Former Whitestown-based builders charged with $1.2M in fraud
The co-owners of a Whitestown-based homebuilder that filed for bankruptcy in 2013 have been arrested and charged with theft, corrupt business influence, perjury and forgery, Indiana State Police announced Saturday. Ogle is already facing similar felony counts in Marion County after prosecutors charged him in February 2015 with defrauded a homeowner whose house was damaged in the 2012 Richmond Hill neighborhood explosion.

Seeno company charged with bank fraud, fined $11 million
Six years after federal agents raided the Seeno homebuilder headquarters, federal prosecutors Friday criminally charged Discovery Sales with bank fraud and the East Bay family’s company will plead guilty and agree to pay $11 million in fines and restitution, according to unsealed court documents. ... scam that allowed the Seeno companies to continue selling properties at high prices during the housing market downturn by obtaining mortgages through illegal means.

Limited help for Texans with defective homes
Homeowners concerned over unlicensed Texas builders. Taylor Morrison Homes built Gribble’s house. According to court documents, the nation-wide builder has a history of complaints involving defective homes outside Texas. "If we have a lemon law it’s just logical. If you build a bad house you will stand by it or you’ll have to buy it back, said Janet Ahmad, president of Homeowners for Better Building.

Neatly ordered living in a cage of wrought irony
All across the city’s northern tier there dwells a strange tribe – they’re variously called conservatives, Republican or just plain rich people – whose members oppose big government, heavy taxes and socialistic infringements on property rights.  But then, what do they turn around and do?  They move into hotsy-totsy enclaves and set up their own extra governments with their own extra taxes and their own extra limits on property rights.

Texas Consumers Call for Investigation of Property Management Industry
and Attorney Misconduct
See Home Owners for Better Building Press Release
Read WFAA Report Featuring Senator Carona Walk Out

See Associa Priority of Payment Attorney Fee First Contract:
#1 Attorney Fees - #6 Homeowners Dues
Big Corporate Business of HOA Foreclosures
1,425% Profits for the Non-Profits HOA Empire - The Hammer of HOA Foreclosures

HOA REFORMERS SAY WEST'S BILL STILL NEEDS TWEAKING
The latest iteration of what has become a perennial effort to reform homeowners’ associations (HOAs) has hit a bit of a speed bump – the would-be reformers themselves... “If it passes the way it is, it’s not good for us,” said Janet Ahmad of the Texas HOA Reform Coalition. “It legitimizes a private government. We don’t need another government in our lives. It’s a funded mandate.” See March 23, 2011 hearing on SB142 Part II

Do dues-paying members get higher grades than non-members? Many people think of the Better Business Bureau as a consumer watchdog, but a report by CNN Money finds the organization has given top ratings to companies that have faced action by government regulators and lawsuits by angry consumers... BBB also notes that it does not identify itself as a consumer watchdog, but rather as a mediator between businesses and consumers.

High-Income Texans Find Homes in Public Housing
Deep in the heart of rural, southeast Texas, a family living in public housing meant for low-income families has a total household income of $285,971 a year.  In Olney, Texas — near Wichita Falls — a family receiving taxpayer subsidies to pay rent makes $227,709, while another family residing in public housing in Pineland on the eastern edge of the state makes $184,499.

Obama Nominates Castro In Spite of Texas HUD Scandal
President Barrack Obama nominated San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on May 23^rd in spite of his city’s alleged misuse of funds from that same federal department. The Post piled a lot of praise on the back of San Antonio’s youngest ever elected mayor, but completely failed to mention the brewing scandal in San Antonio’s financial relationship with the very department Castro is now nominated to head.

Castro dealing with scandal-laden HUD
When the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development scolded the federal agency this summer for letting 25,000 “over income” families reside in public housing — more than 1,000 of them in Texas — HUD initially fought back. Castro has challenges ahead, illustrated by a tally presented by Montoya in June: 106 arrests; 133 indictments or charges; and 179 convictions, plea bargains or diversions related to agency programs — in a six-month period.