Yes, indeedy, a crook who’s been stealing money from Northern California Homeowners Associations has been caught with his fingers in the graham cracker jar. Chris Barna, of Manteca, California, figured no one would be the wiser if he swiped a million or so bucks from his employer, a company that manages many HOAs in that state.
Barna saved everyone the time and money it would have taken to prosecute him. He pleaded guilty in Federal Court and agreed to pay full restitution. But that’s a laugh. If he gets the 30 year federal prison sentence, which is the maximum statutory penalty for stealing a million bucks, it’ll be a cold day in Hell before he squares up with the folks he ripped off.
Thirty years in federal prison is way too good for creeps like this one.
Larry Delassus lived in a condominium at Hermosa Beach. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy and is badly disabled. Wells Fargo apparently didn’t take any of that into consideration when it seized his home and quickly auctioned it off.
Delassus filed a lawsuit, and his attorney tried to present evidence that Wells Fargo had combed its records for homeowners who had more equity available for the taking. Those records included requests for loan modifications, a horrible violation of trust by those homeowners who filled the re-fi paperwork out.
In any event, Delassus finally did get his case into court. Wells Fargo admitted that it had made a mistake in Delassus’ foreclosure because it used the wrong parcel number from the assessor’s office when it targeted his home.
But Delassus didn’t get to see how the case turned out.
Oh, we just seem to love it when we can celebrate the crash and fall of celebrities. I’ve never really understood that. When I come across a celebrity-bashing during my web browsing, I generally skip over it without looking.
But I did click on the link below while googling celebrities and Homeowners Associations. Seems that rythm and blues star, Chris Brown, has tried to express himself with graffiti on the exterior of his home. His Hollywood neighbors don’t like it.
It’s funny, the huge HOLLYWOOD sign that’s become an international landmark for the movie community, is one of the trashiest plywood items to ever endure the rages of local Homeowners Associations. But if the HOLLYWOOD sign ever came down would that raise or lower property values in the area?
Yep, the headline was for shock value. But that’s exactly how many Homeowners Association treat anyone in a minority group. Don’t believe it? Look at the deed to your own home. The chances are amazing your deed will reflect a history of bigotry against Negros, Jews, Orientals, and other minority groups. In fact, bigotry against minorities was absolutely the foundation of the modern Homeowners Association movement. It’s no coincidence the modern HOA movement was born just a few months after the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In the case linked below, a homosexual in Rancho Mirage, Riverside, California was slurred during a fight at an HOA meeting. And he’s suing for $25,000 in damages. The stunner is that he’s not suing for 25 million in damages. He’s more likely to win the latter than the former.
But HOA bias against gays isn’t new, as documented in my book, Neighbors At War! It’s just one of many reasons for stealing the assets of another homeowner to put into the personal bank account of some well-connected board member. And it couldn’t happen without the complicity of the out-of-control American tort system.
A bill that homeowners rights advocates say is one of the worst, most dangerous in the history of HOA law has just been approved by the California State Assembly by a 73 to 1 vote!
The bill, which is inevitably going to become law, has incredible implications for people living in smaller HOAs. It essentially wipes out the right of many California homeowners to vote on board officers, assessments, or changes in neighborhood covenants. Oh, they’ll get to vote. But the ballots won’t be secret. HOA elections won’t be overseen by any investigative office. Every vote will have to be cast in person. No longer do you have a say on your vacation home in the Golden State unless you fly there and personally cast your ballot. The vote totals can and will be manipulated at will by HOA board members because that’s what board members do when no one is looking.
What are these idiotic legislators thinking?
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the tsunami of organized crime corruption that’s going to be sweeping into California! Good grief, the U.S. Attorney and the FBI in Nevada have been hauling in guilty pleas by the fistful in the massive HOA corruption scheme there. Why is California any different?
It isn’t.
And this law will make Homeowners Associations more vulnerable than Nevada HOAs have ever been.
This law is great for me, though. I’ll have lots more stories to write as the corruption erupts.
