Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Village At Tony Tank Creek Misappropriated Funds

As you might be aware, the Village at Tony Tank Creek Homeowners Association was reimbursed all of its funds that had been previously diverted to a third party. This diversion of funds was discovered about six weeks ago. Due to the diligent efforts of the Board of Directors and the attorney for the Association (M. J. Caldwell) the Association received all of its monies back that had been diverted for other uses, together with all interest and costs incurred by the Association. These costs included attorney's fees, rental of the Hampton Inn facility for a meeting, etc. As a matter of fact, through the diligence of the Board and legal counsel, the Association was made entirely whole with interest, and has not suffered the loss of one penny. Bravo to the Board of Directors and M. J. Caldwell for a job well done.

Thank you for a chance to correct the misconceptions that seem to be out there. Keep up the good work with the BLOG.

A homeowner in the Village at Tony Tank Creek Homeowners Association.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

...and the crooks will continue on, untouched, to scam another day, at another place, in an attemp to satisfy their thirst for greed and lawlessness....

Anonymous said...

Like who are the perpetrators and who got the diverted funds -- the "whole truth", please.

Anonymous said...

This is GREAT! However, why were the residents not notified that this "transaction" had occured. All they were hearing via "hearsay" was that the funds had been
returned by an "anonymous" person - no official letter from the Board or the Attorney! No meeting called to make the announcement official!
What about the former Treasurer? I certainly hope he does not walk free! He put the entire neighborhood in a stressful situation.

Anonymous said...

What was the punishment for the thief? When we steal and are caught redhanded, just replacing what we took should not be the only consequence.

Anonymous said...

The unanswered question here is...would this have occured without the pressure brought forth from the scrutiny of the blog? Of course we'll never know, but I suspect not. IF the opinions of the readers were not considered important, why would they have made so sure that we knew the "results".
Confidential to Village at Tony Tank owners-Get new HOA officers and attorney. This should NEVER have happened in the first place. There are typically safeguards in place, monitored by these other officials, that would have prevented this whole fiasco, had they been paying attention as they were charged to do, by virtue of their assignments. The angst that you people suffered, even though it supposedly turned out okay, should never have happened.

Anonymous said...

Is this post true? I'm a homeowner of Village of Tony Tank Creek, and I have never received a formal letter from the Board advising me that the money has been restored. The homeowners have been led down so many deceitful paths, it makes me wonder if this post of yet another gimmick. Will the President of the Board please send out formal letters.

Anonymous said...

Although the consensus of the Wicomico Bar is that M. J. is an egomaniacal ass, give credit where credit is due.....his office staff are to be commended for the work that they put in to get the association it's money back.

Anonymous said...

How is "misappropriated" different from "stolen" except for semantics? Do shoplifters misappropriate merchandise? Do burglars misappropriate your television?

Anonymous said...

ANON 6:56
You're absolutely correct. No matter how diligent they were getting things straight, if they are indeed straight, this whole thing shouldn't have been possible to begin with. Wake up and pay attention to what's going on around you, Villagers.

Anonymous said...

The treasurer is going to walk free because he had an accomplice who has been covered up during all of this scandal. The anonymous homeowner calls this a misconception of mine. Yea, right!

Will the anonymous homeowner come forth with an address. Is it Sandy Bottom?

Are we, homeowners, going to stand by and do nothing. The entire Board needs to be ousted. If we do nothing, then we deserve what we have gotten. How about?

Anonymous said...

This post is making me mad.

Anonymous said...

As a homeowner at Village at Tony Tank Creek I would like to hear this news officially from the Homeowners Association. I also think the perpetrator of this fiasco should be named publicly and should be punished in some manner. Do other homeowners feel the same way?????

Anonymous said...

8:17--do you mean the 'staff' actually got this done and not Mr. Ego?

Anonymous said...

Yea it's great that they got their money back. The treasurer or "Felon" who stold several hundreads of thousands of dollars. Thats right is said stole not diverted. He took this money and placed it into his personal business when times were tuff. He was only able to give the money back because he has sold his residence in Tony Tank and and other belongings to quickly return the money to avoid being prosecuted. The board of directors are a bunch of crooked ass people. "We got our money back we really dont want him to go to jail" This guy should have been prosecuted just like everyone else who has broken the trust and stole money and bet you this M.J. has not made a certain retired Judge happy. M.J. has persuaded the board to PAY HIM of course, but not to push it further in court which would cause him to do more work for less money. SEND THIS FELON TO JAIL!!!!!

Anonymous said...

To 9:29 I agree with you 100%. and the Board of Directors should be made HISTORY.

Anonymous said...

who is the wanker? And what is his business?

Anonymous said...

The residents of this community should be outraged. Demand that the HOA Directors be fired and demand your day in court. This is absolutely, positively ridiculous. Are you sure Barrie doesn't live in your neighborhood?????????

Anonymous said...

Thank God M.J. Caldwell was never elected to public office. If he'll let one thief go he'd let them all go. Imagine him on the county council with this Ray Lewis fiasco. Ray would be off scott free because he paid it back.

Anonymous said...

I want for all homeowners a letter signed by all members of Board that all of the money is now back in the bank account/s of the Village of Tony Tank Creek. I want this for my permanent file since I have lost confidence in the present President and Board of Directors.

Anonymous said...

Letter is in the mail to residents as of today.

Anonymous said...

I happen to live in the Village and I think a group of us who believe that this guy committed a crime needs to go forward with reporting it to the police. If one of their homes would have been broken into, I dont think they would just let the criminal go if their belongings were returned to them. Also, FIRE the current Board of Directors (except for the new treasurer) and REPLACE the attorney! CRIME DOES NOT PAY!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Here's a thought. Would this guy have given this money back if he had not been found out?
What kind of "lawyer" advocates not holding a wrong doer legally accountable? Isn't the lawyer an officer of the court? They all are, on tv, anyway.
It would seem to me that having returned the money would mitigate the damages, somewhat. Stealing is still illegal, and should be a punishable offense.
AND, what kind of organization would have that much money gone without the officers of the HOA noticing it? It almost sounds like a conspiracy gone awry.

Anonymous said...

MJ keeps applying to become a judge. Can you imagine how he would handle having to judge criminal cases? Is this an example of his standards? As a citizen of Wicomico County I'm very glad he's not a judge. And hope he never will be.

Anonymous said...

It the citizens have any say on "electing" Caldwell to be a Judge, forget my vote. I would be afraid that he would "feel sorry" for the criminals and let them off free and clear!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever said that there will be no prosecution???

Anonymous said...

Attorney's don't need to know the truth, their job is to get criminals off anyway they know how.

Anonymous said...

Still waiting for the letter from the BOARD to explain the missing funds. As far as I am concerned, a meeting needs to be called immediately to update the residents of the situation and where do we go from here with the ex-treasurer. Also, ousting the current BOARD members I feel is necessary for ever allowing the so called "misappropriated funds" to ever transpire. As mentioned earlier, if your house is robbed, you just dont turn the other way and act like it never happened! I feel the ex treasurer should pay the price! It would make a great headline story in the Daily Times!

Anonymous said...

The original commenter is obviously part of the "team" that somehow stumbled onto a solutionw which got the funds replaced. It is painfully apparent that this whole thing, from start to whatever the status is today, was mishandled. HOA officers asleep at the wheel, attorney too weak to enforce the law, members of the HOA kept in the dark. I'm glad I don't live there.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:46
Weren't you invited to the big meeting at the Hampton Inn? The one that the thief paid for? It was made to sound as though all of you were up to speed on this issue.
Your letter of explanation and invitation to the meeting must have gotten lost in the mail....

Anonymous said...

Yes I did go to the meeting back in early April. That is not what I was talking about. What I am trying to relay is that NOW we need another meeting to discuss the outcome of the so called returned funds, how and who returned them, when do we proceed with criminal action against the former treasurer! I have not received ANY letter to acknowledge any of this - just hearsay!
I did notice that the former treasurer's home has a for sale sign in his yard - he does not even own the house so quess his wife now has to bear the brunt of his dishonesty! I guess he will move to another neighborhood and do the same thing all over again - unless we take the initiative to turn him in.

Anonymous said...

I got a piece of paper today, called "President's Message".

Just a lot of "pats on the back" for Caldwell and Keith Iott, and the ex-treasurer, like they were doing something spectacular, what a drama!.

It does not have the President's signature, so all it is is a piece of paper.

I intend to see the President one day, and ask him to sign his "Message"

Anonymous said...

So we got the money back. That is not enough, WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?

Anonymous said...

My President's Message did not address prosecution. Surely, that must be an oversight.

Has Caldwell been disbarred. Is he a criminal lawyer. Can he go before a judge with a case.
Is that why we can't get justice for all?

Makes one wonder.

Anonymous said...

I also received my letter today - with no signature! I have never received an official letter wth NO signature!
Also, there is nothing mentioned about prosecuting the former Treasurer. Is this for real?
Steal money - never get in trouble. That must be the new law around Salisbury!
Is there anyone out there who wants to report this to the police? Unfortunately, one person cannot do it.

Anonymous said...

Why cant one person report it? How many people does it take to report a robbery? Call Davis Ruark, he'll tell you exactly how to handle it and it won't be the same route MJ Caldwell has taken. On that, I'm willing to bet.

Anonymous said...

Tony Tank Creek ----- Waldman !!!

Anonymous said...

Waldman needs to pay for this crime one way or the other. He stole the funds from the HOA knowing exactly what he was doing and yet the Board wants to "protect" him. So what if he is paying some of the bills he committed a crime by stealing money that did not belong to him. The last time I checked the defination of stealing was taking something that does not belong to you. What am I missing?