The insiders - who made a huge profit off federal land that had been transferred to Clark County, Nev. - included Mayor Oscar Goodman, the trustee alleges. Part of the land was later sold to Southwick, who has lost it in foreclosure to the Las Vegas group, according to a report filed this week in Las Vegas by Lewis Freeman, who has control over the Southwick companies that filed for bankruptcy several years ago in Nevada.

The Miami attorney said his preliminary investigation raised questions about whether the group known as the Apex Holding Co. sold land to Southwick knowing his VesCor companies would default and that the group would get the property back.

"In conclusion, my investigation is incomplete as to whether Southwick/VesCor were scammers that [were] scammed or just greedy fraudsters who reached for the sky and fell on their face," Freeman wrote.

Southwick is awaiting sentencing on his guilty pleas to nine counts of violating Utah's securities laws in connection with what investigators have described as a huge Ponzi scheme in which at least 800 people lost $180 million. In addition, Southwick's web of 150 or so companies generally known as VesCor had an estimated $450 million in total debt when other companies he controlled filed for bankruptcy in Utah last year.

The Nevada land is just north of Las Vegas along Interstate 15. It was part of a transfer of federal lands to Clark County in a 1989 law.

The report said the land, designated for an industrial park, was purchased from Clark County by Apex Holding, which was formed by the Vegas group that included Goodman, paving contractors, a casino owner, construction company owners and an attorney.

The Apex group paid $9 million for 10,000 acres in 1999 and reportedly spent another $9 million for engineering, legal work and environmental studies.

The group then sold 4,000 of those acres for $40 million, "thus selling 40 percent of the property for over double their cost," to unspecified buyers, Freeman said in the report.

In late 2004, deep in debt and having already been sanctioned by authorities in two states, Southwick expressed interest in purchasing part of the remaining 6,000 acres but the report said Apex required him to buy all of it. Southwick, who by this time was again under investigation by state and federal authorities, reportedly agreed to pay $123.6 million for the land split into three parcels, with $16 million down and the rest financed by the sellers.

That meant the Apex group had been paid $56 million for 10,000 acres, for which it had paid $9 million; and Southwick still owed around $100 million.

"The increase in value from $9 million to $160 million in less than 10 years - on land that is not zoned and without crucial water rights - is unfathomable to me," Freeman said in the report.

Freeman suggests that the Apex partners sold the property to Southwick knowing he would not be able to make payments and they could repossess it, which they have since done.

The trustee, whose firm specializes in forensic accounting, said he might seek a return of monies from the Apex group.

Freeman on Wednesday would not elaborate on his statements, except to say, "The report speaks for itself, but in all my years of doing investigations, this is a pretty startling report."

The Apex manager of the property, an attorney for the group and Goodman's office did not return phone calls seeking comment.

tharvey@sltrib.com