If you’re a 78 year old Realtor and you embezzle a hundred thousand bucks from your HOA neighbors should you be given probation? The answer in Missouri is…yup. The judge apparently had some sympathy for an HOA treasurer who admitted she stole the money to feed her gambling habit. But she won’t have to spend a minute in jail.
While this person is ordered not to serve as treasurer for any other organizations the message to embezzlers nation-wide is horrible. Embezzling by HOA board members and management companies is absolutely out of control all over the country. To stop the crime you have to take as many embezzlers as possible and make an example of them. Put them in jail. Let them rot. Make sure all HOA board officers know they’ll get no sympathy.
This Kansas City, Missouri embezzler didn’t just steal money. She lowered property values for an entire neighborhood.
(link to Kansas City Star embezzling sentence)
Missouri, not Kansas.