This blogger has repeatedly said that embezzling in American HOAs is almost universal. There are no controls, and where there are no controls human beings universally drop to their lowest ethical level. Another example popped up in Davenport, Florida.
HOA president David Meadows has been arrested for allegedly stealing a half million dollars from his Homeowners Association. One resident, Danielle Groth, says it’s routine for her HOA to charge $100 a day for such things as cigarette butts on the ground to kids’ toys in the yard or the wrong style of window blinds.
The Florida State Attorney Generals office says a lot of that money ended up in David Meadows pocket.
The Bimini Bay Homeowners Association. Such a lovely place to live!
Shawn Marie Bianco of 109 Georgetowne Court has been arrested in Northern Virginia. Seems she’s accused of embezzling money from a Parent Teachers Organization….says she needed the money to pay her mortgage. She was the president, secretary and treasurer of the PTO.
Oh yes, she was also accused of embezzling money from the Georgetown Court Homeowners Association. And the beat goes on.
Here’s an HOA embezzler who made a pretty good score for himself. 53 year old Dale Palmer was in a position of trust with dozens of Homeowners Associations in Missouri. He operated a firm called “Homeowner Association Services (HOAS), and his take was $750,000. Nice work if you can get it.
Palmer has been preparing false business statements for his 3 member homeowner associations for the past couple of years. His excuse to police was that he was very poor at managing money for HOAs, and he just could keep all that cash straight.
I imagine if you’re swimming in a backyard swimming poll filled with $750,000 cash, it would be kind of hard to keep track of things, too.
Swim on, Slime Bag. You hurt a whole lot of elderly homeowners who trusted you!
Yet another HOA embezzler got a tap on the wrist this week, after pleading guilty to forty counts of stealing from his neighbors.
Robert Dwyane Wood stole an undetermined amount of money from the treasury of the Cabbagetown Initiative Community Development Corporation, a homeowners association in Atlanta. Much of the stolen money came from funds raised to help victims of the 2008 Atlanta tornado. Victims of the tornado never received the money that was donated on their behalf.
Wood was formerly the president of the Homeowner Association.
In addition to 90 days in jail, Wood was ordered to make restitution in the amount of 78,000 dollars. That’s the amount of money that could be documented as being stolen. But other HOA leaders say they suspect that far more money was taken, but they couldn’t prove Wood stole additional funds.
