The Ridgway Lane scandal continued in Rankin County Circuit Court last week. Judge John Emfinger issued a preliminary injunction against Ridgway Lane, David L. Lane, and David W. Lane Thursday at a hearing. The injunction freezes all assets and orders the defendants to provide a list of all assets to the Bridgwater I and II HOA's.
Judge John Emfinger immediately called all attorneys to the bench and held a bench conference that could not be heard by the audience. A preliminary injunction order that was agreed upon by all parties was submitted to him. Attorney Merrida Coxwell represented Ridgway Lane and David L. Lane while Michael Malouf represented David W. Lane. The Lanes were not present at the hearing.
Ridgway Lane manages homeowners associations. The Lanes are the President and Vice-President of the company. Eleven homeowners associations sued Ridgway and the Lanes in Rankin County Circuit Court, alleging the defendants embezzled over two million dollars from accounts they managed for the HOA's. Bridgewater I filed the first lawsuit on November 7. The list of alleged victims include homeowners associations from such prestigious neighborhoods as Bridgewater, the Barrington, and The Palisades. Secretary of State records state that Richard Ridgway and David L. Lane are the owners of the company. David L. Lane and David W. Lane are the respective President and Vice President of the company. The lawsuits accuse Ridgway Lane and the Lanes of embezzling over $2.323 million from HOA accounts.
Bridgewater I alleges the Lanes of embezzling more than $500,000 while Bridgewater II accuses the Lanes of taking $343,983 from the HOA. Both HOA's obtained temporary restraining orders against Ridgway and the Lanes. The orders froze all assets and required them to provide a list of their assets.
The Bridgewater lawyers protested at a November 22 hearing that David W. Lane quitclaimed his Deerfield home to his wife in violation of the TRO. The house is listed for sale. He asked the court to delist the home. "I don't want Mr. Lane to have any funds in his possession," said Mr. Lidell. He said the Lanes have not provided a list of their assets and that failure to do so violated the TRO as well. The attorney argued the Lanes could sell the home below market value and cheat the alleged victims out of their rightful recovery. Judge Emfinger said the plaintiffs could file motions to show cause if the deadlines were not met. Motions to show cause were filed last week but the court did not rule on them Thursday. The Court set one-week deadlines to comply with the preliminary injunction.
The preliminary injunction states:
* The bank accounts and financial assets are Ridgway Lane, David L. Lane, and David W. Lane are frozen. The Lanes are are allowed to open separate bank accounts to deposit any compensation gained from work after December 1, 2019.
* The real and personal property of the defendants is frozen. They can not transfer any property or accounts.
* Ridgway and the Lanes must "immediately provide" to the Bridgewaters a sworn statement that lists all assets by 5 PM on December 20.
* The defendants must identify all property conveyances made since November 22, 2017 by December 20. The same order applies to all transfers of financial assets greater than $2,000 as well.
* Bethany Lane can not convey the Lane home that was quitclaimed to her on November 12, 2019. The transfer was the source of some controversy at a November hearing. The conveyance was made the same day a TRO was issued against the Lanes.
* David L. Lane may continue to list his home that is for sale as long as he notifies the plaintiffs of all offers. He must obtain approval from plaintiffs to accept any offers to purchase the home. The proceeds of a sale will be deposited with the court.
* The defendants must preserve all records.
* David L. Lane can cash a $7,500 check from Jackson Public Schools. Ridgway Lane manages JPS's 16th section land.
The Bridgewater I injunction is posted below. The Bridgewater II file is not posted as the injunction is almost identical to the other one.
The various HOA's accuse Ridgway and the Lanes of stealing well over $2 million. The Lanes are accused of embezzling from the following HOA's:
Bridgewater 2: $343,938
Bridgewater: Over 500,000
Dinsmor: $217,782
Barrington: Hundreds of thousands of dollars (An estimate of $200,000 will be used in the total as a minimum).
Bruenburg: $188,330
Oakhurst: $168,000
Diplomat: $28,000
Palisades: $87,000
Eastbrooke: Over $500,000
Timbers: Over $90,000
Earlier Ridgway Lane posts
Contempt for Lanes?
Ridgway Lane Update: Timber!
Lane responds.
Eastbrooke: Lanes stole over $500,000.
Oakhurst sues Ridgway Lane
Payroll company sues Ridgway lane
Ridgeway Lane Update, TRO's Extended (Lynch Mob Edition)
Bruenburg Sues Ridgway Lane
St. Ives Escapes
Add Stonebridge to Ridgway Lane List
King Kenny Rulz, Bridgewaters get freeze.
Lawsuit: Lane Confessed
Dinsmor losses over $200,000
On deck: Bruenberg
Up next: The Barrington.
Bridgewater goes for freeze, Bridgewater at Old Agency says RL embezzled over $340,000
Palisades plundered.
Dinsmor HOA discoveres "irregularitites."
Bridgewater accuses HOA manager of embezzlement.
17 comments:
Can any of the lawyers on here explain to me why the Lanes are not in jail?
Pass the popcorn!
I'm just an average ole citizen, but last I heard, and believe to be true, in the United States of America, one is innocent until proven guilty. By all accounts, the Lanes are guilty as all get out, but the legal process has to run its course, which the judges ruling provides good indication of where this is going.
"* David L. Lane can cash a $7,500 check from Jackson Public Schools. Ridgway Lane manages JPS's 16th section land."
Having just received my hinds county tax bill, reading this statement above is more than alarming in thinking how much they may have embezzled from JPS, and more than likely, JPS has no way to track the accounting of what they have paid
"Can any of the lawyers on here explain to me why the Lanes are not in jail?"
It's tough to shop for cremation prices from a jail cell.
Calm down. Ridgway Lane wasn't able to scam JPS. The JPS accountants deposit the checks. RL had no access to the accounts and the checks have to be made payable to JPS.
Which means that JPS has better money management than a bunch of the HOAs around here. That's all I have to say about that.
How does he have a $7,500 check to deposit? If made out to JPS, why would he deposit? Where will he deposit?? Surely, he didn’t “earn” this much for services since December 1st. WHY would JPS still contract him as manager?
Other than the Lanes, the common thread thru all of this is Community Bank. Do they not have some liability in all of this? Wouldn't the constant moving of money from HOA accounts not throw up red flags within the bank?
The Lanes are not in jail because they have not been indicted for their crimes yet. That will happen soon enough I imagine. It takes a long time to track financial crimes. There was a web of 40 plus HOAs set up the same way - RL was able to write checks on each one - and RL people were able to move money around for a very long time. Retracing the steps is time consuming and intricate work. But when its done...it will be both revealing and shocking I bet.
my comment about JPS and their accounting was probably not as clear as it should have been. Not that they pulled money from JPS accounts, but rather, the potential for overbilling for what their scope of work. or scope of a contractual agreement may have actually been. My apologies for not being clearer in my thoughts, but, in addition, it is hard to give JPS any credit from proper admin functions.
Yeah yeah. I've criticized JPS over the years but the finance/budget staff there is pretty competent. I'll clue you in on a little secret. In most of these governments where the boards or politicians in charge spend like drunken sailors, the budget and accounting staff are usually the sober ones and know exactly whats going on. Problem is, their bosses don't want to listen to them.
The CFO of JPS is competent and followed basic business principles, something the HOA's in question did not do.
KF, just because you have had a conversation with the accounting folks at JPS, and they personally assured you that all is fine and that they know where all their funds are, etc. - does not mean that the accounting division at JPS is all ok.
It may be true that the Lane's have not figured out a way to scam JPS as they did to the HOA's - that is still to be seen (so I wouldn't go quite as far out on a limb defending your friends at JPS yet without some more proof) - but it has been proven that the accounting department at JPS has made plenty of screwups within their own operations in recent years. Don't know which "CFO" you are sure is fine and above board and knows all about what is going on, but there are plenty of minions under the CFO that I'll bet he doesn't even know their names, much less the various activities that cross their desks.
That would be drunken marines, not sailors, thank you.
I didn’t think that it could get any better than Lam Lam and his fake trees. I’ll make an exception this year, popcorn and eggnog it is!
11:11
“Wouldn't the constant moving of money from HOA accounts not throw up red flags within the bank?”
NO! Not even the constant moving of a car in Destin threw up a red flag to Community Bank some years ago. Now good luck figuring that one out.
11:11 am
yes it likely would set off red flags for community bank.
there are internal processes which will illuminate who knew what and when.
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