The article linked below is stunning! Although this embezzler is not connected with an HOA, just consider this: if an undetected embezzler can steal $50 million from a small town, how much could an HOA management company steal from the 20 or 30 HOAs it oversees?
Unbelievable and stunning! Fifty million dollars! Watch your HOA like a hawk!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/prosecutor-embezzlement-plea-warning-17721685
Every new guilty plea should bring a shout of joy from the thousands of elderly Las Vegas HOA members who’ve lost their life savings and home equity when this cesspool of crooks decided to start draining their neighbors of their savings.
Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week Arnold Myers, a former HOA board member and a phony straw buyer of an HOA home, pleaded guilty to fraud and corruption and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He’s the 27th. The judge ordered him to pay $277,000 in restitution.
This crook whined that he’s battling skin cancer and will turn 79 in two weeks. He couldn’t attend a previous hearing because he also suffered from double pneumonia.
As Christians, we’re all supposed to forgive those who trespass against us.
But with organized crime suspects arrogantly claiming they robbed multiple homeowner associations in Nevada, ruining the lives of hundreds of fellow homeowners, some things are just so difficult to do.
Myers’ principle victims were the Jasmine, Palmilla, Chateau Versaille and Park Avenue Associations.
Rigging of HOA elections, dirty campaign tactics, stacking HOA boards with phony members, funneling HOA money to organized crime elements. Myers has been ordered to pay restitutution? Any guesses here? Will any victim see even a dime of restitution?
It’s always a sad day when a person in a position of trust violates the confidence he or she is given. It’s even sadder when the victims are elderly homeowners who’ve worked all their lives to save their money for retirement.
Homeowners Association boards and Property Management Companies, though, probably have more embezzlers than any other industry in America.
The latest arrest of a suspected embezzler happened in early July in St. Augustine, Florida. This blogger will enthusiastically post her name: she is 57 year old June Elizabeth Supko. She’s accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Captain’s Quarters Condominium Association.
The president of the Association suspected something was wrong, and asked Supko to turn over HOA computer passwords so the accounts could be audited. She says Supko refused and was fired. A forensic audit discovered the illegal withdrawals. Supko is now facing felony fraud charges.
Good reporting by the St. Augustine Record!
Hallelujah! It took years, but members of the Sunchase Condominiums in North Austin have decided to quit being stupid. Sunchase homeowners have been paying dues for years, but their HOA board and the property manager, Nancy Thompson, refused to show them the books! Last time I looked, Texas law mandated that HOA members be allowed to see where their dues are going.
Homeowners have poured more than a million dollars down a black hole that hasn’t been audited in more than five years. Readers of this blog know that I’ve got a very low tolerance for the stench rising from tens of thousands of HOAs in almost identical situations. And Sunchase stinks to high heaven!
Investigative reporters from KXAN followed the skanky trail behind the property manager and found that it leads to some other HOAs in Austin where large sums of money vanished like some magic trick at Circus Circus. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of checks have been written to various members of Nancy Thompson’s family. Damn, those no-bid contracts sure are profitable.
Someone at Sunchase should consider calling the huge FBI unit that’s rooting out identical corruption in Las Vegas.
BTW, great investigative work by reporter Chris Willis and KXAN, Austin!
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/investigations/homeowners-fight-back-against-hoa-board
Everybody else has reported on this already, but I should at least get my take on the record. So here it is:
In Aurora, Colorado, a Homeowners Association is threatening to ruin the family of a three year old girl who uses colored chalk to draw flowers and hearts on the sidewalks in front of her home.
Seems that some wicked witch in the cul-de-sac complained that the chalk drawings were against the covenants and destroying the value of the neighborhood. The child, Emerson Cohen, is mystified at the dispute, but her mother is furious.
The Stapleton Master Association is furious because the HOA was originally identified as being a Stapleton Homeowners Association. They’re working overtime to lobby the media to say, “It’s not Stapleton, is an HOA within Stapleton. Additionally, Stapleton is saying “We have no rules against sidewalk chalk drawings by children. And the Master Association is pointing its collective finger/fingers? at a member HOA called ”the Innovations and Courtyard Traditions at Stapleton Homeowners Association.”
Still, you’d think that Stapleton Master Association could show some leadership and throttle a few complainers by the necks. This little Nazi-like neighborhood is now in the national news for beating down a three-year-old girl whose artistic efforts were all going to be washed away in the first rain, anyway.
Yes, some people hate little children. Even worse, some people move into HOAs because they hate little children. They realize that a single complaint to the HOA board can shut down chalk drawings, lemonade stands, kids playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. Incredibly, a number of HOAs have even enacted rules that mandate that no children are allowed to play outside!
The hatred of little children is a serious disease. Sadly, when a diseased mind moves into an HOA, that hatred is toxic and communicable.
Here, the message is in big print: IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN, DO NOT MOVE TO ANY STAPLETON NEIGHBORHOOD IN AURORA, COLORADO!
