Yet another HOA embezzler got a tap on the wrist this week, after pleading guilty to forty counts of stealing from his neighbors.
Robert Dwyane Wood stole an undetermined amount of money from the treasury of the Cabbagetown Initiative Community Development Corporation, a homeowners association in Atlanta. Much of the stolen money came from funds raised to help victims of the 2008 Atlanta tornado. Victims of the tornado never received the money that was donated on their behalf.
Wood was formerly the president of the Homeowner Association.
When critiquing the Homeowner Association movement, most of our attention is directed at problem HOAs in the United States. But the out-of-control HOA board, it seems, is an international problem.
In Dubai, residents of Palm Jumeirah were furioius when their water was cut off for five hours. The problem was that a homeowner was late paying a water bill so all other homeowners were forced to suffer for this one person’s mistake. Dubai has a history of out-of-control neighborhood governance. Property rights there are somewhat vague and ill-defined.
On very rare occasions a damaged homeowner actually beats his HOA in court. It’s incredibly rare, but it does happen. And this one happened in Tennessee.
In its infinite wisdom, the Rivertown On The Island Homeowner Association decided to confiscate and auction off some poor shmuck’s house for non-payment of dues. But in its glowing arrogance, the HOA figured it needn’t inform the homeowner how much he had to pay to stop the foreclosure.
It could be the first of many; but the first actual indictment for corruption in the Las Vegas Homeowners Association investigation was handed down Friday, December 9th.
Dax Lee Louderman, a former employee of a construction company, was charged with stealing more than a half million dollars in a construction defect case. Louderman was charged with 13 counts of theft from the Stone Canyon HOA.
Ho hum, it’s just another embezzlement from a Homeowner Association. I don’t want to bore you with too many details, since these happen with unbelievable regularity. I haven’t done an official study, but it seems that there are more HOA embezzlements than purse snatchings. Is that possible? It’s just so incredibly easy to steal from your neighbors when you’re an HOA board officer or manager. The difficult thing to understand is how you can look your neighbors in the eye. If anyone can enlighten me as to how that miracle can be accomplished, please do. That kind of bald-faced dishonesty just mystifies me. But there’ll be another embezzlement tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.
