This blogger saw it coming last year when the indictments and highly suspect “suicides” first started happening. Now the federal judge in the Las Vegas HOA corruption case says he’s sympathetic. But he’s telling scammed homeowners, “Don’t hold your breath. You probably won’t be seeing any restitution.”
From the very beginning, I have been saying that homeowners who were shafted in the massive HOA scandal would never get their money back. Officially, federal investigators say the sum of 8 million dollars was stolen. Unofficially, more than 100 million dollars of homeowners’ money was funneled through to the lawyers, the police officials, the political figures, the businessmen who all took part in the fraud. Insurance companies lost scores of millions. Who do you think has to make that up? Yep, it’s the homeowners who’ll see their premiums rise, the contractors who’ll never be trusted again, the homeowners who’ll never see their defective homes repaired, and the elderly who’ll never be able to sell out and move.
Sadly, the real losses in this scam will never be truly calculated. Not only have homeowners lost millions through phony HOA elections, fake board members and secret bank accounts. But the value of all housing in Las Vegas has taken a huge hit in this economy. Did the HOA system protect homeowners? That was always the promise. But investors would have to be idiots to sink any money into a home in a formerly scandal-ridden neighborhood.
So don’t believe it when you’re told the loss to homeowners is only 8 million dollars. No, the real losses to taxpaying, home-owning Nevadans will ultimately be in the hundreds of millions. All you can do is hope for more indictments. And lengthy prison terms. If that’s any consolation.
As always, reporter Jeff German from the Review-Journal remains on top of this story. The link to his story, today, is below.
