HOA defrauded of millions accuses law firm of facilitating scheme
Forty people were arrested and at least three people killed themselves after federal investigators started bulldozing a construction company owner’s massive election-rigging scheme to defraud homeowners associations of millions of dollars and win an illegal fortune off of construction defect lawsuits and building repair contracts.
The construction company owner, Leon Benzer, is serving a 15-year prison sentence. His criminal partner, former construction defect attorney Nancy Quon, killed herself in 2012 as authorities were zeroing in on her role. Her estate since has paid out a $6 million settlement to the homeowners association that suffered the greatest losses, a lawyer for the Vistana HOA said in court Tuesday.
But the dust still hasn’t settled. The homeowners association is trying to convince a judge that the fraud ringleaders could not have embezzled millions without the gross malpractice committed by a law firm that was hired in 2006 to protect the integrity of the Vistana HOA board elections.
The firm, Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw and Ferrario, did the opposite and concealed illegal behavior from its client, attorney Richard Haskin, who is representing the Vistana HOA, told a Clark County judge Tuesday.
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