A man from Utah was charged with grand theft after he allegedly stole over $600,000 from the City of Dunedin by pretending to be an asphalt company working with the city.
According to the court affidavit, the City of Dunedin had employed Asphalt Paving Company for many years, and all payments had been made through paper checks. On June 13, 2024, an email was sent to multiple city employees from someone they believed to be a company contact, stating that all future payments should be made via ACH (electronic money transfer).
A payment system was then established, and on June 20, 2024, a payment of $663,321.30 was made into the account.
On July 8, 2024, a city employee received a message from the company saying, "FRAUD ALERT...YOU PAID THE WRONG ACCOUNT." The employee followed up with a contact at Asphalt Paving, who confirmed they never made a request to switch to ACH.
Upon investigation, the records showed the ACH transfer went to a company in Utah called Last Call Excavation, LLC. The owner of the company is George Maurice Barlow. Court records showed Barlow previously had a negative balance of -$69.02 before the ACH transfer from Dunedin.
Since the transfer, he had made several transactions using Zelle and Venmo, and purchased items in Las Vegas, including Carnival Cruises and Southwest Airlines, as well as various personal items. By the end of June 2024, Barlow's account balance was $374,136.83.
In July 2024, the balance had dropped even further, reaching around $148,000. Bank of America froze the account and returned the money to the City of Dunedin's bank account by September 2024.
Over two months, Barlow spent a total of $514,797.73.
“You know, it might just be time we take a look if HOAs are really even necessary.
Maybe we should just do away with homeowner associations as a whole.”
South Florida lawmaker Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) says it may be time to do away with homeowners associations altogether, as more Floridians speak out about rising fees, costly lawsuits, and even arrests tied to HOA disputes. He said this week that he is considering filing legislation in the next session that would abolish HOAs statewide.
