Category Archives: construction defects

HOA Is Easier Target

guest blog by Nila Ridings

Here’s a an auditor from Pima County, Arizona who apparently opted to steal from the HOA rather than the taxpayers. Joshua Bonillas was the HOA bookkeeper for Presidio Villas 2. His day job as county auditor paid him $60,000 per year. He admits to stealing $45,000 from his neighbors via the HOA bank account by forging the treasurer’s signature on the checks.

I have a few questions for him. He’s claiming he stole the money because of his ill children. Did he not have health insurance for him and his family through his county job? If so, how did he end up needing $45,000 to pay medical bills? Why didn’t he put that money on a credit card? Or take a second mortgage on his house? Or set up a GoFundMe account? And why didn’t he steal from the taxpayers instead of his neighbors?

Here’s my opinion of why he chose the HOA for his piggy bank. I’m one who believes if a person will steal one thing they will steal anything. In this case, I don’t think he thought he’d ever get caught stealing from the HOA. As a county auditor, he knew if he stole from the county funds his risks for getting caught and going to jail were much greater. So, he opted to steal where his could play the “my kids were sick” card on his neighbors so as to pull their sympathetic heartstrings and appease them with an “I’m sorry” and walk away with a promise to repay the HOA. Repay when, Mr. Bonillas? In this lifetime or your next? We all know HOAs rarely recover anything when a thief steals the cash. It’s always chalked up to the “we should have known better” or “it was our fault” for not having two signatures required on the checks. In this case, he was not only stealing the money he was forging the signature. I just wonder if the $45,000 was the total he stole or if there’s more to the story?

Bottom line: Joshua Bonillas should be going to jail. April 11th he will be sentenced but his neighbors are already willing to forgive and forget what happened.

What about the homeowners who can’t afford their medical treatment because they are paying HOA dues? Or cannot afford the orthodontics for their children because they are paying dues for some thief to steal? Or the maintenance that was not done thus depreciating their property values? What about all of those real life situations? Will those be taken into consideration at the sentencing? I doubt it.

People make a conscious effort to forge signatures and steal money. No matter what their excuse for doing so, it doesn’t happen accidentally or unintentionally. Homeowners need to stop accepting these lame apologies and push for the highest level of punishment by law. Only when thieves know they will be given significant time behind bars will this HOA theft insanity stop!

Most of our readers recall my HOA has $10,000,000 unaccounted for. The guy who ran the HOA like it was his own business for twenty years dropped dead shortly after I hired an attorney. You should have heard the neighbors telling me how he was such a nice guy to have “volunteered” to be the president for all those years. And how he was so good at the job and just took care of every little thing. (Nobody noticed the houses were rotting to the ground and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills were not paid in addition to the ten million dollars going missing.) Nobody cared that he had just purchased two places in Carlsbad, California and was running for the BOD of that HOA. Did I ever share with you that his successor had the American flag lowered to half-staff the day he died? Yes, she did. I’m convinced she thought as the new HOA president she had been given the power of authority that the Governor and President of the United States have! All that respect, concern, and sympathy for him. But let a homeowner not pay three months of dues, watch what happens then. No sympathy regardless of their reason for not paying. They will call out the CAI attorney, charge 18% interest, add on the legal fees, and go absolutely nuts to destroy that homeowner!

I do not understand the logic that seems to prevail in the minds of HOA homeowners. A simple apology from a thief seems to suffice. A few late payments from a homeowner sends them off the deep end. Could somebody please explain this to me? I just do not get it.

(link to conviction of HOA bookkeeper for stealing money from neighbors)

A Little Bit of Humor!

If you think the link below gives any hint to my personal beliefs then you’ll be dead wrong. I just want to pass it on because it’s funny. And humor is the way to build bridges between people of different political persuasions.

Enjoy! Always enjoy the humor in life.

 

ABC News (kind of) Discovers The HOA Scam!

The Nation’s news media are late to the table in discovering the national scam known as Homeowner Associations. One of the early ‘discoverers,’ though, was ABC News, although their first story was a little tepid. It’s linked below.

But the news agency kinda, sorta hinted that simple rules violations by homeowners could cost up to six figures before things get straightened out. Six figures? Some sad homeowners have spent more than a million dollars trying to straighten out an idiotic problem. Since HOAs are invariably backed by a huge insurance policy they just love for a homeowner to sue. It’s more satisfying than sex! The homeowner files suit, the HOA’s insurance policy kicks in and these criminals who run the HOA get a free ride while their insurance company tries to stretch the case out while whittling the homeowner’s life savings away.

Folks, this is racketeering, the same kind of organized crime activity that produced 43 federal indictments and convictions in Las Vegas last year. We’re not fighting a few small-brained people with super-sized egos. We’re fighting a crime wave, an organized crime wave intent on destroying the Constitutional fabric of our Republic!

Wake up!

Or move to Argentina!

(link to ABC story on war against homeowners)

 

No Wonder Nevada Officials Are Fighting!

PLEASE SEND THIS NEIGHBORS AT WAR LINK TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

All during the Las Vegas HOA scandal, there were rumors about a judge somehow being involved in the massive scam. Prosecutors have been steadfastly refusing to show public records to the Las Vegas Review Journal. The newspaper sued. Finally some intriguing things are leaking out. The judge is none other than the Chief Justice of the Nevada Supreme Court!

According to the Journal, one of the 43 HOA crooks swore under oath that she got a text from fellow criminal Nancy Quon that Chief Justice Nancy Saitta was warning her the FBI was raiding all the HOAs. It’s crazy how many lawyers were involved in this scam! (Shades of Pennsylvania?)

Is there any question that the Las Vegas Review Journal has had to fight tooth and nail to get this scam uncovered? The prosecutor is still withholding millions of documents. How many more surprises are hidden in all those boxes? Maybe even another top state politician? A few members of the U.S. Attorney’s office? In Nevada you don’t get rich at the tables. You get rich by stealing from homeowners.

BTW, as a lifelong investigative reporter I could probably tell you exactly where this latest leak came from. I’ve used that source many times to get ‘secret’ depositions.

(link to Judge Saitta story in Las Vegas Review Journal)

 

 

 

Never Talk To The Cops!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is only vaguely related to Homeowners Associations. But since HOA board members love to call the cops on what they claim are rogue homeowners, this is some of the most profoundly important information you’ll ever hear.

As a lifelong investigative reporter I’ve heard this lesson many times from friends who are lawyers. Most people just don’t ‘get it.’ But you have protections in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights…only if you exert them. If your HOA calls the cops, USE the information in the video linked below, or REGRET it!