Was There Fraud at This HOA? How to Get Law Enforcement Interested
Hellmuth & Johnson Partner, Phaedra Howard, shared insights with HOAleader.com:
“Why in 10 years does going from $200,000 to $12,000 mean there’s been fraud or misappropriation?” asks Phaedra J. Howard, a partner specializing in community association law at Hellmuth & Johnson PLLC in Edina, Minn.
“I’d ask first: Did they have a big project they authorized the money to be spent on?” she suggests. “It doesn’t even have to be a big project. Were there legitimate projects that money was being spent on?
“If you can’t answer that question, nobody is going to talk to you,” says Howard. “The authorities’ first question will be: ‘Why do you think this is inappropriate?’ If your answer is, ‘Because we used to have a lot more money,’ the response will be, ‘And?'”
Full article can be found here.