Grand Jury Indicts & California Attorney General Investigates Association Fraud

Las Vegas doesn’t have the monopoly on homeowner association fraud.

Unscrupulous people can also get themselves on California boards in order to embezzle HOA  bank accounts and engage in self-dealing.

Or so alleges the California Attorney General and a Los Angeles County grand jury, which charged that board president Joseph Orlando

  • Stole about $5.7 million from homeowners mainly by funneling money through a construction company that never did any work
  • Engaged in money laundering, grand theft, and identity theft
  • Took out a $20 million dollar loan in the name of the association in order to fund his own legal bills
  • Acquired about 50 HOA homes by falsely  triggering foreclosure then buying the units for himself and other family members at fire sale prices.

Both the Las Vegas story posted last week on the CCHAL website and the Los Angeles County case show clearly the relationship between HOA board elections and the embezzlement of homeowner money. Whoever controls the board controls the cash because they have the PIN numbers and their name is on the bank signature card..

Orlando’s secretary said she was ordered to manipulate
ballots – but refused – and then watched as Orlando and his wife Dorothy altered them in order to maintain his seat – and control over the bank accounts.

The LATimes article stresses that tracking embezzlement is difficult, because homeowners have to know how to read and understand financial statements.  Studying HOA finances takes time – and skill.  Sometimes homeowners don’t “follow the money” until it’s gone, though eventually that is what the Santa Monica homeowners did: they banded together, hired attorneys, and appealed to law enforcement.

Unfortunately, they are still going to have to pay back the $20 million dollar loan Orlando took out in their name.  They are also going to have to pay a special assessment levied after a judge ordered the HOA into receivership.  The finances were such a shambles that the receiver levied the  assessment. He wouldn’t give the dollar figure but acknowledged it would be a hardship on owners with fixed incomes. 

Read the LATimes story on the CCHAL website here https://calhomelaw.org/california-attorney-general-investigates-5-7-million-hoa-fraud/

Read last week’s NewsBrief about the Las Vegas fraud posted in the Newsletter archive of the CCHAL website https://calhomelaw.org/home/press-room-newsletter/

All the best for a PEACEFUL NEW YEAR AT HOME!