$ 1 MILLION EMBEZZLEMENT -- AND NOTHING HAPPENS! |
An
Opinion By Jan Bergemann Published March 20, 2009
So
far the proven loss caused by embezzlement has reached more than $1
million! Sept
2008: The police report regarding the embezzlement was filed. The police
department received hundreds of stolen checks, forged bank statements,
etc. As of today, very little has been done. It took until March 2009
before the police even spoke with the ex-manager Stacy Herrin, aka Stacy
Tuck, aka ….. (at least two other aliases).
The ex-manager was not detained, is free to go and enjoys the
spoils of the embezzlement. Official police statement: "Investigation
is still on-going." March
2009: Annual Budget Meeting
of the Ex-Board (Council as they prefer to be called), Star Management is
still running the office, although back in November 2008 the Board
received a petition of over 250 owners asking for removal of Star
Management as management company. The Board ignored this request. The
Board admitted, after being questioned by unit owners, that they had not
spoken to the police since November 2008. A unit owner, who had asked the
police for information regarding the status of the case, was reminded by
angry board members that the law firm of Becker & Poliakoff was hired
by the board to deal with these issues. B&P is paid with unit
owners’ money, but unit owners were told over and over again that
"ONLY THE BOARD IS THE CLIENT, the lawyers DO NOT REPRESENT the
owners!” A
lot of unit owners are very angry because no progress can be noted.
According to unit owners, the lawyers more or less issued a “GAG
ORDER” – as the owners understood it. But owners feel that a lawyer
can only "advise the client not to speak about a pending case."
But since attorneys from B&P have repeatedly said that the owners are
not their clients, owners feel not bound by the GAG ORDER. The owners learned as well that there were no written minutes of the 2008 budget meeting, but that they were “reconstructed” at a later date. Since at that time some owners had already voiced suspicions about possible financial wrongdoings, owners demanded an outside audit. The board at that time refused to order an audit, but agreed that three people of their choosing should audit the books. This internal audit was never done. This
clearly shows that the board was aware of problems and the fact that the Star
Hospitality Management, Inc.:
The management firm still refuses to answer any questions by unit owners,
especially if they are bonded and insured against such losses. The firm
hasn’t repaid one dime of the missing money and actually insists that
they are not to blame for anything Stacey Herrin (the name she used on her
CAM license) did, despite the fact that this 1.)
A complaint with the DBPR filed in November: So far no response! 2.)
A complaint filed with the FBI – no response 3.)
Police Department: See above: investigation still ongoing! 4.)
Complaint filed against Herrin’s CAM license 5.)
Complaint filed against Star Hospitality Management, Inc. Even
the IRS doesn’t seem to be interested in the fact that Stacy Herrin did
not pay taxes on ill-gained money. She seems to be still enjoying the
spoils of her work at Charlotte Squares (according to accounting records
more than $1 million).
According
to court records, Stacy Herrin has been arrested three times for DUI,
Driving without a license, etc. The latest DUI /Driving without a license
incident ended with a sentence of probation in January 2009. But
the innocent owners, who were obviously stupid enough to trust a
management firm, suffer the consequences. Many of them are over 80 years
old and live on Social Security – and surely don’t have money for
special assessments caused by embezzlement of funds – to replace money
that was supposed to serve for upkeep and repairs. The
indifference of the board makes everybody wonder what further
investigations may uncover. The
more owners look – nobody else doesn’t seem to show an interest –
the bigger the mess gets. JUSTICE IN |