Former property manager Jason Levy in prison for grand theft

Former Manager Jason Levy

Former International Village Property Manager Jason J. Levy, who was fired by the Board of Directors last April for gross misconduct along with the association’s former management company American Management Group (AMG), has pleaded guilty to first-degree felony grand theft and money laundering charges for embezzling more than $1.5 million from Dezer Hotel Corporation, a Miami Beach-based hotel chain that he managed before coming to International Village.  Mr. Levy was booked into a Miami-Dade County jail last month and was transferred to a state prison facility on December 29. (See recent prison photo.)

The embezzlement scheme for which Mr. Levy was convicted was carried out over a four-year period from about 2005 to 2009, during which he created fraudulent company invoices for purchases or work that never took place and then pocketed the money for himself. After being fired and sued by Dezer Hotel and arrested and charged by the state, Mr. Levy filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid paying back what he had stolen.

In 2012, despite being under criminal prosecution, and despite the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, Mr. Levy was hired by AMG and the previous Board of Directors to serve as International Village’s property manager. And unfortunately, though not surprisingly, Mr. Levy’s crooked habits continued unabated during his two years here.

But when the current Board of Directors fired Mr. Levy and AMG last April for the reasons I explained in my April 16, 2014 blog post, we had no idea just how far his fraudulent activities went. Since that time, our search and review of the association’s records has revealed that Mr. Levy, while managing International Village, engaged in an embezzlement scheme similar to what he was convicted for in the Dezer Hotel case, in addition to other misconduct designed to defraud the association of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Amazingly, some of these activities took place with the full knowledge and cooperation of at least one former Board member, which I will elaborate on in a future email/blog post. The Board of Directors has been in consultation with legal counsel about this serious matter and we are taking the appropriate steps.

Among the questions that need asking: Why was Mr. Levy hired by AMG despite being under felony prosecution for embezzlement? Why did the previous Board of Directors under former Board Presidents Marvin Tow and Charles Fitzpatrick hire AMG (in a secret March 2012 meeting that was improperly closed to unit owners) without conducting a simple background check on the company or its candidate for property manager, in gross violation of their fiduciary responsibilities? And how much did former Board members know about and participate in the fraud and misconduct that took place while AMG and Mr. Levy were managing International Village?

It is rumored that Mr. Tow, who was soundly defeated for reelection last year, has decided to run for the Board again this year, with the apparent goal of rehiring AMG. After all, bringing back AMG – despite their obvious wrongdoing – has been Mr. Tow’s mantra since the company’s contract was terminated. He even started a pro-AMG blog to praise the company and Mr. Levy (describing him as “exceptionally talented”) and to attack the current Board for firing them. When AMG vindictively sued me for doing my duty as a Director to expose the misconduct that led to their firing, Mr. Tow cheered and claimed that AMG’s bogus lawsuit (which it has since dropped) was “personal,” and just last week he repeated his defamatory lie that the association had paid for my “personal legal bills,” despite knowing that the association’s insurance carrier covered my defense in the case as it was obligated to do because it dealt with association matters.

Marvin Tow, let me make this perfectly clear: I’m proud of my role in helping International Village rid itself of AMG and Mr. Levy by blowing the whistle on their malfeasance. Getting rid of these crooks has saved the association more than a million dollars over the last year (as I have previously reported), and I would gladly do the same all over again – lawsuit or not. I’m not intimidated by AMG and its tiny but vocal corps of defenders, and I’m certainly not afraid of you.  Should you decide to run for the Board, let me also put you on notice that your unwavering support of a now convicted felon and the company that hired and continued to defend him to the bitter end will certainly be made an issue in this campaign. Your complicity and cooperation in some of the fraudulent activities that AMG and Mr. Levy engaged in while you served as Board President also will be an issue.

John Labriola

International Village Treasurer