That headline might seem like a bit of sensational hyperbole, except that the story comes from one of the nation’s most respected journalists, John L. Smith, columnist for the Las Vegas Review Journal. I’ve talked about him before, but I don’t remember sending you to his column earlier this year on some bizarre links in the Las Vegas HOA scandal.
Colorado legislators are very much like those in other states: “Pass a law to make the voters shut up and go away.”
And the new Homeowners Association laws in Colorado just aggravate the problem. All HOA officers and managers must now be state licensed. Hmmm, who provides the testing and licensing? Well, the largest organized crime syndicate in the country, of course! I don’t need to provide you with their three initials.
No more HOA mandates for Kentucky bluegrass. That’s not a bad change, although most Colorado homeowners don’t use it anyway.
It’s another HOA Hall of Shame report from our fearless TV reporter in Las Vegas. This time it’s a relatively peaceful HOA that’s being shamed.
Well, I might have spoken too freely. This HOA isn’t really peaceful. It’s full of accusations of board mismanagement, misspent money, and board meetings being held secretly when a pro-homeowner member of the board couldn’t possibly attend because of her work schedule.
Ah yes, and it’s about writing a blank check to lawyers, even lawyers of former bad board members and managers. And illegal transfers of money, such a nasty business, this handling of OPM (other people’s money).
More than three million pages of investigative information have been given under discovery to defense attorneys of Leon Benzer, the Las Vegas club owner and businessman accused of masterminding one of the largest HOA scams in history. The long running FBI and U.S. Attorney investigation uncovered dozens of lawyers, police officials, business owners and HOA management companies also involved in the scam.
Federal investigators say the suspects rigged elections in Homeowners Associations, putting their own associates in control of the HOA boards. Some of those faux board members were not even residents of the communities where they were ‘elected’. Those rigged boards then diverted tens of millions of dollars of insurance reimbursements into the pockets of Benzer and the other defendants.
I always love to blog about, and link to, Darcy Spears and the HOA Hall of Shame feature she does for KTNV television in Las Vegas. She was one of the first television reporters in the nation to regularly investigate and expose the wrongdoings of Homeowners Associations. Of course, the criminal empire in Las Vegas generously provides her with lots of material. Nevada has some of the most notoriously felonious HOAs in the country, as evidenced by the dozens of indictments in the ongoing FBI/U.S. Attorney investigation.
