Tag Archives: FBI

Blue State Blues

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Ever since I started using this website to try to hawk my book, Neighbors At War, I’ve been told by well-meaning friends and relatives, don’t ever attack Oregon. That state is so Blue it has a built-in guilt complex. Personal guilt hangs so heavy in the air in Oregon that these blue state leftists walk around in their hair shirts (see self-abuse by Monasteries) and lash their own backs with whips. It’s not the rainy weather that depresses them, it’s the load of guilt on their shoulders. I was promised I would never find a case of embezzling from neighbors in an Oregon Homeowners Association.

I should have obeyed my instincts. My heart tells me that mankind is desperately wicked and that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. I was right. My Oregonian friends (God love ’em), were wrong.

Comes, now, an attractive young fellow named David Kobbeman. The newspaper headline doesn’t mince words…. “Sentenced to 48 months in prison.”

There’s no way of telling how many widows he made penniless by embezzling a half million from his HOA. No way of telling how many bright-eyed youngsters will now not be able to afford college. And no way of telling how many sick babies might have found medical cures if their parents could have sold their homes and belongings to pay for new treatments.

The maddening thing….the damnably maddening thing I learned in my forty years as an investigative TV reporter is that the felons who have the absolutely most fun in federal prison are con-men. They are the king of the heap. Every criminal looks up to the con man. Every bank robber and baby molester makes a pilgrimage to the con-man’s cell. He IS THE KING!  The con-man is KING OF THE PRISON! He gets the best food, he gets the first cigarettes, he gets the best women!

Oooh, I guess I might have said a little too much, there. But yes, the con man gets the best women. Are there women in prison? That’s one of the secrets you learn if you’ve spent any time with a buddy who did a sentence at Lompoc or at another low security prison. If you’re high up in the ranks of prisoners, if you’re a con-man, you’re the warden’s good buddy. And yes, you’re occasionally taken into town to meet the ladies. And that warden wants to be seen around town with you.

Bottom line: spend your time swindling money from widows and orphans. When you’re jailed you be assured of having the best damn vacation of your life.

Believe it!

(Ok, now here’s the straight unvarnished, sanitized news:)

 

Pity the Boss Man

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You know, you’ve gotta start feeling a little sorry for Las Vegas crime boss Leon Benzer right about now. Gosh, dang! Another four of his co-conspirators have now pleaded  guilty to charges of racketeering and conspiring to steal massive amounts of money from Las Vegas homeowners. But Bobo Benzer hasn’t been able to keep his organized crime mob together. Gone are the days when a spaghetti-eating garlic-spitter could fire a .32 shell into the face of an adversary to shut him up. These days, you just can’t get good help.

Benzer is now just one of a tiny handful of crooks still accused of decimating Homeowners Associations in the Valley by putting ‘straw men’ into office as HOA board members and voting to divert millions of dollars in insurance mitigation work to his minions of willing wonks. (Actually, I was going to say ‘Wops’ but thought better of it. Besides, his name is Benzer, not Benzini). Sure, the first handful of people fingered in the HOA investigation ‘committed suicide.’ But in the old days a suicide really meant something, didn’t it? Suicide was a rite of passage, an honor befitting a snitch’s snitch. One couldn’t be an effective Capo without a few suicides scattered here and there around the landscape.

But, dang! Every time a ‘suicide’ happened in the feds’ Las Vegas HOA investigation, more rats started squealing. This wasn’t just a few rodents trying to find a wooden plank, this was swarms of rats diving off the decks of the Titanic.

Yep, it must be a lonesome time for Leon Benzer. Poor Babee!

 

Trustworthy and Tamper-Proof HOA/Condo Board Elections?

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guest blog by Bob Frank (Air Force Col. Retired)

 

It is a fact that CID board elections are the ONLY way that members can actually influence the management of their common properties and finances.  And, since candidates for boards and members of community management companies are not routinely cleared as trustworthy according to government standards, the election processes themselves MUST be provable as being “trustworthy/tamper-proof” by the association members.

Therefore, I submit it should be mandatory that secret ballot board elections implement (1) audit-trails, (2) use “tamper-proof” devices, (3) be certified as end-to-end trustworthy, and (4) be capable of independent auditing by licensed, trained professionals.

And, I claim that any board election that can not be auditable as trustworthy should be invalid.  Why would government officials and trade association professionals be allowed to tolerate potentially corrupt board elections?

Should the trade association adopt the following or similar terms and require that all HOA/Condo board elections follow such definitions and implement “trustworthy board elections” capable of being audited by 3rd party professionals?

Or, should board elections be taken away from CID boards and management companies and that there be a new licensed and bonded, “Independent Trusted Elections Professional” be required on a part time basis by state statutes as auditors and attorney are?

Am I on the right track for this topic?  Do you agree it is likely possible to conduct such improvements in CID elections at reasonable costs?  If you wish, I can explain how I would design such a system using hard-copy and/or electronic processes.

Bob Frank

Amazon Book Reviews

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Numbers on this website continue to grow each month. We have a ton of new people logging in based on recommendations by friends. I’m also aware of a pretty good spurt in book sales right now and I hope you’re enjoying Neighbors At War. As you know, I am more than passionate about this mission of waking all Americans up to what’s going on in this industry.

Along that line, I’m once again encouraging readers to submit book reviews for Neighbors At War. I don’t recall the exact figures, but each five-star review leads to several thousand new book sales.

If you enjoyed my book or you’re angry about the housing industry’s lie that’s been shoved down our throats for far too long, please help me spread the word. Go to my Neighbors At War page on Amazon and tell the world whether my book helped wake you up.

We’ve got momentum. More and more people are learning the truth each day. But I’m only a tiny part of that equation. You are the 99%ers. You’re like the lead bowling pin in the alley. Each bit of influence you exert then passes that momentum on to others.

We will win.

 

The Slow Creep Toward HOA Honesty

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Well, the state of New Mexico has finally taken an official action to force Homeowners Associations to disclose their rules and budgets to prospective homeowners. A story detailing the changes is linked below.
It looks like board members can be liable for civil damages if they refuse to disclose lawsuits in which the HOA is involved, unpaid judgments, boards must be elected by majority vote, not the sneaky tactic of a majority vote by a minority sub-group (tricky wording; a more accurate name is ‘outright election fraud.’)
There are lots of other traditional HOA scams that look like they could undergo tighter scrutiny by the state. But as you read the article below, ask yourself, “Why wasn’t this done many, many years ago?”
Does anyone get the sense that we’re finally seeing the beginning of a growing national backlash against decades of corruption and fascist corporate control over innocent private homeowners? Are we making some progress here?
“I love it when a plan comes together.” (line from the old Mission Impossible show)

(link to Albuquerque Journal article)