Nevada Supreme Court Justice Nancy Saitta “tipped off” a key government target to FBI-led raids in an investigation of massive homeowners association fraud, according to a sworn deposition obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In the deposition, Lisa Kim, who ran a company that managed HOAs linked to the long-running investigation, testified that the FBI’s target, the late lawyer Nancy Quon, told her about the tip on Sept. 24, 2008, the first of two days of court-approved law enforcement searches across the valley.

“I was literally sitting at my office in tears … and I received a text message from Nancy Quon that said that she had been tipped off by Justice Saitta that the feds were serving search warrants, ” Kim testified. “And I said … ‘They are at my office now. And that was it. And that’s the last time I got a text or anything from Nancy.’”

The next day investigators searched Quon’s office. She did not tell Kim how Saitta — who has denied the allegation — would have learned about the raids, which by then had attracted media attention.

Quon became wealthy as a high-profile construction defect lawyer. But her notoriety also caught the attention of the government, which made her a top target of the HOA investigation. The case focused on a wide-ranging scheme to take over HOA boards through election rigging so that her law firm could land lucrative contracts to sue for construction defects. Work repairing the defects was then steered to a construction company owned by her friend, Leon Benzer. Prosecutors alleged the conspiracy went on from 2003 to 2009.

Quon killed herself in March 2012 under the weight of the investigation and was not charged. Benzer pleaded guilty last year as the mastermind of the scheme and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Saitta, who was first elected to the Supreme Court in 2006, presided over construction defect cases while she was a Clark County District Court judge. Quon often appeared before her.  Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Enrique Flor and Brenda Medina

Published March 24, 2016

Rodolfo Rodríguez believed he had made a good investment for his retirement when he bought a condo in Miami at a bargain price after the real estate crisis.

The 74-year-old taxi driver fixed up the apartment he bought for $20,000 in August 2011 and rented it to a family for $800 a month.

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Miami Herald Editorial Board

Published March 26, 2016

Allegations of fraud by condominium associations in South Florida is nothing new, but the latest case to come to light is shocking in its scope.

And it reveals something else: That investigation into such abuses by local authorities is too infrequent, and many condo residents are left frustrated without the help of the agencies created to protect them.

TOPEKA (KSNT) – A Topeka veteran is left without a home after a local homeowners association denied his VA loan after originally giving him approval.

Stan Simmons decide to put his home on the market 2 months ago.

Looking to help ease the expense of purchasing a home, Simmons applied for a Veterans Affairs loan.

When it was approved Simmons thought moving into the Pheasant Run community would give him a fresh start. But it has now turned into a nightmare.

“Then we went to get the financing arranged and found out that the Homeowners Association in Pheasant Hills does not accept VA loans,” said Stan Simmons.

Simmons was told by his realtor Monday that the Homeowners Association does not accept any type of government loan.

“The original MLS sheet we ran off they listed VA, FHA, conventional and cash,” Simmons said.

But looking at a copy of the multiple listing service today VA and FHA loan options were no longer there. Read more:

A Houston developer has filed a pre-emptive strike against the owners of a luxury high-rise near the Galleria to head off an “inevitable lawsuit” over its plans to build a tower next door.

Brown said Wednesday that her group met with the developer, Dinerstein Co., several times to discuss homeowners’ concerns over the size of the proposed tower, its proximity to their own 22-story building, and related traffic and safety issues. She said the association wants the building to be half as tall and 100 feet farther away.

“They want to build a 40-story building 10 feet from us,” Brown said. “We think that’s unreasonable.”

But she said she was surprised to learn that the owner of the lot next door, an affiliate of Dinerstein Co., had filed suit against her group.

Cira and José Rodríguez have resigned themselves to losing the condo they bought seven years ago.

The retired couple cannot afford to pay the special assessment approved by the board of their condo, The Beach Club at Fontainebleau Park in Northwest Miami-Dade County. The assessment more than doubles their monthly maintenance fee.

“We could lose our apartment … just when I am about to turn 78 years old. It seems incredible that this can happen to me,” said Jose, his voice breaking. Added Cira: “It’s difficult when you have worked all your life to have a comfortable retirement, and here we are.”

The assessment fees stem from repairing the roof of 12 buildings in the complex. Six months before its members were reelected in an election in which numerous condo owners contend their ballot signatures were forged, the condo board approved the $5.2 million contract, signed with a 1-year-old roofing company.

Now, the Rodríguezes must pay their regular monthly maintenance fee of $240 per month, plus another $260 per month to cover the assessment.

“We would have to pay more than what we receive from our retirement, and that’s totally impossible,” Cira said. “The lawyer [for the condo association] told us that if we did not pay the special assessment, they could seize our apartment.”  Read more:

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Enrique Flor And Brenda Medina

Published March 19, 2016

The Miami-Dade Police Department released a statement Wednesday saying that it had started an investigation into possible fraud in The Beach Club at Fontainebleau Park condominium.

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By Enrique Flor and Brenda Medina

Published March 16, 2016

Nurse Virgilia Corcés is certain she did not vote in the election for the board of directors of her condominium, The Beach Club at Fontainebleau  Park in northwest Miami-Dade. She was busy those days, taking care of her father who is ailing with cancer.  Read more:

ATLANTA – A quiet, DeKalb County neighborhood off of Flat Shoals Road is cozy with its bungalows, townhomes and single family houses. But, neighbors say, their new homeowners’ association president has created tension. “I’ve lived 10 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. It could be a reality show,” said Lauren Hise , a Brighton Village homeowner Brighton Village Board Treasurer Derick Montgomery chimed in, “I’m exhausted and tired and very frustrated.”

Many residents and some board members also blame the property management group, Sentry Management, for the new tension which spilled into a recent meeting. In an audiotape, you can hear Sentry representative Caren Brown challenges board member Brianna Gage who has pushed back at how the community is being treated.  “Do you want to see me outside Brianna? Let’s go,” yelled Ms. Brown.

Board treasurer Derick Montgomery was there. I said, ‘We’re professionals. We are not going to engage in a fist fight with a property management who is on the clock and we’re paying her to be there’.”

So how did it come to this? The installation of a security gate opened the neighbors’ eyes to just how closed off they feel they are to the management of their community. Even the HOA treasurer, the man in charge of the finances, says he no longer has a say in how the money is spent.

The treasurer says Brighton Village shelved an $80,000 gate proposal because they didn’t have the money. But then after new board leadership arrived, he says, a gate was going in and the price was going up.

“And we’re now at $135,000,” he told the Fox 5 I-Team.  Read more: