Article Courtesy of The
Palm Beach Post
By Mike Diamond
Published November 16, 2021
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WELLINGTON — The state Department of Business and Professional Regulation
has ordered the homeowners association at Black Diamond in Wellington to
hold a new election following claims of “massive” fraud in last May’s voting
for its board of directors.
Black Diamond is a single-family, gated community of 475 homes west of State
Road 7 and north of Wellington Regional Medical Center. Homes often sell for
more than $800,000.
Four challengers who lost to incumbents in a close election allege that 27
proxies contained forged signatures. Their lawyer, Eric Glazer of Fort
Lauderdale, submitted affidavits from homeowners who said they did not
sign the proxies that are, in effect, absentee ballots. And dozens of
legitimate ballots were disregarded as duplicates, according to a petition
Glazer filed with the state.
“The election was wrought with fraud on a massive scale,” according to the
petition filed with the state.
One homeowner says his proxy statement has forged signature
The Arbitration and Mediation Program for the agency ruled in favor of the
challengers after the lawyer for the HOA, Steven Weinberg, failed to respond
to Glazer’s filing within the required period of time.
Weinberg asked the state agency to reconsider. On Nov. 9, the agency refused
for a second time, and ordered that the HOA hold a new election no later
than the second week of January – and that the four-page letter calling for
a new election be posted by the HOA within three business days of receiving
the state order.
Efforts to obtain comment from Weinberg and the HOA were unsuccessful.
“The uncontested facts set forth in the petition adequately support the
allegations of their being sufficient grounds to support the ordering of a
new election due to improprieties in the way the May 12, 2021, election was
conducted,” the state agency ruled.
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