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Report: #948529

Complaint Review: "WoosterWater Scam, Inc." - District 5, Lake County Illinois

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  • Reported By: Scam at Wooster Lake — Ingleside Illinois USA
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  • "WoosterWater Scam, Inc." District 5 District 5, Lake County, Illinois United States of America

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"WoosterWater Con Artists, Inc." (what would be a very appropriate name for the current day widespread real estate scam* which was first conceived in 1995/1996) and its "CEO" District 5 multi-term County Commissioner Bonnie Thomson Carter (who first came into government power in 1997), have been reaffirmed by a political ally, fellow con artist, and blab Penny Cummings, to be the one ensuring multiple local governments have historically "for many, many years" been fully engaged in this real estate scam.

President Tanneron Bay Condo Association Penny Cummings incriminates not only herself but also Grant Township, Lake County, and Fox Lake Officials while at Village of Fox Lake 2/14/2006 submitting full, very clear knowledge these government officials have been the driving force to ensure a known, falsified and invalid covenants document** - forged with an attorney's and many lake owners' names, addresses, etc. on it - into subdivided, lake-access property developments in Lake County.

 Fox Lake Minutes 2/14/2006:  "Allot of the people who have spoken up in opposition of the ordinance (on Wooster Lake) have spoken up on the basis that they don't feel that government should be involved in this issue.   (True!  The gov't never should have been involved in this private dispute!)  I am here to say that government has been involved in protecting Wooster Lake for many, many years.  If we take the history all the way back to Tanneron Bay when it was developed, without the involvement of Grant Township and Lake County, Tanneron Bay may not likely have had to attach the Wooster Lake Covenants (sp. corrected) to its By-Laws and Declarations.  We thank Grant Township and Lake  County for getting involved to do that.  During the development of Holiday Park, Fox Lake structured the annexation agreement to ensure that the Wooster Lake Covenants (sp. corrected) would be attached to the Holiday Park Declarations and By-Laws, therefore continuing protection of the lake."  - Penny Cummings

Now compare that to what Penny Cummings wrote almost a year earlier about the invalidity of this covenants document in an obtained email sent to Thaddeus Kochanny, TB board members, and Bonnie Thomson Carter on 5/19/2005:

Thad, Thank you very much for taking the time to investigate the history (and confirming with the attorney typed on its cover the invalidity of) the WLCCA by-laws and  covenants.  I think many of us knew that the covenants were never filled with any governing body....."  -  Penny Cummings, TB President

Ms. Cummings was responding to Mr. Kochanny's 5/19/2005 email to Bonnie Thomson Carter , Penny Cummings, and other Tanneron Bay leaders, where Mr. Kochanny wrote:

"Mr. Nakon is the Wauconda lawyer who drafted "Wooster Lake Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions".  We spoke on the phone this afternoon and I have news to share with you.  Mr. Nakon said that years ago, he drafted an outline for then president Robert Faber (and then vice president Geraldine Stimpson) to use in making a final covenant and by-laws.  This final document was never finshed  AND approved by all the lake bottom owners of that time.  All the argument now, about its meanings, is worthless because the document has no legal standing.  Furthermore, Mr. Nakon said that under present Illinois law every lake bottom owner must agree to adopt covenants/by-laws BEFORE they are recorded with the Secretary of State.  We know this was never done.  If a single owner says "no", the adoption of any covenant is not possible.  In today's climate it will never happen.  Mr. Nakon said that because the Wooster Lake Conservation and Control Association has no legal basis to exist, baring 100% agreement to adopt a new covenant and by-laws, nothing the association does has any legal effect."  - Thaddeus Kochanny, TB resident and WLCCA Director

Further, the voluntary WLCCA was resurrected from the dead in November 1994 by Robert Faber and Geraldine Stimpson, longtime friend and former neighbor of Bonnie Thomson Carter on Wooster Lake.  It was revealed it was resurrected largely to commit fraud at these incoming, subdivided developments with lake-access.  On January 8, 1995, with Gerry Stimpson running the WLCCA meeting, much of the meeting is about the Attorney General filing a lawsuit and property lien against the then-owner of what would be developed into Tanneron Bay.  Then recorded:  "The rest of the meeting was spent in general discussion about rules we want to govern our lake.  We need to get these done in order to present them to Lake County Zoning or Real Estate Agents so they may be included in the covenants of any developer or land owner selling....."

These are their own words!!!!!

On Sep 15, 1995, Geraldine Stimpson did exactly what they had schemed and began the distribution of the never-finalized, never-agreed-to-by-lake-owners, forged-with-an-attorney's-name, forged-with-lake-owners'-and-PINS WLCCA covenants document to be inserted into subdivided, lake-access properties Tanneron Bay by-laws and later Holiday Park Declarations, ultimately recorded at Lake County in January 2003 at the direction of Howard Teegan and the Fox Lake Village Board with ordinance 2001-52 also recorded at Lake County Records.   "Success!"  Real Estate Agents and Developers sold the 100's of these subdivided, lake-access properties under these false pretenses for many, many years!

All done as schemed by "WoosterWater Con Artists, Inc." with "CEO" Bonnie Thomson Carter, "Director of Ethics" Geraldine Stimpson, "Public Relations Director" Penny Cummings, "Legal Beagle" Howard Teegan of Fox Lake, "Legal Beagle Wanna-Be" Mark Pfister, "Fraud Investigator" Thaddeus Kochanny, "Sargeant of Arms" Kenneth Calvert

http://www.lakecountyil.gov/CountyGovernment/NewsandInformation/Documents/KennethCalvert.pdf

and "Silent Partner" Jack Kiesgen, Hwy Commissioner of Grant Township.

OBEY  BONNIE'S COVENANTS SHE HAS FORGED AND DISTRIBUTED AT DEVELOPMENTS AROUND WOOSTER LAKE AND THE "MANY, MANY YEARS" OF GOV'T-FACILITATED FRAUD !   OR ELSE !

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/29/2012 04:09 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/woosterwater-scam-inc/district-5-lake-county-illinois-/woosterwater-scam-inc-bonnie-thomson-carter-other-lake-county-grant-township-fox-la-948529. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#6 Author of original report

34420 N. Converse Lane, Ingleside 05-23-401-006 & 34520 N. Hickory Ct., Ingleside IL 05-23-205-002

AUTHOR: Scam at Wooster Lake - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, August 21, 2013

More spiralling issues.

As the Lake County State's Attorney's Office has not acted to resolve this public corruption issue, owners of lake properties (compiled in "Exhibit A" of the WLCCA DCCRs and shamelessly advertised at Tanneron Bay's website http://www.tanneronbay.com/WLCCAcov.pdf   on page 11 and in Holiday Park's Declaration #5094179 on pages 46-47 recorded at Lake County Recorder of Deeds) are left to either disclose or not disclose to prospective buyers the real estate scam taking place of the lake about their individual lake properties.

Private properties of Wooster Lake in "Exhibit A" claimed to be "Declarants" to the WLCCA such as:

34420 N. Converse Ln., Ingleside IL 60041  05-23-401-006 &

34520 N. Hickory Ct. Ingleside, IL 60041  05-23-205-002

are up for sale. 

One would think law requires full disclosure of documents recorded about such properties for sale, but since the recordings are at outside associations' Declarations, ByLaws, and/or websites and not recorded against the individual lake properties, it isn't clear what the seller of each lake property is actually disclosing to unsuspecting buyers.  In addition to the documents, is the seller supposed to also disclose to the buyers all the police reports of incidents of conflict on Wooster Lake revolving around some individuals' attempts to enforce these documents?

BUYER BEWARE!  Depending upon the ethics of the seller, buyers may or may not get full disclosure.  The Lake County State's Attorney is to date doing nothing to address this scam.  Local government ordinance 2001-52 still on the books is evidence local public officials originated this ongoing scam over 12 years ago now. Local politicians' involvement with this ordinance appears to be the primary reason why the State's Attorney doesn't want to do his job. 

More in-power politics over law enforcement in Lake County.  And big surprise!  The constituency will again pay for the politics.

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#5 Author of original report

Spiralling Issues at Wooster Lake

AUTHOR: Scam at Wooster Lake - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, June 11, 2013

If it wasn't bad enough buyers of lake-access property at developments along Wooster Lake were defrauded with forged and falsified document #5094179 recorded at Lake County, some of those defrauded are now being sued with that same fraudulent document.

In February 2013, the Cambridge at Holiday Park Association had its attorneys at Keough & Moody file suit in Lake County Circuit Court against Don Rowden, the buyer of 3 expensive Wooster Lake properties who in 2003 at this development of Holiday Park "bought into" all the bogus information contained in #5094179.  That's right, the lake property buyer who was cheated with bogus #5094179 in 2003 is now being sued with bogus #5094179 in 2013.

At this point, this isn't a case of "I didn't know".  As 10 years have lapsed since the recording, both the Cambridge at Holiday Park Association and its legal eagles have been fully notified of the falsified, forged, and bogus information that fills #5094179,including being provided the Richard Nakon CEASE AND DESIST letter, telling all to stop the distribution of this bogus, falsified document.

Amazingly, Keough & Moody in 2012 even responded in a letter:  "Our office represents the Cambridge at Holiday Park Homeowners' Association ("the Association").  The Association has requested that our office contact you...regarding the Wooster Lake Conservation and Control Association.  I understand you believe that the Wooster Lake Declaration is invalid... You have demanded that my client take action to remove the offending Declaration from its recorded governing documents (#5094179).

My client did not draft the offending Declaration.  It was drafted by the developer of the Association, DRH Cambridge Homes, Inc.  The reference to the Wooster Lake Declaration was done at the behest of the Village of Fox Lake, which required that such a reference be made in its governing documents....as I understand it, neither the Association's Declaration, nor the Wooster Lake Declaration are recorded against (individual lake) property.  Frankly, if anything, if the Wooster Lake Declaration is invalid, it constitutes a slander of the title of the owners within the Cambridge at Holiday Park Homeowners Association."

Keough & Moody then highlighted Cambridge at Holiday Park Association members are simply unable/unwilling to gather so as to remove the bogus document from the recorded Declaration.  Not being able to gather was their excuse for doing nothing but allowing the misinformation and fraudulent document to continue to be recorded and advertised at the county.

To sum up, the association refused to comply with the CEASE AND DESIST letter and refused to rescind the known, bogus document from #5094179, then just a year later had its attorneys unethically file suit against one of its own defrauded association members, again relying on #5094179.  All this after they have been notified the document is invalid and filled with forgeries and falsified information, the same document used to defraud the buyer of these lake properties 10 years earlier.

Former Lake County State's Attorney Michael Waller's refusal to address this public corruption issue has paved the way for the nonsense to continue and worsen. The question is:  Will new State's Attorney Michael Nerheim ever clean up this mess and address all the public corruption that seeded all the fraud and abuse of local government offices?

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#4 Author of original report

Long History of Govt Abuse by Lake County Officials uncovered

AUTHOR: Scam at Wooster Lake - ()

POSTED: Friday, May 03, 2013

Now-Lake County Board Member and former Wooster Lake Improvement Association (WLIA) board member Bonnie Thomson Carter has been quoted on record and in the press claiming "The residents have done all they can to protect Wooster" and "For over 50 years, Wooster Lake has been a no-wake lake". 

HISTORY LEADING TO CORRUPTION & FRAUD:

Back in 1962, Lake County and the WLIA were plantiffs against a Wooster Lake property owner and took him all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court.  County of Lake & WLIA v. Macneal, 181 N.E.2d 85, 24 Ill.2d 253 (Ill. 03/23/1962).  The county and WLIA wanted to restrict Macneal's lake property rights but had already lost at the circuit court level.  Further wasting tax dollars, Lake County and the WLIA senselessly and in bullying fashion took the lake owner to the Supreme Court level where once again the county and WLIA lost in court.   During the High Court's ruling, the Judge identified and fully described how each of the lake owners were already and historically using their private lake properties on Wooster.   Not only did the Judge highlight many were using the lake for recreational boating, but the Judge also highlighted owners were largely renting out boats for that recreation on Wooster.  Historical, recreational boating has therefore been documented on Wooster Lake by the Illinois court system.

So Ms. Carter's statements in recent years of "no wake for over 50 years" are in stark contrast to reality and what the High Court Judge has already ruled and documented in the Illinois court system.

But Ms. Carter is more than a liar.   For Macneal's lake properties were later sold to none other than Cambridge developers, which in the late 90's began to develop the property into Cambridge at Holiday Park subdivision!  Those lake properties sold were simultaneously annexed by the Village of Fox Lake where the village - at the request of former WLIA board member and then-Lake County board member Bonnie Thomson Carter- passed ordinance 2001-52 compelling the developer to insert the forged, falsified documentation into the development's Declaration, which was then recorded at the County, under document # 5094179.  On page 46 of this recorded document, amongst all the many other forgeries is Helen Macneal's name, address, and PINs, also forged onto the recorded document.  All buyers later bought into these newly developed properties with lake-access relied on this recorded document to be valid, which it was not.  Ms. Carter later admited on record her constituents at Holiday Park and other developments "bought into them".

To simplify the years of nonsense, the Judge wouldn't allow the ethically-challenged at the county or in the WLIA to bully the lake owner, so they waited for him to sell.  Once sold, Ms. Carter spun her web of lies and went back to work abusing government powers, so as to skirt the true definition and rights of these lake properties defined previously by the Judge.  Via abuse local government power, this corrupt local public official had an invalid zoning ordinance adopted by a village that had just annexed that property, where later the lake-access properties were sold and bought with purported restrictions on the lake, all relying upon a forged and falsified document that was recorded at the Lake County Recorder of Deeds.

Then in early 2005 after being caught relying on this forged recorded document where even the attorney's name has been forged on it, Ms. Carter spun the issue and played the card of a "hand shake deal that everyone has agreed to" to the press, claiming  there was such agreement on Wooster.   Not legal even if there was such an agreement by the lake's owners, which there never was.   NO AGREEMENT OR CONSENT from the lake's owners.  But that was the pitch from Ms. Carter that was then used to get the illegal reinforcement-of-the-fraud extraterritorial zoning ordinance in 2005 from V. of Round Lake, which she got in the form of ordinance 05-O-27.  Ms. Carter is on record 9/6/2005 soliciting for the (illegal) ordinance highlighting how so many people of Holiday Park had "bought into the covenants and restrictions""They bought into it."

This is a compulsively, lying politician who has been repeatedly abusing the powers of government, bullying other local officials as well as constituents, and orchestrating the fraud of her own constituents just to get what she wants.  Her own constituents have been ripped off at her direction.

Mr. Michael Waller's State's Attorney's Office failed miserably to prosecute Lake County Board Member Carter.  Or the Fox Lake attorney Howard Teegan, the attorney who advised his village trustees to pass, adopt, and record ordinance 2001-52 and include a provision to require the forged covenants and restrictions claimed of Wooster Lake.  Maybe his predecessor Mr. Michael Nerheim will do the job Mr. Waller should have done and was paid by the tax payers to do.  Time will tell.

Corrupt politicians- elected and appointed- in Lake County are only above the law if law enforcement allows them to be above the law.

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#3 Author of original report

PHONY PETITION reveals more intentional fraud from Bonnie Carter

AUTHOR: Scam at Wooster Lake - (USA)

POSTED: Monday, October 15, 2012

After the Tanneron Bay Condo Association Board, Mark Pfister, and Bonnie Thomson Carter conspired without a supporting legal opinion from an attorney and convinced the V. of Round Lake officials to disregard their own attorney's advice (adopting an illegal/extraterritorial zoning ordinance 05-O-27 to reinforce the real estate fraud already done with the invalid covenants), Tanneron Bay President Penny Cummings unbelievably documents at the V. of Round Lake a tally of some people bamboozled. Penny Cummings submited not a signature-petition, but rather a "tally of a petition" of those wanting the (illegal) ordinance.  Here is what Ms. Cummings types and submits on behalf of Bonnie Thomson Carter:

"RESULTS: This petition was signed by 398 people from around Wooster Lake as follows:

> East Shore - 59 signatures 

> Holiday Park - 61 signatures (that was before our volunteers got kicked out of the subdivision by one of the non-supporters of the no-wake ordinance)

> North Shore - 108 signatures

> Silver Leaf Glen - 15 signatures (we didn't really target them because they are in RL and RL had already passed the ordinance)

> Tanneron Bay - 111 signatures

> West Shore - 44 signatures

An additional 52 people from RL, FL, Ingleside, etc. also signed the petition - many of them grew up on Wooster Lake or have family/friends that live here.  Some of them are current and past elected officials of Fox Lake and Grant Township.  Bonnie Thomson Carter and Penny Cummings have the original and copies of all the signature pages if it is important for you to see them."

Tanneron Bay President Penny Cummings is again revealing the multiple levels of local government who have been involved in the many years of this real estate scam!

Further, the V. of Round Lake Clerk has also since confirmed: "The Village of Round Lake has no petition signatures that was submitted by Lake County Board Members."  So the tally presented was used to support the (illegal) ordinance, but the signature-petition itself was never submitted by Bonnie Thomson Carter to the village!  This petition was highly-publicized and relied upon by Bonnie Carter but never even submitted!  Another intentional deception orchestrated by Bonnie Thomson Carter.  The local press ate-up this petition but yet didn't even bother to verify if Carter had submitted it.  The local press to date has failed to report on this lack of submission, though they have heavily reported the infamous "400+signature petition".



2 OTHER POINTS:

  1. The liars distributing the bogus petition bamboozled only 15 signatures from Round Lake residents (at Silver Leaf Glen).  15 residents tricked was enough for RL officials to listen to Bonnie Thomson Carter's bogus legal advice and for 6 years keep on the books an illegal ordinance so as to reinforce the fraud facilitated through the developments Declarations and By-Laws.  Further in Oct. 2009, Silver Leaf Glen confirmed in writing to the V. of RL: "Many homeowners (of SLG) have told members of the Board that they feel that the individuals taking this petition around the HOA were misrepresenting the facts at the time and now regret signing the petition".

  2.  Some Holiday Park residents astute to the scam being run "kicked out" the liars distributing the bogus petition.  This would mean the Holiday Park residents also were not represented with this petition.

So Silver Leaf Glen (RL) and Holiday Park (FL) residents were not being represented with this phony petition which Bonnie Thomson Carter relied upon, misrepresented, and has in her possession.  Whose interests were being represented with the phony petition distributed under false pretenses?

    Those conspiring and running the scam:  some association leaders, the developers of the subdivisions, some at Lakes Management of Lake County, some V. of Fox Lake Officials, and some Grant Township Officials, the former President of East Shore subdivision doubling at the quasi WLCCA Vice President (who is on record initiating this fraud via Lake County government in 1995), and ring-leader Bonnie Thomson Carter

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#2 Consumer Comment

RepubliConArtists Thrive in Lake County

AUTHOR: Jimmy Pickles - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, October 01, 2012

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  - Lord John Acton



Lake County is no different.  Lake County government for too long has been controlled and used by Lake County RepubliConArtists:

 * County Board Member, County Zoning Chair, and ex Wooster Lake resident, Bonnie Carter

 * Lake County States Attorney, Mike Waller

 * Lake County Senator, Dan Duffy - preceded by Bill Petersen

 * Lake County Representative, Mark Beaubien

 * Lake County Senator and ex County Board Commissioner, Suzi Schmidt

 * Lake County "legal puppet without a law license", Mark Pfister

 * Grant Township ex Highway Commissioner and Wooster Lake resident, Jack Kiesgen

 * Grant Township Highway Commissioner and Wooster Lake resident, Kim Kiesgen

 * Fox Lake Mayor and ex Trustee, Edward Bender

 * Fox Lake Attorney, Howard Teegan

 * Fox Lake Code Enforcement Director and Wooster Lake resident,  Frank Urbina

 * Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals Member, ex Wooster Lake resident, ex Vice President of WLCCA, and forger of the covenants document Geraldine Stimpson

 * Tanneron Bay Condominium Association President, BTC political crony, and endorser of illegal ordinance 05-O-27, Penny Cummings

 * Ex WLCCA President, retyper of forged covenants, and as arrested by the Lake County Sheriff attempted murderer Ken Calvert



All are crooks wearing that suit for the RepubliConArtists in Lake County.   Each play their role in leadership positions whether at the origin, implementation, and/or the reinforcement of this real estate ripoff.  



Only a very few Lake County Republicans seemingly are not co conspirators in this government scam.  House Representatives JoAnn Osmond and Sandy Cole were both active in the Illinois legislature making clear the limitations of local government power, a valid attempt to stop the abuse being conducted in Lake County.  Osmond and Cole each should be commended for doing so.  The scam nonetheless continues despite their efforts.



The conspiracy by RepubliConArtists abusing powers of government in order to fraudulently sell lake access real estate is alive and well today in Lake County.

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#1 Author of original report

County Commissioner Bonnie Thomson Carter & TB President Penny Cummings Reinforce Fraud

AUTHOR: Scam at Wooster Lake - (USA)

POSTED: Sunday, September 30, 2012

After different attorneys (such as Richard Nakon) reveal to many people like Thaddeus Kochanny that the WLCCA covenants & restrictions document inserted in the Tanneron Bay By-Laws and the Holiday Park Declaration is actually an invalid, never-completed, never-agreed-to, forged document (& Mr. Kochanny forwards that information to all Officers at Tanneron Bay and County Commissioner Bonnie Thomson Carter) on May 19, 2005,  Bonnie Thomson Carter, Penny Cummings, and others reinforce their fraud they have been facilitating "for many, many years" by pursuing and railroading through illegal, extraterritorial ordinance 05-O-27 on Sep 6, 2005, just 3 months later.  For on June 8, 2005, the WLCCA Board had rescinded the bogus covenants and "WoosterWater Con Artists, Inc." needed a new lie....and fast.

www.ripoffreport.com/politicians/bonnie-thomson-carte/bonnie-thomson-carter-aka-b-c15a9.htm

For more details specific to the invalid, never-completed, never-agreed-to, forged covenants document inserted in the Tanneron Bay By-laws and Holiday Park Declarations recorded at Lake County to deceive and rip off 100's of lake-access property buyers, read www.ripoffreport.com/politicians/cambridge-at-holiday/cambridge-at-holiday-park-fox-18ed7.htm

For all details of Bonnie Thomson Carter's, Geraldine Stimpson's, Howard Teegan's, Penny Cummings', Mark Pfister's, Kenneth Calvert's, and others' scheme to abuse government to facilitate real estate fraud at these subdivided lake-access developments over the course of decades, read  www.ripoffreport.com/con-artists-posing-a/home-owner-associations/fox-lake-lake-county-illinois-129b6.htm







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