Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Morse, Moffitt, Ritchie and Villages Bashing
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Old 02-12-2011, 02:16 PM
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Default The basis of the class-action lawsuit

Quote:
Originally Posted by bike42 View Post
Oh Please. The point of the lawsuit was that the older northern part of TV thought they were not getting a fair share of the amenity fees, that the funds were going disproportionately to facilities for the newer southern villages. The lawsuit never claimed that Morse was using the fees for his personal benefit.
I wish that you were right in your understanding of the basis of the class-action lawsuit. However, I'm afraid that you are totally mistaken on the point. The class-action lawsuit had nothing to do with a north-versus-south allocation of funds. The truth is much more troubling, and it raises major concerns about the past and present actions of the Developer.

In a nutshell: The thrust of the lawsuit (as well as the IRS's allegations in its pending investigation) was that the Developer sold amenities to the Villages Center Community Development District, which the Developer controlled, at an artificially inflated price. This alleged overpricing left the Center District without sufficient funds (from receipt of the amenity fees) to continue to provide amenities at the promised level. I.e., The Villages amenities system, which is the reason that we all bought here, was starting to come unraveled because of the Developer's actions. Another poster to this thread listed a website for the settlement agreement. You can get a basic description of the IRS investigation by checking prior Property Owners' Association Bulletins on the poa4us.org website.

Time will tell whether the $43 million class-action settlement will be adequate to keep the system operating.