Tag Archives: Las Vegas

Frickin’ FEMA

A Hurricane? And You’re Not Covered?

A recent issue of Realty Times discusses what thousands of victims of Hurricane Sandy already know: Homeowners in HOAs Co-ops and Community Associations aren’t eligible for storm coverage.

Huh? What’s that again?

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says Homeowners Associations are private businesses. As such, a homeowner who’s damaged in a major disaster can’t get federal grants. If they’re lucky they might qualify for loans, but by buying into a Homeowners Association a homeowner is actually just a shareholder in a business enterprise, not a real homeowner.

So, all you great people who bought into a condo, townhome, co-op, or Homeowners Association don’t wait for that check from the feds. It’s probably not coming!

(click here for FEMA nightmare)

http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20130821_condostormrelief.htm

 

Infamous Embezzler Gets 30 Days!

Ah, Las Vegas. “How we love ya, How we love ya.”

Get caught drunk driving and you might get a year behind bars. Embezzle a million bucks, cost fifty people their homes and you get 30 days!

Massoud Aaron Yashouafar is known in three states for his enormously fishy real estate deals. And he’s the big cheese behind the Paradise Spa scandal in Las Vegas. Much of the Homeowners Association burned to the ground in 2010, but somehow a million dollars in insurance money found its way to Yashouafar’s pockets instead of the homeowners. 

Originally, the burned condos could have been rebuilt. But it took so much time to deal with the ruins that the county finally demolished them. To rub salt in the wounds of the homeless HOA members the county filed liens on the ruined units and sent the owners bills to pay for the demolition job. Ah yes, all those displaced homeowners are still on the hook for monthly dues!

Meanwhile Yashouafar gets thirty days.

Love ya, Las Vegas.

Ya got class!

(click here for Darcy Spears’ Hall of Shame’ report)

 

The Earth Shakes In Nevada!

Unbelievable!

Nevada, where HOA bigwigs have been smacked with dozens of federal indictments and convictions for racketeering, is now leading the nation in trying to offer due process to homeowners. It’s only a proposal in the Nevada Real Estate Division, but what a concept!

Due process.

It’s just a handful of words in some obscure part of the Constitution.

But it’s almost beyond comprehension that Nevada homeowners might someday have real access to the Bill of Rights. 

(click here for text of the Due Process proposal)

 

For Today? Just A Definition To Mull Over

The following definition is taken directly from the FBI Glossary. No further comment is necessary.

Organized Crime

The FBI defines organized crime as any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activities. Such groups maintain their position through the use of actual or threatened violence, corrupt public officials, graft, or extortion, and generally have a significant impact on the people in their locales, region, or the country as a whole.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime/glossary

 

Las Vegas HOA Mob

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