Category Archives: Fraud

Homeowner Fined for Brown Grass During Drought

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It’s happened in Florida. It has happened in other states. Now Denver, Colorado is the scene of the latest HOA atrocity committed against a struggling homeowner.

The Green Valley Ranch Homeowners Association noticed that Lori Wortham’s front lawn had some brown spots. True, the City of Denver has declared a Stage One drought. True, there are severe watering restrictions on homeowners who put too much water on their lawns.

But a $200 fine for a brown spot? Outrageous, says Wortham. She says she’s tried to put down new grass seed and water, but the brown spots aren’t going away during the record heat wave and drought. And HOA president James Tanner says Wortham has been warned before that she needs to take better care of her lawn. As long as the brown spots remain, the fines will keep coming.

President Tanner says a brown lawn lowers property values for all of Lori Wortham’s neighbors. He doesn’t say anything about how punitive HOA fines wreck the reputation of the entire neighborhood and lower the value of all properties in the HOA. That’s the law of “Unintended Consequences.”

Good reporting by Denver’s Channel 7 TV.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31276276/detail.html

Another Las Vegas Guilty Plea

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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?

Another HOA Property Manager With Her Pinkie in the Till

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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!

http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2012-07-04/woman-accused-stealing-thousands-homeowners-association

North Austin Homeowners Decide to Quit Being Stoopid!

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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

Dear Lord God, I Love These Stories!

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How could I live if I didn’t occasionally run across these stories and have the ability to mock them?

But God is good, and He sends me lots of links.

The Massapequa Park Village Board has decided that unmowed lawns are more of a safety hazard than letting child rapists roam the streets.

That’s right, folks. Let your grass grow an inch longer than your neighbors, and you could soon be slapped with a 10,000 dollar fine. Let’s spell that out, so there’s no mistake about the zeroes: A TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR FINE.

Sex offenders usually get off with a far lesser sentence than that.

But in the hoity toity village of Massaqua Park, New York, the ten thousand dollar law apparently passes muster.

Massaqua Park? A new reason not to live there. Stick with my Colorado double-wide. Be grateful.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/06/12/massapequa-park-passes-new-law-on-lawn-maintenance/

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