At long last a Texas HOA is getting some much-deserved attention. Sadly, it took a homeowners lawsuit to get the ball rolling.
Folks in the Sunchase HOA in Northeast Austin are wondering where a million bucks went. It just kind of wandered off someplace. It’s illegal for a Texas HOA not to have regular audits of their books. Of course, it’s also illegal to filch a million bucks, IF that’s what happened. And Sunchase hasn’t had an audit for at least five years.
Darcy, you have done it again! You have located and exposed one of the worst HOA presidents in the country. I sincerely hope you’re winning a whole series of Emmy Awards for your HOA Hall of Shame feature on KTNV-TV in Las Vegas. Since I retired from the TV business four years ago I don’t have a chance to go back and emulate your reporting. But dang! Keep it up, girl!
Another Las Vegas Police Captain has agreed to take a guilty plea in the massive federal investigation of crooked Homeowner Associations. Captain Frank Sutton admits he’s guilty in a massive fraud scheme to stack the boards of Homeowner Associations so they could steer legal work and construction defect contracts and litigation to a group of Las Vegas insiders. He’s the fourth police official connected. The first one, Christopher Van Cleef, committed suicide.Captain Sutton says he served simultaneously on three HOA boards, High Noon, Mission Ridge, and Park Avenue in an effort to stack the boards. He tried to get on a fourth board, Pebble Creek.At the same time, Sutton worked for construction company boss Leon Benzer, a night club owner, whose ancillary businesses included a long list of construction companies which handled the HOA work. Insurance companies poured money into Benzer, and into construction defects attorney Nancy Quon.It’s the largest official corruption investigation in Nevada’s history. It’s also one of the largest in the history of the FBI and the US Attorney’s office.
With four decades as an investigative reporter, I can tell you a few things about what’s going on inside the FBI investigation into HOA corruption in Las Vegas. First, I happen to know that about half the readers of this blog are federal investigators. That’s not ego, it’s just past experience. So, some of this is written for them.
Second, federal agents are extremely worried about the number of indicted suspects who are getting “whacked.” With ten people under indictment, and four of them suddenly dying, the feds know that a large part of their case is going down the tube. For the time being, those are all being called “suicides” for obvious reasons. But no case in FBI history has had forty percent of its indicted suspects die before trial.
“Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small, though with patience He stands waiting with exactness grinds He all.” -Friedrich Von Logau (“Retribution”)
Many of us have dreamed of having that condo on the beach in Hawaii. You know, the one you get to visit a few times a year, the ones where the kids go when they want a break from work.
