Tag Archives: Federal investigators

Have We Lost Our Minds?

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
This story may serve as a mind-bending psychological trip when a prospective homeowner has to “win” over the board to be granted the right to buy into a place to live. 
 
Medical students stress over the LSAT, MCAT, and Step One, Two, and Three before they qualify for a medical degree. All of those tests induce stress beyond comprehension. But it’s more understandable when you realize these positions require a great deal of commitment and little room for error.
 
Many prospective home buyers are going through similar agony over their “interviews” with co-op boards as if acceptance into one of these places could mean life or death.  Are they really providing employment details, financial records, and having their pets “interviewed” just to be able to put a roof over their heads?
 
What if they get laid off, change jobs, or their company agrees to a merger that doesn’t meet the acceptance of the board?  Or their dog goes to a new groomer and the new haircut isn’t to the liking of the uppity board president?  What happens if their uncle’s cousin is convicted of bank robbery?  Could these changes push these “lucky” homeowners into homelessness?
 
Ridiculous.  Outrageous.  Insane.  Who would, and why would, anybody ever sign on to such nonsense…and pay for it? 
 
 

Las Vegas HOA Mob

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As I’ve said repeatedly on this blog, never in my forty year career as an investigative reporter have I seen forty percent of the suspects on a federal indictment list suddenly ‘commit suicide’. But in the Las Vegas HOA scandal, of the first ten indictments, four suspects died in somewhat weird ways. Yes, I’ve read the coroner’s reports and the police reports. But still….

Attorney and HOA TV star Nancy Quon had supposedly tried to commit suicide before…WITH the help of her police officer boyfriend who supposedly had the Las Vegas police lab mix up some illegal drugs which she would use in her ‘suicide’. That cop is one of those under indictment in the HOA scandal. The coroner ruled it was a legitimate suicide. OK, I understand, it’s Las Vegas.

But even the family of attorney David Amesbury doesn’t believe he committed suicide. He was found hanging from a rafter in his brother’s barn. Just shortly before his ‘suicide’ he was found inside the locked gates of his gated HOA community, badly beaten, ribs broken, both knees bashed inwards. And somehow he’s able to climb a ladder in a barn and hang himself? Give me a break.

Folks, you haven’t even seen one percent of this scandal as it’ll unfold in next year’s federal court case in Nevada. This is Organized Crime in capital letters. And it’s the same kind of Organized Crime that permeates the entire structure of Homeowners Associations across America. Have I seen it personally? Yes, as documented in my new book, Neighbors At War, I was once hit with a $75,000 extortion demand by a local HOA official. He was stupid enough to issue that demand through my personal attorney, who took extensive notes. Then, this HOA official was stupid enough to ‘confess’ to the HOA board in writing that he actually had such a communication with my attorney and he was sure it was tape recorded. Strangely enough, his memo was not produced during discovery as required by law. It was ‘accidentally’ included in a box of material that I was never supposed to see. Those records suddenly vanished right before my court trial, but he couldn’t get rid of that memo.  These people may be organized criminals, but they’re really not very smart.

Homeowners Associations are a dangerous institution. Any phony or quasi governmental institution that’s not required to abide by the restrictions of the U.S. Constitution is dangerous to your personal and financial health. They do not protect your property values. They do not protect your family’s privacy or safety. Thousands of Americans have discovered over the past few years that by agreeing to live in an HOA, they’ve signed a Devil’s Contract. If I appear to rant and rave, it’s just my way of trying to issue the warning that I wish someone had once issued me. Reading your real estate paperwork is the customary advice. But there’s nothing in your real estate documents that talks about what’s actually happening in HOA Amerika.

You know, I’d just love to cover those Las Vegas trials in person.

Just my rant of the day.

http://tinyurl.com/bwdjoat

 

HOA Figures Involved In International Drug Trafficking?

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That headline might seem like a bit of sensational hyperbole, except that the story comes from one of the nation’s most respected journalists, John L. Smith, columnist for the Las Vegas Review Journal. I’ve talked about him before, but I don’t remember sending you to his column earlier this year on some bizarre links in the Las Vegas HOA scandal.

As you may recall, the feds have indicted or gotten guilty pleas from nearly forty HOA figures in Nevada, including famed attorneys, a famous attorney/TV talk show host, Nancy Quon, well know politicians and police officials. These are well known public figures, folks! Public figures in the Homeowners Association business. And already federal investigators have talked about organized crime, rigged HOA board elections, racketeering, attempted murder, suspicious suicides, armed robbery, hostage-taking, extortion, bribery, embezzlement from homeowners, insurance fraud. The list goes on and on.

But Smith’s column from May 19th would be freakin’ unbelievable, even as a plot for a Hollywood action flick. Except that it’s real.

This federal investigation of Homeowners Associations is the first of its kind in the country. Yet the feds know of hundreds, possible thousands of cases of HOA embezzlement across the land. It’s long been my contention that if this FBI/US Attorney’s team was planted in any major city in America, they’d find the same kind of corruption. That’s because the very model of HOA management is designed to perpetuate, excuse and even encourage corruption. This is the type of neighborhood management that’s supposed to protect your property values! But millions of homeowners have suddenly discovered that they weren’t protected. They never were.

The players mentioned in Smith’s column are almost impossible to graph out on a chart. But you’d better believe the U.S. Attorney plans to do exactly that in front of a federal jury next year.

As you read Smith’s column linked below, just ask yourself, “What if this is going on in my town?” What if?

http://tinyurl.com/mwwn3l3

 

Darcy Spears Pitches A No-Hitter

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Yes, it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out…..

And for a third time, Darcy Spears of KTNV TV has gone to the Southern Highlands Country Club area and learned it’s a community of frightened homeowners with a leadership of gangster-minded bullies. Maybe that just comes naturally for people who move to Las Vegas: Find out how to join the Mob! In her latest HOA Hall of Shame report she tries to locate the skunks who are trying to chase a black man out of the neighborhood.

Even though Louis Washington is one of the original residents of Southern Highlands, the HOA is demanding that he plant a couple of trees in his yard. Never mind that the country club just behind Washington’s house, has a few trees that clearly look like they’re dying, this monstrous HOA tyrant wants the homeowner to plant a tree right in front of his picture window, or they’ll fine him out of existence.

Darcy says this is the third time Southern Highlands has been on her Hall of Shame report, Readers of my book, Neighbors At War already know about Southern Highlands for the way it treats black families. Just go back and re-read chapter eight where I document the shameful history of Homeowners Associations and minorities. Southern Highlands is featured. In 2006, Troy McMullen, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Online did an investigative story on how blacks are treated at Southern Highlands. It was called “Trouble in Paradise: Minorities Report Bias in Vacation areas.”

Some people just have no shame.

They’re too ignorant to have shame.

 http://tinyurl.com/mbcbgog

 One footnote: the management company which runs Southern Highlands brags that it sends out a thousand violation notices per month. Am I wrong, or does that sound a little fascist to you?

 

The Worm Turns…. (Henry VI – Wm Shakespeare)

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The victories are precious and few, but once in a while homeowners win a small victory against the fascists in HOA Amerika. An appeals court in California has issued a ruling that’s making the lawn Nazis twist in their graves.

The court ruled that all Homeowners Associations, when holding elections, must give homeowners with opposing views equal access to association media, when and if the board itself is taking a position in the election.

Amazing! This is one court in the nation that now says homeowners have rights. They cannot be shut out of the neighborhood newsletter or website. They cannot be shut up when trying to speak at the local board meeting when a campaign is in progress. The really stunning thing here is that a lower court ruled the exact opposite. But the Court of Appeals overturned the junk ruling from the lower court.

The Adams Kessler law firm, representing the HOA boards, adamantly opposed the Constitution’s Free Speech provision arguing that HOA boards have the right to stifle dissent during campaigns to amend the association’s by-laws. It argued that the HOA board was only “providing information” when it stomped on equal access provisions in California law.

The Appeals court essentially ruled that an association “board” is only a “member” of an association and does not have greater rights of access than any other member of the neighborhood.

Yes, it’s a subtle distinction, but no so subtle as to dodge the outrage of the Adams Kessler law firm. The Community Associations Institute routinely holds training seminars (think brainwashing) of the officers of HOA boards, during which it trains its puppets to always deny homeowners any access in newsletters, community bulletin boards or common areas if they hold an opposing view.

The Community Associations Institute is going to work its little black heart out to get this decision modified or overturned. CAI makes billions of dollars for its lawyers, its managers, its contractors, and its ‘training’ of board members. It simply cannot allow homeowners to regain any rights they lost to these fascist empires known as gated neighborhoods. And those billions of dollars will be thrown into the fight against this decision.

Still, my thoughts towards Adams Kessler: On this day, my friend, you lost.

The homeowners won.