In case you have not been able to fully appreciate the whole story of why the FBI is ripping into so many of the Southern Nevada HOAs and their corrupt boards, attorneys, management companies, industry trade association and government agency employees, the following link and attached PDF article will tell the whole story and bring you up to date.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-king-of-all-vegas-real-estate-scams-12082011.html

In the meantime, it remains a mystery why so many Sun City Anthem unit owners continue to ignore the signals of our board and sub-contractor misconduct.  How many times have you heard a resident say “Oh, I can’t believe any of our board members or community managers could be involved in crimes!  They seem like SUCH nice people….”

Of course they do–seeming like a “nice person” is a key characteristic of a confidence artist.  See this link:  [2] http://money.howstuffworks.com/con-artist.htm

“You might think you can spot a con artist because he’s someone you instinctively “don’t trust.” But the term con artist is short for confidence artist — they gain your confidence just long enough to get their hands on your money. They can be very charming and persuasive. A good con artist can even make you believe he is really an old friend you haven’t seen in years.”

Has Sun City Anthem been bilked by fellow homeowners and the commercial partners?  What do you think of the following list of apparent losses of millions of dollars by SCA boards since 2005?

1.  Developer non-payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars due to rejected reserve studies in 2006, and developer refusals to pay for reserve study shortages identified by the board’s “look back” reserve study in 2008.  Why has the association attorney failed to protect the financial interests of the association while the developer profits from not having to pay its obligations?

2.  Board failure to collect over $250,000 due from the Trumpets Lease in 2006 and 2007?  Why did certain former SCA board members assist the failed lessee escape having to pay for unpaid lease funds and repair of the heavily damaged  SCA restaurant facilities after being evicted in 2008?

3.  Why did the 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 boards fail to collect the $1.3 Million owed by the developer for the 2002 Co-Gen Contract Deal?

4.  Why did the boards accept the association attorney’s advice (originally appointed by the developer) to wait until the statute of limitations had almost expired before filing a claim for about $13 Million?  How much has the developer saved in interest and cash flows since 2005 by being allowed to endlessly delay the very large payments for missing reserve funds and construction defects obligations?

5.  Why did the boards and the association attorney allow the developer to deliver an incomplete facility for Recreation Center #3?   How many hundreds of thousands of dollars have SCA members been bilked out of while the board spent member assessments to finish the building?

6.  How much was added to the developer’s profits as result of not having to pay for the unneeded “Green” features and not having to deliver a completed facility?   How much was added to the sale prices of thousands of SCA homes built after the 2002 change in the Anthem Master Plan to pay for the 3rd Recreation Center that the developer failed to spend on its construction?  Why did the boards, association attorney and community management company allow SCA members to seem to get bilked in this way?

7.  Why have the SCA boards, Finance Committees, and Tax Preparer/Auditor played high risk games with the Internal Revenue Service by failing to return millions of dollars of member surplus assessments each year as they claimed to have been doing?

While there are many more signals that something is very wrong with how our association has been managed since 2005, the biggest mystery is why so many members ignore the obvious?  Tolerating such apparent gross negligence and mismanagement has only emboldened the leaders to become more open in their apparent misconduct.

However, it must be remembered that:
(1) the IRS delivered an audit in 2010 claiming SCA Directors had violated federal income tax regulations in 2007 (and possibly since that time) and about $1.3 Million was owed in back taxes and penalties; and
(2) a former SCA Community Manager employed for over 20 years by Del Webb/Pulte/RMI was recently convicted of willfully and knowingly violating State Laws. 

Both cases indicate that State and Federal criminal charges might eventually be filed against certain individuals for what appears to be serious law violations. 

Although new SCA Directors have been consistently advised by the attorney and community management company to never look back at past board failures, it is becoming increasingly clear that waiting for the FBI to look into some of these matters is the worst possible strategy for the individual directors as well as our homeowners. 

Where the FBI has gone into HOAs, the property values have tended to sink below average.  It is our member’s fault if we sit by and allow that to happen in this “paradise”.