aguilar, to write an article attempting to debunk the incident with Keros. Aguilar also tried to dissuade stories that Bedrock has surveillance cameras in the joint newsroom shared by the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press by writing,
He also tried to dissuade stories that Bedrock has cameras in the newsroom of the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. Aguilar write:
When I called him out, he demanded my sources for an article I posted about it three months ago. An epic social media battle then broke out between Aguilar and Neavling. It’s apparent Aguilar doesn’t spend much time in the newsroom.
Aguilar seems to dream to be Gilbert’s portly middle-aged male version of Zoe Clarke from House of Cards. He also wrote a piece last week that was taken almost verbatim from Quicken’s Press Release.
Nolan Finley: Detroit’s Wannabe Tucker Carlson
Aguilar’s Detroit News colleague, Nolan Finley wrote a gushing love letter about Gilbert over the weekend. Finley filled it with name calling and reiterated talking points from Gilbert’s Friday night’s conference call. The article read like it was written by a drunken Irish sailor.
The examples Finley uses in his article appear to have been made up and don’t appear to be based in reality. It’s obvious Finley did absolutely no research. He did not even do a simple Google search before writing the piece.
Even former Detroit News reporter Alan Stamm gushed over the pro-Gilbert piece Finley wrote. It appears Stamm didn’t bother to do any research on Quicken either. In addition, Stamm didn’t research the DOJ lawsuit or Quicken’s history of being sued for doing exactly what the government is alleging.
All this excitement caused Gilbert to have a Twitter meltdown. Gilbert tweeted:
Lansing State Journal Reporter Eric Lacy chimed in and tweeted:
Not sure I’d describe Dan Gilbert as Detroit street tough.
Gilbert ended the conversation by making a snide comment about Bruce Jenner’s announcement about being transgender. He then blocked Lacy. Lacy also does volunteer work with the Ruth Ellis Center For Homeless LGBTQ Youth,
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