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Updated: 6:28 p.m. Friday, July 11, 2014 | Posted: 6:15 p.m. Friday, July 11, 2014
Ex-condo association president, 82, arrested on embezzlement charges in West Palm Beach
By Aleese Kopf
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
A former condominium association president was arrested Thursday and charged with allegedly embezzling about $22,500 in association funds to pay for a long-distance affair.
Representatives of the Norwich K Condominium Association reported former President and Treasurer Alan Kaplan, 82, of West Palm Beach, to police after an audit of the association’s bank accounts, according to the police report.
After searching the association’s accounts and Kaplan’s personal accounts, a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s officer discovered that Kaplan is alleged to have stolen $22,580 from 2011 to 2013.
Kaplan told police he was in debt and needed the money to supplement his income and finance an affair with his New York lover, the report said.
He was charged with grand theft and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail Thursday night. He was released Friday afternoon after posting $5,000 bond.
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Where was the BOARD?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGood question! Don't let Board members handle condo finances (checking accounts, maintenance payments, reserve accounts, etc.) by themselves to save 50 cents. Hire a management company to do these tasks, or be prepared to face these types of incidents over and over again.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all the other Boards in the Village? Maybe they should all do a check up - especially if management co is not used.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that some of the unit owners don't take an interest on what's going on in their building which is very sad. They just go on their merry way until this happens. Those of you out there that are reading this blog, WAKE UP, this is your chance to get involved. Your first step is to get a management company. There should always be 2 board member signatures on any checks that go out for payment.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It saves a lot of work and is safer to have a management company handle an association's finances. Both Seacrest and Gallagher have done a good job for us (though not perfect), and as Plcruise points out, the cost has been minimal.
ReplyDeleteI understand that this is sometimes set up in different ways. Some associations still themselves (usually two board members) sign ALL the checks. Others have the management company do virtually everything, and ask almost no questions of the company, relying on the company completely, for example, for the next year's budget.
I liked our approach. The management company automatically paid the regular bills (utilities, UCO, taxes, etc.), but would pay other bills only upon receipt of a permission slip signed by the board president, two board members, etc.--whatever the setup.
Our board went over the management company's proposed budget carefully, especially with regard to expense categories such as Miscellaneous, Legal Fees, and Bad Debt Provision. The board also did its own thinking about how much to be setting aside in the Reserves. We often made changes to the management company's suggested budget amounts, and sometimes we asked them to add or change categories. They were not as diligent as I would have liked in considering our budgetary needs, but our board was diligent about it.
Having a management company handle our accounts was certainly one safeguard against fraud on the part of a board member. Another was in our issuing regular financial reports prepared by the management company, end-of-the-year bank statements, and copies of the finalized next year’s budget to all owners, and openly discussing our finances at meetings.
No fool like and old fool! Will the romance be over now?
ReplyDeleteThe Big Question is "How will the
ReplyDeleteFunds be recovered?" If he owns
the Unit, a Lien can be placed,
if not, what happens?
I guess there will be "One less"
attendee at our "Live Performances"
Hi BettieL,
ReplyDeleteJuly 19, 2014 at 3:36 PM,
UCO has been involved in a advisory role in a number of these unfortunate events.
Normally Insurance coverage (Crime) will be invoked. To the extent that the loss can be verified by forensic audit, there will be reimbursement.
Dave Israel