Big Canoe property owners deserve to know the truth. Our community’s finances are not just stretched—they are compromised. The reason is simple: our Property Owners Association (POA) has built a shadow system of hush money settlements and secretive Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with employees who leave under questionable circumstances. And then there are the secret litigation & trademark settlements…
And this is exactly why we need a forensic audit of the POA’s books.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Think about it: a professional forensic audit might cost us $100,000. That’s a fraction of what the POA burns through on attorneys every year—$200,000+ in legal fees annually, much of it tied to advice we ignore or lawsuits we quietly settle behind closed doors.
Take the “Big Canoe” trademark debacle. Attorneys warned it likely wasn’t enforceable against us, but leadership plowed ahead anyway, flushing hundreds of thousands of member dollars into legal quicksand.
Now add the hush money. $30,000 here, and there. Paid out as part of NDA agreements when employees threaten to “go loud” after they quit or get fired.
Property owners have never seen those numbers broken out in financial statements. Where do those settlements sit? Under what column? Which balance sheet line? If we can’t answer that, it means money is being buried.
The Names Behind the Payouts
Consider this:
- When Carrie Scott left, how much did the POA settle for? Silence. No disclosure. $80 – $100K ish.
- When Adriana Nogareda was falsely accused of being a “mole” feeding me information, she too walked away with a $30K payout. That’s money straight from property owners’ pockets—paid to cover up wrongful termination instead of owning mistakes.
- Why was Hector Camacho, basically a sous chef promoted temporarily to head chef after another quit, paid $30,000?
- Don’t even get me started on General Managers:
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John Thompson’s departure (2017): Cost property owners nearly $200K in extra severance, hidden in plain sight in the 990’s.
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Jill Philmon’s departure (2020): Cost property owners $100K+ in severance, again disguised as a one-month spike in the IRS 990.
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Pattern: General Managers at Big Canoe are routinely paid large hush-money exit packages that don’t appear clearly in POA reports to property owners.
- Scott Auer? He’s told the Board he’s leaving within the next year. He’s knows a lot. I wonder what the going rate for a Scott Auer NDA is going to be worth?
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PS…One bit of irony? Adriana was NOT even the source of leaked financials. An innocent woman was fired, paid off, and silenced—while the POA pretends it never happened.
Why This Matters
Non-profits are not supposed to operate this way. Using community funds as hush money in exchange for NDAs may not even be legal. At minimum, it is profoundly unethical.
Worse—it makes Big Canoe compromised. Once the word gets out, every disgruntled employee knows they can demand a check to walk away quietly. Every potential lawsuit becomes an open hand waiting for a payoff. One employee got over $30,000 for “elbow strain” due to repetitive tasks. Or was it possibly to keep them quiet about something – and disguised as a medical claim for accounting purposes?
Word of these things is starting to circulate amongst employees – the same employees that so many “Big Ta-Do” people treat poorly. On Indeed.com, 31 Employees polled ranked Big Canoe Employment as “Low / Below Avg” on ALL 15 METRICS!
Even the former Developer Representative, Mike Rhodes, understood the leverage. He knew where the skeletons were buried. He knew what discovery in a real lawsuit could expose. $400,000 is a lot of money for what is likely an unenforceable Trademark.
And that’s exactly the point: Big Canoe has become a target. A soft underbelly of secrecy, payouts, and financial weakness. The vultures are circling, and the board keeps feeding them.
The Solution: A Forensic Audit
A forensic audit isn’t just about balancing numbers. It would shine light on every settlement, every NDA, every secret payout. It would show property owners where the money went, why it went there, and whether it was even legal to spend it that way.
Transparency is not optional. It is survival. Without it, the POA remains compromised, the cycle of hush money continues, and property owners foot the bill in the dark. It’s time to ask the hard questions. It’s time to demand a forensic audit.
Because until we know the truth, every property owner in Big Canoe is the one really paying the price.
Maybe somebody can run a Forensic Audit POLL to check member sentiment.
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