Tag Archives: HOA

Real Tragedy Developing in the Las Vegas HOA Scandal

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In four decades of investigative reporting, what always burned my butt was the sweet sentences given to white collar criminals by Federal Judges. A little personal confession here, one I probably shouldn’t make, but once I became good friends with a major white collar criminal who should have been sentenced to ten years, not ten months! I like this guy. I like him a lot. I consider him a great friend. But he’s an admitted crook who’s made that same confession on national TV. And he knows he skated with only a fraction of the prison sentence he really deserved. He took great delight in talking about how easy his sentence was. He considered it a vacation, a temporary escape from a difficult domestic situation and had the benefit of an admiring Federal prison warden who occasionally took him to town on weekends to meet women! In fact, he says he got more straight sex as a federal prison inmate than he did as an outsider.

Cut to the current Federal Organized Crime Syndicate in Las Vegas which has raped and pillaged Homeowners Associations up and down the valley. 39 suspects, four of them dead in highly suspicious ‘suicides’. And the federal judge in the case is beginning to hand out what the crooks all call “pussy” jail sentences for their involvement in this hundred million dollar scam. The first prison sentences look like they’ll be about a year in federal prison. Easy duty. Over before you know it. And if you’re a good crook and keep your mouth shut about your confederates there’ll be a few handfuls of big bills to get your new life started on the other side.

This Organized Crime syndicate stole a hundred million dollars from Las Vegas homeowners. As a homeowner, all you have to do is look at the current value of your home to know how much money they stole. But even today, the powers that be who won’t be named are two of the most prominent political names, men who made millions and millions of dollars for ‘ignoring’ or even participating in this vicious scam.

Folks, just believe this crusty, hardened, wizened 40-year investigative reporter: some very big people are being overlooked in the Las Vegas RICO investigation. The Feebies (FBI) are intentionally hiding their eyes. There are at least two names who, if indicted, would be huge.

One or two of these names could actually change the political balance of an entire country!

(link to latest from las vegas review journal)

No More Flag Stories?

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I may actually have to quit doing stories on HOAs that fine and foreclose on veterans who try to display the America flag on their homes. There are just too many of them. Despite my earlier promise to report on all these outrageous cases, I’d just end up doing several such stories a day and not much else.

So, I hereby reluctantly admit that the anti-American, anti-homeowner movement, CAI, Associa, American Bar Association, ACLU are too firmly rooted in our society to ever win back our right to display the flag on our homes. We might still be able to put flag decals on car bumpers, but that, too, is under attack.

Greed is a powerful taskmaster. When a lawyer knows he can automatically make a few thousand bucks every time he sues a flag-waving veteran like Larry McMurphree, when a morally corrupt HOA board knows it can put a few hundred extra bucks in the neighborhood kitty by fining any homeowner who even thinks displaying a flag is patriotic, then I guess that portion of our battle is lost.

The really weird thing is that if you displayed a Nazi Flag or the Rainbow Flag, or any of the flags representing the Islamic Revolution, you actually might have a stronger case in court.

The courts have long recognized that certain people groups have protected status under our Constitution and cannot be allowed to suffer the indignities sometimes shown to people of other belief systems. They’ll get free representation in court. The owner of a Stars and Stripes flag never will.

Stranger still, it’s absolutely OK to desecrate the flag, trample on it, burn it, those are all protected forms of speech according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It hurts to say all this. It really does.

(Tampa CBS story on veteran being sued by his HOA)

(Elisabeth Hasselback talks about flag story)

(good news for flag-flying veteran)

Another American Flag Outrage

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Yes, I know I’m harping, but every time I see one of these outrageous stories about homeowners not being allowed to display the Stars and Stripes I’m going to erupt.

As I’ve said before, I have five family members buried in Arlington, another war hero family member buried in a National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. These men and women stood for a principle, that the American ethic means something. It means we’re courageous in the face of evil. It means we stand up for what’s right and against what’s wrong. It means that when we realize we’ve made a mistake we have a Constitution that allows us to correct it. It means if our leaders in the White House, the Congress, the Senate or elsewhere are too wimpy or too cowardly to stand up for what’s right, we have the right as American voters to toss their butts into the street.

For this Vietnamese hero fighting for his right to fly the American flag in a Houston apartment complex, I say we support him in every way possible.

(link to latest flag outrage, this one in Texas)

Is This The Future Of Your HOA?!?!

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I keep warning about the impending crash of the American Homeowners Association as we know it. You bought into your HOA because you thought it would protect property values. A few HOAs actually did maintain their value for a while. But just give it time. Throw a few lawsuits around, fine a few dozen homeowners for petty violations that could easily have been handled in a more genteel way. But there’s a moment coming when homeowners will just lease out their homes to get away from screaming board members.

A funny thing happens when the number of rental homes reaches a certain percentage: Mortgage companies quit lending. Then more homes are converted to rentals. More nastiness from the board. At some point your $200,000 investment becomes worth about twenty or thirty thousand. Then you have a neighborhood like the one linked below. Imagine owning a home in TymberSkan on the Lake.

From Florida to Overland Park, Kansas to Nevada and Crooked California a growing number of once thriving Homeowners Associations desperately need to be bulldozed.

(link to Florida’s TymberSkan HOA nightmare)

Oh! My Goodness…Imagine THIS Happening In A Condo Association

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

My title might have been the reaction back in the 1960’s. Since then HOAs and COAs have come a long way in the development of dishonest business practices, deception, and embezzlement.

$81K was all they could charge the COA treasurer, Kostantina Gardner with stealing. But they are sure it’s more than that. Folks, I promise you it’s more…probably a whole lot more!

If not for the water bills being $55K in arrears this might have gone on for another twenty years. Clifford Albertson has been the board president since dirt was invented and he trusted this well-liked treasurer.

I have some questions for Clifford:

1) How did she get an ATM card on the BonAire Condominium One Complex bank account?

This should have been established long ago that no one could walk in and acquire an ATM card!

2) Why was the board not reviewing the water bills?

(a) And the other utility bills?

(b) And most of all the bank statements?!?!?

Folks, we must change the way we think!

We lock the car door when we get out. We bolt the house shut, turn on the alarm, and illuminate the exterior. We take steps to avoid being caught up in identity theft. We teach our children about “stranger danger.” We place lanyards on the elderly for a medical alert. We dance in circles and jump up and down warning our daughters about “date rape” drugs. We cross the street and walk faster with our pepper spray ready when we see a teenager in a “hoodie.”

Yes, we do it ALL to protect ourselves YET we totally trust the people we should be the most suspicious of….the HOA board and the property managers! STOP IT! Stop trusting these people. They know you trust them by not paying attention and never asking any questions. Stop giving them the freedom to steal, deceive, lie, and destroy your bank account and property values!

Think about it…If just one member of this condo association had asked to see the water bill or the bank statement this thief could have been caught long ago!

Remember: the word TRUST and HOAs or COAs or property managers should never be used in the same sentence!

(link to Bon Aire embezzlement allegations)

guest blog by Nila Ridings

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