12/8/2017 – Message from President Kim Fuller

December 8, 2017

Hello Homeowners-

As many of you now know, Ceasar Larrach was booked into the Riverside County Jail, Indio, on 12/6/17, on suspicion of embezzling more than $100,000. The sequence of events as reported by the Detective was as follows:

On November 27, 2017 a search warrant was executed at his residence by the Indio Police Dept. during which several pieces of property that were purchased with association funds were recovered.  During the execution of the warrant, Ceasar was not located at that time, but ultimately returned the call from the Detective later in the day.  Ceasar retained an attorney and surrendered himself on 12/6/17 where he was booked into the Riverside County Jail – Indio. A bail will be set, and it is up to him to post bail.  Criminal proceedings will be handled by the Riverside County District Attorney’s office.

The information from the Detective at this time, is that the Riverside DA will be proceeding with criminal prosecution against Ceasar Larrach.

The Detective said the information from the Forensic Audit conducted by Associa/DRM was invaluable to the case and in expediting an arrest. Over the past month, the Detective was in constant contact with the Fraud examiner in reviewing the documents and all the audit information. The Detective also interviewed many Associa/DRM staff members over the past month as they gathered information about the case. The Detective also explained that Ceasar was under surveillance at two locations, one here in the Coachella Valley and one in Northern California.

The Detective said that Ceasar had never moved out of the area but had flown to the east coast for a possible job opportunity. As many of you know, there was an announcement that Ceasar Larrach was hired as the Executive Director for the Sun City Hilton Head Community Association effective 10/2/17.  Sun City Hilton Head Community Association is a separate corporation, and is not managed by Associa, so Associa was not responsible for the re-location of Ceasar to a different facility. Sun City Hilton Head never contacted Sun City Shadow Hills Community Association, nor did they contact Associa for any job references before they announced his employment on 10/4/17.

Sun City Hilton Head Community Association then made the following announcement on 10/19/17 that:

Dear Sun City Hilton Head residents,
This email is to inform you that Ceasar Larrach is no longer employed with AAM, LLC. Any correspondence regarding the Sun City Hilton Head Community Association should be directed to Doug Jones, acting interim executive director.
Thank you,
Brad Lundmark
Vice President Onsite Community Operations
AAM, LLC

The Detective reported that the hiring process had not been completed by Sun City Hilton Head Community Association, so the job offer was rescinded.

The investigation to this point has shown no evidence of any other person including Vendors, Board Members, or Associa employees were involved in the fraud, and the investigation included a review of all such people and companies. The investigation to this point has not shown any financial discrepancies prior to Ceasar’s employment.

According to the Detective, the Riverside County DA’s office will be handling the prosecution as the fraud amounts exceeds $100,000.  The Riverside County DA will have another group of auditors that specialize in these types of cases, review the audit and information so that if trial becomes necessary, they will have their own expert witnesses, ones they have used in the past, ready for trial as witnesses.

The Board has approved the retention of the services of a third-party Forensic Auditor to review the Audit that was completed by the Fraud examiner from Associa. That firm was selected by the Board, and was not recommended nor known to DRM or Associa. DRM has voluntarily agreed to pay for the review by this third-party auditor. The report from this new auditor should become available to the Board within the next two weeks. If we get new and more information we will report to you at the next Board meeting on 12/18/17.

Hopefully this brings you up to date on the information about the fraud case. As it unfolds we will be able to explain in more detail how the fraud action was done, and what steps we have taken to avoid this happening in the future. If you have further questions, please let us know.

Thank you.

Kim Fuller
President, HOA Board of Directors