I’ve written repeatedly about the ethics-challenged former Texas state senator John Carona. He’s the billionaire who owns a company that oversees about 9,000 Homeowners Associations across the country. And his rules for homeowner behavior are beyond bizarre.
One that still gets my goat is that a homeowner can be fined for the behavior of any guest who ‘intends’ on visiting his property. No kidding! A Home Depot truck was stopped for speeding. The fake officer asked where the driver was making his delivery. And that homeowner got fined because the Home Depot truck’s first stop was at that homeowner’s house.
Every time you think it can’t get any wilder, just hang around this website. It just gets crazier. I’m surprised more authors haven’t written fiction books about the HOA movement.
How bad does a lawyer have to be to get five or six years in prison? If he’s stolen millions of dollars, if he’s got more bar complaints against him than any other lawyer, if he’s defrauded Homeowners Associations and other clients, if he’s cheated the IRS you’d think he’d at least get a few decades behind bars.
But lawyer Barry Levinson, who knows the legal system inside and out, put on an amazing performance for U.S. District Judge James Mahan, who’s overseeing that massive organized crime HOA scandal in Las Vegas. Levinson knows the ropes. He cried. He sobbed. He apologized. He said, “I stole from clients. I embarrassed Las Vegas. I let everybody down. I accept responsibility. I’m paying for it.”
Well, no, he’s not paying for it. This guy took part in a scam that will ultimately amount to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to homeowners. He and his organized crime partners funneled millions of dollars away from Homeowners Associations in the Valley. But this scam has legs. Thousands of Nevada residents lost their homes which are still sitting unsold. Taxes aren’t being paid. Part of that was the housing bubble, but who in his right mind would want to buy a house in Las Vegas right now? Stupid people will, of course. But with the Nevada Supreme Court ruling that an idiotic one-dollar HOA lien against a house can extinguish a half million dollar mortgage, what sane mortgage company would lend money in Nevada? The ripples go on, and on, and on.
Barry Levinson cries a few tears. And the judge gives him six years in prison. He’ll probably get two or three of those years off for good behavior. Unless some angry imprisoned homeowner beats him to death.
I’ve said it before: If you live in an HOA keep your religion to yourself. The mindless, self-absorbed bullies who rise to the top in a typical Homeowners Association think it’s OK to harass people for their Jewishness, their Christianity, their sexual orientation, their race or age.
Keep in mind that HOA board members and management companies always know exactly how much equity is in your home. The more equity you have, the bigger a target you are.
Here’s a Christian family in Senoia, Georgia, who use their garage to collect Christmas presents and furniture for people living in poverty. They don’t have garage sales, the collected goods are never visible to others, there’s nothing stored on the driveway. But Barbara Walton, the property manager for the Summerfield Homeowners Association, has decided this Christian family is operating an illegal home business. She’s given the family ten days to shut their charity down or else face fines, liens, lawsuits and possible loss of their home.
I’m guessing this family has some equity in their home. And equity attracts sharks like blood in the water.
There’s a reason the phrase ‘lawn Nazis’ came about.
No HOA news to pass on tonight. Lots more in the days to come.
I spent this Memorial Day watching D-Day documentaries. Kids today just have no idea how the Greatest Generation planned the biggest hoax and the greatest military invasion in world history. The landings in Normandy were accomplished only through two years of inventing ways of hiding two million Allied soldiers from Nazi spies. Absolutely beyond description and a work of pure genius.
D-Day is about 12 days away. In advance of that I’m listing some fascinating links below. The first link is a very abbreviated look at this incredibly secret military operation.
Below that is a five part video series. It could be one of the most fascinating one-hour documentaries you ever watch.
Dang! I have friends in Canada and I think of Canadians being so much more gentile and honest than Americans. But then, I seem to be selling a lot of books in Ontario so maybe I’m wrong.
But one of the biggest thefts I’ve read about is a 4.1 million dollar embezzlement from a condo association in that Province. A man who managed 13 condominium operations in Hamilton and Burlington just swiped a little at a time from each one of them over five years. That’s almost a million bucks a year. Not bad work if you can get it.
A founder of the Condo Owners Association used a couple of interesting phrases: “downright ridiculous” and “a disaster zone.” When asked if HOA fraud was rare, her response was, “No, no, no, no, no, no!” And she says laws in the Province to protect condo owners is non-existent.
