For years, acting as the president of a suburban
West Palm Beach condo association, Harold Hart went to the treasurer of
the association for her signature.
While suffering from diabetes, obesity, heart
ailments and arthritis, the woman would sign her name away on checks,
allowing the association’s money to go elsewhere without an explanation
from Hart.
After the woman passed away, Hart started to sign
her name himself.
Now, years later, Hart admitted to cashing those
checks into his personal bank accounts, but again, without an explanation
of what the money was used for.
Hart, 86, was arrested Sunday on a charge of
organized fraud and grand theft. He was once the president of the Sussex C
Condominiums, which is located west of Interstate 95 and north of
Okeechobee Boulevard. After admitting to the fraud at a board meeting, he
was demoted to acting president.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies found that
the fraudulent acts started in 2008 and continued through last year.
However, Hart admitted to the fraud going back to 2006.
Deputies were notified in February 2012 by condo
owner Howard O’Brien, who said that Hart denied him access to the
association’s bank records. O’Brien then spoke with deputies again in
March 2012 to notify them that Hart admitted to misappropriating
$32,390.86 from the association’s accounts. He said at the meeting that
the money was deposited into an account in Tallahassee, according to a
sheriff’s probable cause affidavit.
Investigators then met with the association’s new
president, Elizabeth McDaniel, who said that she found the association’s
account had only $956 in it. She also found that Hart couldn’t even keep
up with his maintenance bill, as he issued a check that later bounced.
Deputies continued investigating and found that the
checks were signed by Hart and Anna Randazzo, a board member.
Randazzo died in August 2011, however, her signature
was still appearing on the association’s checks after that.
Randazzo’s son, Joseph Randazzo, told deputies
that his mother was the acting treasurer for a number of years until she
died. She suffered from multiple ailments and was hooked up to an oxygen
machine for about six months before she died.
Randazzo told deputies that Hart would come into his
mother’s room requesting her signature on the association’s checks.
Because she trusted Hart, she never asked him what the checks were for.
Deputies then spoke with Hart in July 2012. Hart
said to them, “how much money are we talking about,” and when deputies
answered, he corrected them with what he thought the correct amount was.
Hart admitted to depositing about $33,000 into his
Bank of America account and explained that he was using the money to pay
vendors in cash.
When asked why he wouldn’t just use the
association’s account, Hart said, “It seemed like the way to do it at
the time,” the affidavit says. Hart did not give deputies an explanation
as to where the money was or what it was used for.
The association has gotten back most of the stolen
money from their insurance company, said O’Brien, who is now the
association’s treasurer.
He said that he never suspected Hart of doing such a
crime as he was a “nice guy that everybody liked.”
He offered advice to other condo owners: “Any
owner has to be aware of the financial status of their association and
always request everything they’re allowed to request following the
Florida statutes.”