Tag Archives: FBI

CAI Socks It To Homeowners In Tennessee!

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One of our blog members in Tennessee says the CAI appears to be the only group spending its lobbying money on a Homeowners Association bill now before the legislature.

The proposed bill would make important changes to protect private homeowners in that state.

But the crows at CAI have billions of dollars at their disposal.They make sure that Tennessee lawyers have guaranteed employment as they dip deeply into the pockets of homeowners.

The bill actually sounds like a pretty good one. But in HOA Amerika logic and justice are not really compatible concepts.

The following is an exact copy of what a CAI bigwig is telling his minions to lobby:

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To: All Community Association Board Members

From: Scott Ghertner

Date: February 6, 2014 Subject: Urgent legislative call to action – HB 2060 and SB 2098

As Chairman of the Tennessee CAI Legislative Action Committee and Co-President of Ghertner & Company, I would like to immediately bring to your attention some very disturbing legislation being introduced this month in our Tennessee legislature. Representative Jeremy Durham and Senator Jack Johnson, both of Williamson County, are co-sponsoring a bill (HB 2060 in the House and SB 2098 in the State Senate) that seeks to significantly diminish the authority of condominium and home owner associations in Tennessee.

This bill if passed will:

 Eliminate the automatic lien that associations have with regard to delinquent payers , thereby potentially

jeopardizing the financial solvency of associations and the willingness of lenders to make loans to associations and unit owners;

 Limit the amount an association can fine for rule violations;

 Attempt to insert State rules regarding parking enforcement on public streets within the association;  Prohibit associations from enforcing covenant restrictions with regard to political signs.

Please contact these leaders today and inform them that you want them to withdraw this bill immediately!

Senator Jack Johnson at 615-741-2495 or via email at sen.jack.johnson@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Jeremy Durham at 615-741-1864 or via email at rep.jeremy.durham@capitol.tn.gov

You can also contact the following members of the House Business and Utilities Subcommittee who will hear House Bill 2060 and let them know that you do not support this bill. Please remember the committee members listed below did not introduce this bill and will be hearing about this bill for the first time next week. So we ask you only to communicate to them your opposition to this proposed bill.

Chairman Art Swann at 615-741-5481 or via email at rep.art.swann@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Kent Calfee at 615-741-7658 or via email at rep.kent.calfee@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Barry Doss at 615-741-7476 or via email at rep.barry.doss@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Pat Marsh at 615-741-6824 or via email at rep.pat.marsh@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Jason Powell at 615-741-6861 or via email at rep.jason.powell@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Curry Todd at 615-741-1866 or via email at rep.curry.todd@capitol.tn.gov

Representative Tim Wirgau at 615-741-6804 or via email at rep.tim.wirgau@capitol.tn.gov

Thank you for your attention to this very important issue.

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Now that we know exactly how CAI plans to throw its influence around, they’ve provided a list of legislators who they consider weak…so we can now lobby them right back. 

Open Letter On LinkedIn About The CAI

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by Deborah Goonan, Ormond Beach, FL

(The oft repeated rhetoric) is that further regulation of HOAs would amount to increased “government control.” In fact, the purpose and goal of smart regulation of HOAs is to protect owners’ rights by way of limiting the power of HOA corporate Board governance through a proven system of CHECKS AND BALANCES. The goals of regulation must not be to control community choice in HOAs, but rather to provide a favorable environment where the rights of owners are balanced against the rights of the Association, to allow for all members to have a voice in self-governance, and to promote harmony rather than division in communities. 

I trust that legislators will ignore the tired CAI, status-quo rhetoric repeated over and over again on this forum, the same rhetoric that has prevented substantive HOA reform in states all over the country. To what end? How does ignoring obvious problems, and washing one’s hands of responsibility for fair and just treatment of constituents benefit communities, states, and our country? 

I trust that readers of this and similar forums will seriously consider the cumulative negative effects that have resulted from limited respect for the rights of owners, in favor of special interests. Those of you who “get it,” please let your legislators know that you support positive reform and consumer protections for millions of owners and residents in over 300,000 community associations across the country.

Tequila Tab (Unknowingly) Paid By The Homeowners

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 guest blog by Nila Ridings

Far too often board members are using the HOA funds to make personal purchases.  This LA Times reader, who appears to be a board member, questions how to stop other board members in the HOA from buying booze, cigarettes, dog food, and chewing gum with the dues.
 
This may seem like a no-brainer to most of us.  You know, like if a friend hands you $50 and asks you to pick-up a copy of Neighbors At War! by Ward Lucas at the Tattered Cover you wouldn’t buy a copy of The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians by Carla Morris and Brad Sneed for your grandson with your friend’s money.  Why?  Because you have integrity and your friend trusted you with their money.  But some board members think you should trust them with your money and never question what they do with it.  They ignore the fact that as board members they have a fiduciary responsibility.
 
My HOA encountered this a few years ago when the board president died.  His successor sent a $180 floral bouquet to his funeral.  This was discovered when some homeowners were reviewing financial records.  When it was addressed during a board meeting the board justified it as being only thirty-five cents per homeowner.  The question was not raised to be cost-justified! It was raised because dues are not to be spent on funeral flowers!  And since our community has TEN MILLION DOLLARS unaccounted for under this guy’s “leadership” many of us would not have willingly donated two cents to his flower fund.
 
Living in an HOA should not come with a blind faith and trust that your board member neighbors are honest people.  Far too often it has been proven they are nothing but liars and thieves.  Making purchases for non-HOA related items is a form of theft.  And it cannot be justified in any other way.  Ask to see the financial records and go over them closely…you just might be very surprised to learn what you’re paying for.
 
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-associations-20140126,0,3432150.story#axzz2s69SwcGT
 

Blondie & The Bimbo Ride Again!!

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And here comes the magnificent trio, Blondie, the Bimbo, and now the Wack Job! The newcomer is Sen. Gail Griffin. (Wiki definition of a griffin: “a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle’s talons as its front feet.” Actually, a griffin sounds like one screwed-up animal! But that’s beside the point.)

All this time I thought Republicans were smarter than this! Aren’t Republicans generally for smaller, less intrusive government? Preservation of Constitutional rights? Maybe there’s something in the water in Arizona to make Republicans stupider than the rest of the country. But this trio is something else, bringing back a fundamentally unconstitutional and illegal HOA bill, over, and over, and over.

Representative Michelle Ugenti (the cute young thing) is somehow getting her strings pulled by the powers-that-be in the HOA industry. Remember, politics is about nothing more than who gets how much of the pie. Looks like these three might be carving out a larger slice for themselves than anyone else in office. If Ugenti’s proposed law ever gets passed and signed by Governor Blondie it’ll be challenged in the courts. And once again it’ll be rejected.

Hopefully, Republican voters in Arizona will realize how off-the-wall this trio is and try to get more responsible legislators into office, people who will carefully consider the legality of the bills they try to get passed.

Just remember, the outrageous tyranny of the out-of-control Homeowners Association industry has nothing to do with political parties. You don’t have to be left, right, or center to be mightily offended at the trampling on the rights of all homeowners.

George Staropoli is the expert on HOA politics in Arizona, and his blog should be part of your must-read material tonight.

(link to Staropoli’s current blog)

 

The Baby Is Sick!!!

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I’m late getting this one up on the blog, since most of those-in-the-know already read this in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. But for the record, another of the Las Vegas HOA crooks has pleaded guilty. That makes thirty down with at least eight more to go. Ah, and four suspicious ‘suicides.’ And there’s absolutely no word about the judge or the other police officials who were supposedly implicated.

The latest HOA crook to bite the dust is Las Vegas lawyer Barry Levinson. The Feds got him for stealing a million bucks from his clients, failing to report 28,000 in income taxes, wire fraud, mail fraud, and….oh yes, conspiring to fraudulently pack the boards of Las Vegas homeowners associations with phony members so his organized crime ring could completely take over those associations. Thousands of homeowners got hurt. Many lost their homes. The Las Vegas housing industry went right into the sewer.

Look for Levinson to get an extremely light sentence, though. That’s because he agreed to testify against his racketeering buddies.

PERSONAL NOTE: As a decades-long investigative reporter with CBS, ABC and NBC affiliates in two states, I am personally embarrassed and disgusted at how the national media have almost completely ignored the HOA mob story in Las Vegas. This investigation into the organized corruption of Homeowners Associations, the legal system, the judicial system, the police system is one of the largest organized crime and racketeering investigations in the history of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office. How could the networks overlook it?

This investigation cost the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars and it’ll cost tens of millions more before it’s over. Hold your breath: only 11 Homeowners Associations are named in this investigation.

Folks, there are 335,000 HOAs in the country. Organized crime is rampant throughout HOA Amerika. Don’t believe it? Just google “embezzle homeowner association.” You’ll get 54,000 hits. The search term “homeowner association fraud” will get you almost a million hits. I understand the limitations of Google searches but still it’s mind-boggling. And those terms don’t count a myriad of other types of HOA crimes like extortion, death threats, fraudulent liens and foreclosures and funneling money off to your brother-in-law to cut the grass at the front entrance.

The FBI probe into these 11 HOAs is what’s often called a “show investigation” or a “show trial.” Because of the expense of this eight-year-long investigation the Feds have absolutely no intention of carrying out similar research in other cities. No, this investigation was just for ‘show.’ It’s meant to demonstrate to other police departments that this kind of investigation and trial can produce results anywhere.

Remember that first FBI sting operation in Washington DC back in 1975? Undercover FBI agents set up a phony fencing operation, bought stolen goods from the underworld, then busted dozens of crooks on camera. It was widely publicized and police departments all over the country began doing their own stings. In a subsequent sting in Denver, police even arrested an Army officer, Capt. Gregory Alberico, for trying to sell nerve gas from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal!

But that’s overly dramatic and straying off topic.

The one news agency in America which has been doing an adequate job reporting on the Las Vegas racketeering scandal is the Las Vegas Review-Journal. And in this week’s story, reporter Jeff German actually brought up suspicions about connections between HOA crooks and the mob. It takes guts for a reporter to include details like that. And I’m linking his latest stories below.

German will get accused of hyping this story when it supposedly has no relationship to what’s going on in HOAs across the country. In fact, German is being hammered with comments from readers that go something like: “If you don’t like living in an HOA, then don’t move into one.” You’ll read similar comments on HOA blogs all over. Please forgive people who say things like that because they’re just pathologically stupid.

Again I’m straying.

But permit me just one more bad metaphor. If your baby is running a sky-high fever don’t fool yourself into thinking that the baby is sick only where the thermometer is touching. No, folks, the whole baby is sick!

Yes, the Feds have only gone after 11 Homeowners Associations out of 335,000.

But I promise you, folks: The whole baby is sick.

(link to latest Las Vegas guilty plea)

(link to mention about possible mob ties)