Category Archives: racketeering

Busy Beavers in Colorado High Country

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A lot of areas in the Rocky Mountains have problems with beavers gnawing trees. But this state has a much bigger problem with humans who are busy as beavers gnawing away at large sums of money that belong to their neighbors. The story linked below contains an interesting line: “…it’s just the latest in a series of extraordinary embezzlement cases throughout the Fifth Judicial District, which includes Eagle, Summit, Clear Creek and Lake counties.”

imagesIt’s sad to think about, but these areas include some pretty ritzy communities with million dollar vacation homes. It must be that people put in a position of trust handling large sums of money just somehow think they’re entitled. Why shouldn’t rich people just allow us to wander through their bank accounts at will? What right do they have to complain?

(colorado embezzlements)

 

HOA Embezzling Comes to Bakersfield

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Because it’s Christmastime, we usually expect a little more embezzling by employees of Homeowners Associations. Michelle Haughton, the accounts receivable employee for the Bear Valley Springs HOA apparently took the word ‘receivable’ a little more literally than her job description intended. The cops won’t say how much money was missing, but it’s greater than $2000. She’s now charged with embezzlement and grand theft.

It won’t matter much to homeowners. They’ll just see a special assessment come along and no one on the board will tell them them what it’s for.

(HOA embezzlement arrest in Bakersfield)

 

A Handicapped Youngster? Screw ’em!

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Great guest post by Dave Russell yesterday, good enough that I’d like to add to it.

Around the country, Homeowners Associations continue to wildly discriminate against families with handicapped youngsters. They’re shunned, they’re fined, they’re labeled ‘bad people’ who aren’t allowed to use the common areas. These stories are as disgusting as they are endemic. And they should serve as a warning to any potential home buyer that HOA property is fundamentally diseased, unfit for Americans who believe in human rights.

Yes, H.U.D. occasionally comes to the rescue on behalf of a damaged family. But these federal lawsuits are so rare they can, at best, be described as ‘show trials’ similar to the massive HOA racketeering case now being conducted in Nevada. A show trial is exactly what it sounds like. The feds ride onto the scene like rodeo cowboys, crack a few whips, and hope that other criminals across the country will be deterred from committing similar crimes. They never are.

The only solution to human rights violations by the HOA system is federal fines massive enough to stagger the imagination. Under the current system the feds win an occasional lawsuit, the HOA insurance company pays for the lawyers and fines, and the homeowners never have a hint about what really happened.

How to solve the problem? When an HOA commits an ongoing violation of federal law confiscate the entire neighborhood under public nuisance laws. Every house, every family gets evicted without compensation.

Outrageous, you say?

Impossible and illegal you say?

Hey, just look at a 2006 Supreme Court decision called Kelo. The government essentially confiscated an entire neighborhood simply for the crime of “not looking nice enough.” Actually, there was some underlying corruption there. A pharmaceutical company wanted the neighborhood for a construction project and the state gave it to them. The irony is that the drug firm decided they didn’t really want the land after all. Now this former neighborhood is just a field of weeds.

Maybe what this country really needs is a few more weeds.

(link to story on cerebral palsy family driven from Kentucky neighborhood)

 

The Ghosts of Christmas Past- Update

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guest blog by David Russell
On December 3, 2014 I wrote a guest blog about 3-year-old Cooper Veloudis who has cerebral palsy. Cooper’s therapist suggested that a playhouse be built in the backyard of the family’s home. The playhouse cost about $5,000 and was set up to help little Cooper with his disability.However, the Andover Forest Homeowners Association, in Lexington, Kentucky, said little Cooper’s house had to go because the HOA had determined it’s a structure and is prohibited. Cooper’s parents were fined $50 a day until they complied. What the HOA didn’t say is that there are other such structures in the same development. But nobody seemed to really care about those.

I hoped In time, just like in the Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, each board member and the pond-scum attorneys who represented Andover Forest Homeowners Association would receive a visit from one of Dickens’ghosts.

Well whoever said that dreams don’t come true, and that Santa isn’t real, must have not seen the new lawsuit just filed by the United States of America vs. Andover Forest Homeowners Association, and their management company EMG Management Services, LLC. Seems like the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ is paying some folks a visit down in Lexington.

Yes, Cooper, there is a Santa Claus, and he’s fixin’ to put some reindeer hoof prints on those board members’ foreheads who took away your little therapy house.

(Here’s a link to the lawsuit filed against the management company and Andover Forest Homeowners Association, by the United States of America)

Rancorous Racism, HOA Style

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guest blog by Dave Russell
I have lived in HOAs for nearly two decades. I have also managed one for five years. Trust me when I tell you, I’ve heard and seen it all. I have also postulated a number of theories as to why HOAs seem to attract some of the craziest folks I have ever met.

I’ve seen seemingly normal neighbors turn into backstabbers, liars and some of the most unreasonable people you’ve ever met. I have seen neighbors hook up, break up, and then turn into complete psychopaths.

I have also seen neighbors join the board and steal their neighbors trust and money. But the one thing that just makes my skin crawl, is when one homeowner, goes after another homeowner, simply because of their race. It happens more often than you could ever imagine, especially in homeowners associations.

Sure, I’ve come across my fair share of racist homeowners. I’ve also seen my fair share of racist board and committee member. But I have never seen anything like the racial shenanigans going on in the Courtyards HOA in San Diego, California.

Seems like a homeowner has made some pretty damning accusations against his neighbors. A resident of the Courtyards HOA is in shock after she said a letter accuses her family of making meth, selling children and huffing paint was sent to 200 people in her condominium complex. Accusations that the targeted resident and her family adamantly denies.

Now the president of the HOA is calling an ’emergency meeting’ to discuss the matter with his fellow board members. It appears that the president of the association doesn’t believe any of the accusations contained in the hate letter.

I’m a little more than suspicious as to why the HOA President called an ’emergency meeting.’ Usually HOAs don’t get involved in neighbor vs. neighbor, unless perhaps, the perpetrator of the poison pen letter is an HOA committee or board member. I guess we will soon find out who he is, hopefully upon his arrest. Something about HOAs just seems to put the ‘S’ back in stupid.