Woman stole $1.1 million from HOAs and left Virginia homeowners with nothing, feds say
A woman didn’t expect to “ever serve jail time” after federal prosecutors said she had stolen $1.1 million from dozens of HOAs she managed in Virginia.
Rose Kasande Bailey told an employee who worked for her Fairfax-based property management company, Rosewood Management and Consulting Services, that the theft “was not a big deal and people do it,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
She said “nothing would happen to her, she would just pay the money back,” the court filing shows.
But a federal judge sided with prosecutors who asked the court to sentence Bailey to prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Bailey, a 60-year-old Warrenton resident, was sentenced to two years in prison on a wire fraud charge on Nov. 26 in connection with defrauding the HOAs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Warrenton is about a 50-mile drive southwest from Washington, D.C.
She “made the decision hundreds of times over several years to defraud the homeowners she was supposed to be serving” and left many of them “with nothing,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
Through her company, Bailey was contracted with more than 70 HOAs in Lorton, Reston, Falls Church and Leesburg to collect homeowners’ dues meant to maintain the homes and common areas of the properties, according to prosecutors.
In May 2018, she started transferring money from HOA bank accounts to her company’s bank accounts for “expenses that were not approved by HOA boards,” prosecutors said.
Bailey’s federal public defender, Ann Mason Rigby, didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Nov. 27.
‘Real lives were affected’
Bailey had “signing authority” over all HOA accounts and her company’s accounts, prosecutors said.
She took the dues and fees homeowners paid to have their properties maintained and used the money to cover her company’s payroll and rent expenses, credit card payments and her own personal expenses, according to prosecutors.
Bailey also made “payments on business loans associated with Bailey acquiring a new HOA management firm,” prosecutors said.
She tried to hide the theft by giving altered bank statements to the HOAs, according to prosecutors.
Before her fraud was uncovered, Bailey gave altered bank statements to one HOA when it wanted new management, prosecutors said.
She also transferred $600,000 to that HOA from other HOA bank accounts to make it seem like no money had been stolen, according to prosecutors.
In a victim impact statement, one community leader “spoke of the consequences as ‘creating a community in chaos,’” prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
Bailey, according to prosecutors, was aware of the harm her actions could cause more than a decade ago, when she worked for Koger Management.
The Virginia property management company’s chief financial officer stole about $3 million from HOAs managed by the business, prosecutors wrote in the court filing.
The CFO was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, according to prosecutors, who sought a three-year prison sentence for Bailey.
“To be sure, the HOAs are corporate entities but real lives were affected by Bailey’s actions,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
“(Bailey) having observed the damage caused by a scheme like hers more than a decade earlier, disregarded the repercussions to enrich herself, her family, and grow her business,” the filing says.
Before the judge handed Bailey a two-year sentence, Rigby wrote in a court filing submitted on Bailey’s behalf that she “accepted responsibility for committing wire fraud” and argued that sentencing Bailey to prison would be unnecessary.
Rigby wrote Bailey has agreed “to do her best to repay her victims.”
Court records show Bailey’s sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release and that she’s been ordered to pay a restitution amount that will be decided on by Dec. 26.
This story was originally published November 27, 2024 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Woman stole $1.1 million from HOAs and left Virginia homeowners with nothing, feds say."
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