Tag Archives: HOA Embezzlement

The Times, They Are A-Changin’

Bobbie Dylan, you ought to be singing about our movement! Little by little, here and there, laws are slowly being enacted to reign in some of the fascism in rogue Homeowners Associations. Nevada, which was hit by the worst HOA scandal in the country, has just passed a law signed today by the Governor.

Beginning October 1st homeowners who are hit with Nazi tactics by overreaching board members at least have a chance to file for dispute mediation. For 250 bucks apiece two warring parties can have three hours to present arguments in the dispute and an official decision is handed down in just sixty days. Each side has to pay their own legal bills, which should cut down on frivolous fines and crushing liens and foreclosures.

Nevada citizens who’ve lost their homes and retirement savings in the past ten or fifteen years will say it’s too little, too late. Still, it’s a start. This bill doesn’t do everything that’s needed to reign in the HOA scam, but hats off to those community leaders and legislators who got this thing passed.  

http://tinyurl.com/mud5q9n

original source:

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/77th2013/Reports/history.cfm?ID=836

When Will These Useful Idiots Ever Learn?

Seniors, seniors, seniors! You’re supposed to have learned a few lessons in life. How the hell did you decide to turn all your assets over to the Sun City Shadow Hills Community Association?

Shadow Hills is a few miles southeast of Palm Springs, California. It’s only for older residents, a 55 and older community. But now that this Del Webb development is all built and sold out, the Shadow Hills board of directors has sold out to the infamous Texas state senator, John Carona. All of a sudden, the residents say, the HOA managers have gotten heavy handed.

There are threats, fines, liens and all the other good stuff that goes along with life in HOA Amerika. But there are also questions about how the board and management company is, without transparancy, handling its nine million dollar a year budget.

Ah yes, I almost forgot to mention. The HOA private security guards use radar guns. They have police powers.

A Home Depot truck was delivering carpet to one of the Shadow Hills homeowners, the first of several deliveries that day. And the driver was going seven miles-an-hour over the limit. When he hit the HOA speed trap the make-believe cop asked where he was going. He gave the name and address of his first customer, and who do you think got the $50 speeding ticket? The homeowner!

But folks, that’s the way you’re treated in a neighborhood where Associa is the management company. Yes, dear friends, Associa is Senator Carona’s company. Oh, he’s got lots of subsidiary companies like banks, insurance companies, businesses which he can mandate that the 9000 Homeowners Associations he manages patronize. ‘Patronize’ is too kind a word for Carona since these conflict-of-interest businesses are jammed down the throats of homeowners. They don’t get a choice.

But seniors? And I’m one, too. Seniors, why are you idiotic enough to buy into a Del Webb or Associa-managed community? Are you dumb as a box of rocks?

By the way, Senator Carona looks a little fat in his pictures. But that’s not fat. It’s just that his clothing is stuffed with conflicts-of interest, ethics problems, deceit, sneaky tactics, and some of the billions of dollars that he’s raking in.

Good luck, Shadow Hills seniors! Good luck.

http://tinyurl.com/ozztld5

original source:

http://www.cvindependent.com/index.php/en-US/news/local-issues/item/376-evils-of-a-monarchy-residents-of-indio-s-shadow-hills-battle-an-hoa-they-say-is-heavy-handed-greedy

Another Crook Bites The Dust!

Somebody’s gotta write a song with that title.

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.

http://tinyurl.com/kxxxwnl

original source:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/cae/news/docs/2012/11-2012/11-28-12Barna.html

 

Embezzlement? G’wan! It’s a Living!

Kay Sturtz gets 30 days community service after two embezzling cases where she stole more than $35,000. In the first case a couple of years ago, she swiped $10,600 from her Homeowners Association in Washington State. The judged dropped the case after she paid back the missing money. But she apparently got that money by embezzling $26,000 from her employer, the Blue Sky Landscape Service.

Thirty five thousand bucks! Wow! That’s more than a thousand bucks a day. And she gets to luxuriate at home.

Deterrence?

Give me a break!

 http://tinyurl.com/lh9afrt

original source:

 http://www.blscourierherald.com/news/208577171.html

 

Another Day, Another HOA Dollar

No, actually it was about 283 HOA dollars a day. But the treasurer of the Stratford Homeowners Association in a well-to-do suburb of Augusta, Georgia, is facing theft charges.

Laurie Wainwright-Vanover now stands accused of stealing more than a quarter million bucks from her Homeowners Association over a four year period. She was treasurer of her association and had access to the dues paid by all her neighbors.

Of course, she’s not guilty until proven so in a court of law. Unless she pleads guilty, innocent by reason of insanity or….better yet? How about this for a defense: Since we’re living in an era of redistribution of wealth, all she was doing was trying to help carry out national policy. Who knows? People who embezzle from their neighbors sometimes come up with some goofy excuses for doing so.

http://tinyurl.com/a7o84qg

original source:

http://www.wjbf.com/story/22182589/treasurer-arrested-accused-of-stealing-hoa-money