April 4, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster

We’ve seen and blogged about some HOA fraud from around the country, where board members who are desperate do desperate things and steal from their HOA. We missed this one that’s close to home, from Hoyt Lakes, MN, in which a treasurer stole a boatload of money from her HOA.

From Northern News Now:

Shannon Alaspa, 50, was discovered when Jim Koepke, president of the HOA, reported to East Range Police on Oct. 31, 2025, that the HOA accounts were short approximately $20,000. Koepke and other board members suspected Alaspa, the current HOA treasurer, was responsible for the missing funds.

The HOA at the center of this is Colby Ridge Homeowners Association. In case you don’t know your geography (and I had to look it up), Hoyt Lakes is located in the far northeastern part of Minnesota, just east of Virginia and Eveleth, if that helps.

According to the report, Alaspa became the HOA treasurer in late 2023. She decided to change the payment procedure, making HOA payments by check rather than electronically once she got into position. For her HOA, any checks written had to be signed by two board members in order to be considered valid by the bank. Sounds like that wasn’t done. At least not legally.

Koepke provided police financial records which established that multiple checks were written out as payable to Alaspa and her mother. The checks appeared to have another board member’s signature forged as the second signature in addition to Alaspa’s.

So mom and the treasurer got a nice bonus of $112,000.  Here’s the payment pattern:

• October 24, 2023 – March 19, 2024: 11 checks for $11,500
• April 4 – September 30, 2024: 29 checks for $49,254.69
• October 1, 2024 – April 1, 2025: 24 checks for $20,520
• May 1 – October 30, 2025: 12 checks for $30,750

Why would someone do something like this?  The report states: Alaspa stated that she lost count of how many checks she had written and that she used the money to gamble and support her lifestyle.

Desperate people doing desperate things.  Watch your financials, folks.  Read the story HERE.