Author Archives: Beanie
CALIFORNIA – Suspected embezzler in court
A former treasurer of the Carbon Canyon 1 Homeowners Association in Chino Hills charged with two felony counts of embezzlement is scheduled for a pre-preliminary hearing Tuesday, Aug. 25, in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office, Julie Calderon of Chino Hills is accused of embezzling $128,792 from the homeowner’s association between 2013 and 2014. She is charged with one count of grand theft by embezzlement and a count of embezzlement by a public or private officer. Her last court appearance was July 13.
Mrs. Calderon has pleaded not guilty, and is not in custody. Read story:
FLORIDA – Ex-HOA official Vicki Yancey, wife of BHS coach, arrested on larceny
Vicki Ann Yancey, 56, was arrested at her Ocala home by Marion County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brandon Spillman and charged with larceny.
Yancey is the wife of Belleview High School football coach Phillip Yancey. Officials with the Deer Path Homeowners Association said that, according to their audit, Vicki Yancey took a total of $28,772.85 from the HOA account. The HOA president told Spillman she was the association’s treasurer from 2002 until August 2014. He said she was not authorized to take money without the knowledge or consent of the board of directors and was the only person who had access to the account, Spillman’s report states. Read more:
FLORIDA – Deployed family returns to squatters, HOA getting rent
A military family returns to their vacant Hillsborough County home to discover squatters had moved in, and the HOA has been cashing in on it. “We had no idea someone was living in our home and paying our HOA rent,” says Doug Tupper.
A viewer reached out to 10 News trying to get help for this family. It’s a new twist to the ongoing squatter problem that’s plaguing many local neighborhoods. This time it hit a military family and their home on Camden Woods Drive in Hillsborough County.
The HOA’s property management company found a way to force the squatters to pay up without the homeowner ever knowing.
The Tupper family believes squatters may have broken in through the garage, then changed the locks, and the surprises just kept coming for the homeowners. Read more:
NEVADA – Key player in HOA scheme gets 30 months in federal prison
Charles McChesney, a key player in the scheme to take over and defraud Las Vegas Valley homeowners associations, was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge James Mahan also ordered McChesney to pay a share of $100,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release after prison.
McChesney apologized to Mahan and said he regretted his participation in the massive takeover conspiracy.
“It”s something that grew over time, and as it grew I grew with it,” McChesney said.
Mahan told McChesney his background as a private investigator and bail bondsman made him a “dangerous member of the conspiracy.”
He gave McChesney until Oct. 23 to surrender to federal prison authorities.
McChesney pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy and three wire fraud counts, all felonies, and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. He is among the last of more than 40 defendants being sentenced in the long-running investigation, which became public in September 2008 with FBI-led raids across the Las Vegas Valley.
Former construction company boss Leon Benzer, the man behind the massive takeover scheme, is to be sentenced before Mahan on Aug. 6.
Benzer, 47, who pleaded guilty without a cooperation agreement, provided a lengthy explanation in his plea deal of his leadership in the multimillion-dollar takeover scheme between 2003 and 2009.
The sweeping HOA investigation, spearheaded by the Justice Department‘s Fraud Section in Washington, is thought to be the largest public corruption case federal authorities have brought in Southern Nevada. Read more:
NEW JERSEY – Letter: Lawmakers reject oversight of homeowners’ associations
To stick one’s head in the sand and pretend that a problem does not exist is commonly known as the ostrich approach. State legislators in the 9th District, Sen. Chris Connors and Assembly representatives DiAnne Bove and Brian Rumpf, did their version of the ostrich again when they voted against a common interest community legislative measure that would modify state laws regulating homeowners’ associations.
A-469 would afford association homeowners the same level of oversight that is provided to other forms of government. It would establish standards for elections and access to records as well as providing for a recall procedure for board members. It would come at no cost to the associations.
America’s founding fathers devised a system of checks and balances to ensure that its citizens did not fall victim to the corrosive influence of unchecked power. Read more:
FLORIDA – Spencer’s Plantation HOA Board, residents entangled in ugly fight
ORANGE PARK, Fla.– There are 222 homes in Spencer’s Plantation and some of those homeowners are in a fight with the Homeowners Association board.
“It is a dictatorship,” said resident Stacia Hood.
First Coast News met with about ten families on Wednesday evening to hear their concerns.
“Your HOA should be there to represent you, ” said Hood,” not to be harassing you.”
Residents dues are $250 a year. The board is made up of homeowners who are elected to the board. They had three members; today there are two.
“They’re fining people for leaning mailboxes or power washing driveways $1,000 fines,” said Hood.
The fight between the two have gotten so ugly, resident Annette Weaver got a court injunction against a board member.
“I have a restraining order to keep her away from me,” said Weaver, “to keep her away from my house.” Read more:
FLORIDA – HOA shuts down boy’s lemonade stand
RUSKIN (FOX 13) – It wasn’t tax evasion, insider trading, health code violations or bankruptcy; eleven-year-old Gavin Gundersen’s lemonade stand was shut down because four neighbors complained, and it was against neighborhood rules.
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COLORADO – Stan “The Man” and the Transfer Scam
In my book, Neighbors At War, I wrote about a nasty little piece of HOA theft called ‘transfer fees. ‘ They’re hidden deep within the text of your CC&Rs and the vast majority of home buyers never even see them. Sometimes they’re not even in the paperwork. But they can cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars at closing time. What are transfer fees? They’re a scam. They probably refer to photocopying costs which at ten cents a page shouldn’t cost you more than about ten bucks. But the transfer fee is pure slush that pours into the pockets of the nearest property manager or lawyer. Read more:
HOA Reform Coalition 