If you ever get bored of me telling you about embezzling by Homeowners Association board members, just let me know. But maybe each one of these stories will encourage some young couple to decide against HOA life.
Here’s another trio who not only stole tens of thousands of dollars, but stole two tractors owned by the Richland Township Homeowners Association.
Pennsylvania.
Even their mug shots look creepy.
(link to story in The Tribune Democrat)
Well, well, it looks like the U.S. Department of Justice is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). It means that common citizens like you and me have the right to inspect almost all documents in any federal agency. As a lifelong reporter I’ve used FOIA many times. And I’ve been frustrated many times by public officials who never received my requests, ignored my requests or just laughed at my requests.
A longtime rival of mine taught a reporters’ seminar on how he used FOIA. He would make his initial request for documents. A month later he’d demand access to all documents, memos, notes or letters on how his last FOIA was to be handled. Then he’d hit the agency with yet another FOIA demand for all documents discussing his last FOIA of the FOIA. And his monthly demands created so much paperwork that agency officials finally gave up the original documents just to get this creep off their backs.
I once FOIA’d the FBI for a copy of any file the FBI file kept on me. It took about a year to get a response but they, indeed, had a one page file on me. They sent me a copy…but about a third of it was blacked out! Why can’t I see my own information?
A certain Secretary of State has been hit with subpoenas and FOIA requests for her email illegally kept on a personal computer. Obey the law? Nope. Tens of thousands of the requested emails were destroyed and the controversy is still up in the air.
The Freedom Of Information Act really does work sometimes. You can see information about flying saucer investigations (Project Blue Book), or documents related to the Kennedy assassination (some of them). But ask about some minor official’s misconduct and you’ll be treated like a Russian spy.
The U.S. Attorney’s office is still refusing to hand over documents in a Nevada Homeowners Association scandal that convicted 43 people of federal crimes. This was massive Organized Crime with connections to a Mexican drug cartel, connections to the Chicago mob, and a Nevada Supreme Court Justice who warned the criminals that the feds were going to be doing raids of HOA bigwigs. It gave the lawyer in charge of the Las Vegas HOA scam time to shred all her documents. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has repeatedly hit the feds with FOIA demands for documents. But the feds say, “Nope. Doing so might reveal the personal affairs of some public officials.” That’s not an exception in the Freedom Of Information Act!
Are we better off with FOIA than without? Of course. But don’t expect complete and total honesty out of a dishonest system.
Happy 50th Anniversary, FOIA.
(link to DOJ celebration of FOIA)
The National HOA Scam is as close to ‘all things Mafia’ as it gets. Get it through your skulls, people! Homeowners Associations are organized crime. It used to be illegal to go door to door threatening to break glass, bust up a business, scare customers if the business owner didn’t pay his weekly extortion to the mob.
An interesting book in my past reading was “Jimmy the Weasel.” You don’t have to read the book. Just read the Wiki article linked below about the life of Jimmy Fratianno, mob boss of the West Coast. And see if his kind of extortion isn’t an exact parallel of the crap that goes on in Homeowners Associations. Threats, extortion, property damage, mob-controlled living environment. The most powerful story, though, is about the homeowner in Sarasota who was victimized by her HOA mob.
You think I’m exaggerating? Read the links below!
(link to background of Mafia boss Jimmy The Weasel. He should have been an HOA board member)
More and more media outlets are beginning to take notice of the national HOA Scam/Outrage. The link below is from Kiplinger and it’s worth reading.
Also (hint, hint!). There are rumors that a major newspaper in the Midwest has a killer of an HOA expose’ about to be published! This one is said to be the best of all!
(link to Kipling article on HOAs)
