Association of Poinciana Villages, board members settle
News Chief.com
By Mike Ferguson
07 June 2016
POINCIANA — A board member and a former board member have agreed to pay
about $60,000 to the Association of Poinciana Villages as part of a
settlement reached Monday.
“It reaffirms a
very simple principle that a nine-man board is controlled by the
majority of the board and not two men acting on their own.”
“Yesterday was a great day for Poinciana,” said Tom Slaten, an
Orlando-based attorney representing the association. “It reaffirms a
very simple principle that a nine-man board is controlled by the
majority of the board and not two men acting on their own.”
Association of Poinciana Villages, a homeowner’s association that
serves more than 27,000 homes in the Poinciana community, sued Peter
Jolly and Victor Destremps, after the two men were accused of entering
the APV office after hours in August 2015 and removed records, computer
files and transferred $1.6 million, or about 20 percent of APV’s $8
million budget, into bank accounts only they had access to.
“It was good that Peter Jolly and Victor Destremps and their attorney
recognized the strength of our case,” Slaten said at a Tuesday news
conference. “It was a good compromise.”
Poinciana is located in parts of Polk and Osceola counties and lies
between Kissimmee and Haines City. The community is made up of nine
villages, which each has five board members. Those boards each elect
one member to serve as its representative with APV. Jolly has since
been voted out by his village, but Destremps still serves on the board.
The two men had paid back the majority of the money in September 2015
with the exception of about $37,500 that was used for representation by
a lawyer. The $60,000 will be used to pay back that money and will go
toward APV’s legal fees also. APV also recovered a $100,000 bond to
file the lawsuit.
“There are some out-of-pocket expenses that we suffer,” Slaten said. “There’s no real way to quantify it.”
Slaten said those additional costs include changing locks, transferring
records, bank fees and hard drives. The total loss to APV, Slaten said,
could be as high as $200,000.
Jolly and Destremps claimed that they took the money to save APV from possible bankruptcy.
Taking $1.6 million and putting it into their own bank accounts is literally the exact wrong way to go about making change.
“The claims that they were protecting the association were dismissed by
(Judge Andrea Smith),” Slaten said. “There are always a few people who
want something different. Taking $1.6 million and putting it into their
own bank accounts is literally the exact wrong way to go about making
change.”
As part of the settlement, neither man will be allowed to enter the APV
facility after hours or take any action on behalf of the board without
prior approval. Slaten said the board has put some safeguards in place
to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future.
“We’ve finally got some closure after eight months,” said Linda
Cantreva, a board member and 30-year resident. “We’re moving forward
for the betterment of our community.”
This likely won’t be the end of APV’s litigation, however. Jolly,
Destremps and fellow homeowner Annette Brown have filed a separate
lawsuit against APV, Poinciana’s developer Avatar and Village One,
alleging a contract agreement violation and the neglect of financial
responsibilities.
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