Piece of Berlin Wall sells for $23,500
The 8,000-pound chunk of Berlin Wall, auctioned to reimburse victims of a Ponzi scheme, fetched $23,500 over the weekend.
Serbian immigrant and restaurant owner Ray Stanjevich purchased the 12-foot-tall concrete slab, he said, to own a piece of history. Stanjevich, who owns three Friends American Grill restaurants in Dacula, Suwanee and Dawsonville, said he has no immediate plans for the wall. It had been on display in front of Suwanee City Hall for about a month.
The wall was previously owned by Benjamin Daniel DeHaan, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to defrauding clients of his company, Lighthouse Financial Partners. Prosecutors say DeHaan used at least $7.3 million of his clients’ money to buy things like a house and a stake in a Nashville restaurant. The wall was the last of DeHaan’s possessions to be auctioned. The sale of DeHaan’s other property raised about $1 million for his victims, according to Greg Hays, the court-appointed receiver of DeHaan’s property.
About the Author
Dan Klepal is editor of the local government team, supervising nine reporters covering county and municipal governments and metro Atlanta. Klepal came to the AJC in 2012, after a long career covering city halls in Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. He has covered Gwinnett and Cobb counties before spending three years on the investigative team.
