BELLA COLLINA VICTIMS

BELLA COLLINA VICTIMS

3 class action lawsuit against Bella Collina (Part 3 of 15)

On information and belief, Schar, Simonson, Arrighi, Ryan, The Ryan Law Group, D'Ambrosio, Burman, Aegis, Greene, Clarke and Lebreux, Schirach and others intentionally and knowingly developed the Conspiracy to fraudulently exercise control of the POA to dispossess lot owners of their property, embezzle POA funds and usurp POA property and opportunities for their own profit and benefit.
Randall Greene was Accused of Stealing Bella Collina House

THE CONSPIRACY

  1. On information and belief, Schar, Simonson, Arrighi, Ryan, The Ryan Law Group, D’Ambrosio, Burman, Aegis, Greene, Clarke and Lebreux, Schirach and others intentionally and knowingly developed the Conspiracy to fraudulently exercise control of the POA to dispossess lot owners of their property, embezzle POA funds and usurp POA property and opportunities for their own profit and benefit.
  2. The conspirators created DCS, the Schar Entities, Rocking Red H, LLC and other business entities to fulfill the conspiracy.
  3. On July 2, 2012, as part of this Conspiracy, DCS acquired Ginn’s interests in Bella Collina and its status as developer, recording the assignment at Book 4181, Page 1163 in the Public Records of Lake County, Florida, which is incorporated herein by reference.
  4. As part of its assignment of Ginn’s rights to Bella Collina, DCS also acquired the Golf Club and approximately 50 of the remaining unsold lots.
  5. DCS is owned by Schar and managed by Simonson and Greene and was created for the purpose of fulfilling the Conspiracy.
  6. On information and belief, Simonson, Arrighi, Ryan, The Ryan Law Group, Burman, Aegis, Greene, Clarke and Lebreux are all agents, officers or contractors with DCS and Schar and knowingly executed instructions to execute the Conspiracy.
  7. DCS assumed Ginn’s illegal and exclusive control of the POA for the purpose of fulfilling the Conspiracy, to the exclusion of at least 749 lot owners who were the only individuals legally authorized to control the POA.
  8. Ginn, DCS and the conspirators illegally maintained control of the POA by refusing to hold elections for lot owner board members as required by the Governing Documents and §720.307, Florida Statutes, despite the occurrence of the Turnover Date on August 29, 2005, and by defying an injunction to hold a valid Turnover Election.
  9. On or about June 25, 2012, at the direction of Schar, Simonson, and Arrighi, DCS entered into a “Attorney Services Contract” with the Ryan Law Group “To prosecute the Client’s claims regarding Association Dues and Club Membership Dues owed by various lot owner, located in the subdivision owned by Client and known as Bella Collina in Lake County, Florida” in furtherance of the Conspiracy.
  10. The lot owners of the POA never authorized The Ryan Law Group or James D. Ryan or Michael J. Ryan to represent the POA.
  11. The malicious intent of the Conspirators was to coerce lot owners into a settlement which required the surrender of the subject lot to DCS, dismiss the fraudulent lawsuit, write-off the POA assessments and pay of almost all settlements proceeds to or for the benefit of the Conspirators.
  12. The Conspirators laid out the conspiracy in an “Agreement to Fund Collection Activities” dated September 3, 2012 (hereinafter referred to as “the Agreement”), a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated herein as Exhibit A.
  13. The Preamble of the Agreement falsely states that the POA is entering into a contract with the Golf Club, even though none of the legal formalities relating to the formation of a POA contract, e.g. notice, board meeting, membership meeting, approval, had been observed.
  14. The “Whereas” clauses of the Agreement recite the following intentions:
  15. The parties would use control of the POA to institute a campaign to enforce the illegal and unreasonable mandatory membership mandate;
  16. The Golf Club would control and fund all legal activities and use the Ryans and the Ryan Law Group to execute the campaign;
  17. The objectives were the collection of illegal assessments and the acquisition of lots by the Golf Club
  18. Although the Agreement deceptively represented that a purpose of the agreement was to collect assessments, the practices and mechanisms created by the agreement deprived the POA of annual assessments that had accrued on lots, defeating the stated purpose.
  19. In a letter dated August 25, 2014 to certain DCS and Aegis employees, Michael Ryan detailed the strategy:”The POA and The Club have an agreement based on the fact that The Club is funding the costs and attorney fees incurred in the collection process with the understanding that on settlement the costs and attorney fees are paid and/or reimbursed first; except in the instance where the lot is recovered, the recording costs and documentary stamps are paid first. When we do recover a lot, the POA’s designee buys the Lot for a price based on Paul’s matrix. So in a typical case, the recording fees and doc stamps are paid. Then, the costs and fees are paid (typically $3,500 total) and the balance is used to pay outstanding real estate taxes. In cases where there isn’t. enough money to pay all the taxes, the grantee has to fund the additional amount which is paid outside of closing. However, in some cases the outstanding balance for real estate taxes is so high that the Lot may be put in Limbo in which case the title goes into a holding company; otherwise, the title goes straight to DCS; or, alternatively, if there is a lender to deal with and the title may go to the holding company if this puts us in a better bargaining position to acquire clear title Notwithstanding the foregoing, if there is not money left to distribute to the POA and/or The Club, The Club has guaranteed the POA a recovery of at least $500/lot. Hence, the fact that there are so many $500.00 POA checks being generated. In those cases The Club takes nothing. In almost eve1y instance a sel//ement will dictate that the balances outstanding to The Club or the POA after applying the recove1y should be written off.” (Emphasis Added) …”In almost all cases, the recovery is not sufficient to pay the outstanding amounts in full.”…”In summary, The Club funds this effort and DCS wants Lots. The POA does not want to and cannot be in the development business and does not have the wherewithal or desires to funds the litigation-it just want to be paid. This arrangement allows us to enforce the Owners’ obligations to pay its charges and dues and eventually have these lots back in good standing with the POA, The Club and the Tax Collector.”

ILLEGAL CONTROL OF THE POA

  1. The Conspirators knew that their operation of the POA and their assertion of the “special assessment” for club dues were fraudulent.
  2. On September 19, 2012, an attorney for Richard Scharich, a Bella Collina lot owner, served a “Demand for Initial Election Meeting” pursuant to §720.303, Florida Statutes, on the POA, Aegis and DCS, placing them on formal notice that the POA should have been turned over in August of 2005.
  3. On October 12, 2012, Scharich’s attorney served an unfiled “Counterclaim for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief,” placing the Conspirators on notice that their operation of the POA and attempted enforcement of the special assessment of fees for the mandatory club membership and other Amendments to the CC&Rs were illegal.
  4. The Conspirators received numerous other notices of the illegality of their practices.
  5. The Conspirators took almost all benefits from coerced settlement agreements, including the write-off of accrued assessments, which would have remained a priority lien on the property until full payment by the current or future lot owner.
  6. The Conspirators acquired 600 valuable lots free of all encumbrances, the POA received little or no benefit, and the lot owners suffered incredible losses as hereinafter described.
  7. On information and belief: DCS thus embezzled $6,000,000 to $12,000,000 in annual assessments from the POA, $12,000,000 to $24,000,000 from the Golf Club (assuming the mandatory club dues were legal), and acquired 600 lots originally sold for approximately $500,000,000 for virtually nothing.
  8. Ironically, the Conspirators forced the POA to forgive the very assessments for which lot owners were accused of delinquency.
  9. On information and belief, the Conspirators then instructed Greene, Burman and Aegis to record the contributions from DCS to the POA as $7,000,000 in “Developer Loans,” which were used to offset DCS’ POA obligations.

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